Spring 2008 - Wheelock College
Spring 2008 - Wheelock College
Spring 2008 - Wheelock College
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<strong>Spring</strong> <strong>2008</strong><br />
magazine<br />
• Alumni Innovators<br />
• CCSR Action Update<br />
• Ubuntu in the Works<br />
• Boston Kids on Kampus<br />
Through the<br />
<strong>Wheelock</strong> Lens<br />
Innovation on Campus<br />
and in the Field
Honorary Degree Recipients<br />
Commencement <strong>2008</strong><br />
Brookline’s Temple Israel, just down the Riverway from<br />
<strong>Wheelock</strong>’s main campus, provided a radiant, lightfilled<br />
environment for the <strong>College</strong>’s 120th Commencement<br />
on May 16. Seniors and graduate students in the<br />
Class of <strong>2008</strong>, their families and guests, and faculty<br />
members gathered at the alternative venue because construction of<br />
<strong>Wheelock</strong>’s new Campus Center and Student Residence was occupying<br />
the traditional on-campus site. It was a spacious choice, but, even<br />
so, every seat was filled with happy celebrants, and more watched a<br />
live feed to the Lucy <strong>Wheelock</strong> Auditorium.<br />
The <strong>2008</strong> Commencement theme, “Celebrating Lives of Courage<br />
and Compassion,” exactly defined this year’s three distinguished honorary<br />
degree recipients, who have challenged social injustice and reenvisioned<br />
the paradigm of public service. U.S. Sen. John F. Kerry; Mrs.<br />
Yu-Foo Yee Shoon, the Minister of State for Community Development,<br />
Youth and Sports in Singapore; and Ms. Kip Tiernan, founder of Rosie’s<br />
Place and the Greater Boston Food Bank, received honorary Doctor of<br />
Education degrees from President Jackie Jenkins-Scott,who noted that<br />
their achievements have inspired others to set standards of exemplary<br />
service and to passionately pursue justice for all.<br />
Sen. Kerry delivered the Commencement address, mixing in<br />
humor with observations about the challenges facing the Class of<br />
<strong>2008</strong> and words of encouragement. He highlighted the advancing<br />
threat of global warming as an example of an opportunity for young<br />
people to develop initiatives that can ameliorate climate change<br />
while also providing new opportunities for employment and helping<br />
the economy.<br />
President Jenkins-Scott urged the graduates to put their education<br />
and their conviction to good use.“Each of you will be faced with<br />
opportunities in your professional<br />
careers and in your personal lives<br />
to stand up or stand by,” she said.<br />
“You will surely be confronted with<br />
situations where you have a choice<br />
to blow the whistle, say ‘Time out,’<br />
and shout out in words and action<br />
‘Not on my watch.’ The choice will<br />
be entirely yours. It is our fervent<br />
hope that you leave here with the<br />
confidence, courage, compassion,<br />
and passion to stand up and not<br />
stand by. ”<br />
“I urge you — carve out some time in<br />
your life to be a citizen. Don’t just vote.<br />
As you graduate, continue to find a<br />
way to be a part of your communities<br />
and take part in a cause. Find a cause<br />
greater than yourself that captures your<br />
imagination, and go after it.”<br />
Shannon Pittman,<br />
President’s Leadership<br />
Award winner, and<br />
President Jackie<br />
Jenkins-Scott<br />
— Sen. John Kerry<br />
cvr2 <strong>Spring</strong> <strong>2008</strong>
<strong>Spring</strong><br />
<strong>2008</strong><br />
2 A Message from the President<br />
3 On Campus<br />
3 Thrive in Five —<br />
Boston’s New School Readiness Road Map<br />
4 News Nuggets<br />
6 First Visiting Health Scholar Lecture<br />
7 New Trustees<br />
Kids on Kampus!<br />
Page 21<br />
8 Students & Faculty<br />
8 Singapore Students<br />
10 Athletics<br />
12 Faculty on Sabbatical<br />
14 Alumni<br />
Editor<br />
Christine Dall<br />
Production Editor<br />
Lori Ann Saslav<br />
Design<br />
Leslie Hartwell<br />
Photography<br />
Christine Dall<br />
Brianne Kimble<br />
Len Rubenstein<br />
Don West<br />
Lauren Wholley<br />
Alumni Innovators<br />
Page 26<br />
14 Books by Alumni<br />
16 Resources<br />
17 Features<br />
17 CCSR Action Update<br />
21 Kids on Kampus!<br />
23 Ubuntu in the Works<br />
26 Alumni Innovators<br />
33 Class Notes<br />
<strong>Wheelock</strong> Magazine<br />
<strong>Spring</strong> <strong>2008</strong><br />
Volume XXVIII, Issue 8<br />
<strong>Wheelock</strong> Magazine invites manuscripts and photographs<br />
from our readers, although we do not guarantee<br />
their publication, and we reserve the right to<br />
edit them as needed.<br />
Student Voices<br />
from Singapore<br />
Page 8<br />
For Class Notes information, contact Lori Ann Saslav<br />
at (617) 879-2123 or lsaslav@wheelock.edu.<br />
Send letters to the editor to: <strong>Wheelock</strong> Magazine,<br />
Office for Institutional Advancement,<strong>Wheelock</strong><br />
<strong>College</strong>, 200 The Riverway, Boston, MA 02215-4176.<br />
You may also e-mail them to cdall@wheelock.edu.<br />
Cover Photo: Len Rubenstein<br />
E Printed on recycled paper
MESSAGE<br />
Dear Alumni and Friends,<br />
The close of the academic year is<br />
always inspiring and motivational,<br />
and our 2007-08 year-end<br />
has been exceptional. We had a wonderful<br />
last few weeks on campus celebrating<br />
all that we as a community have accomplished<br />
together. There have been events<br />
recognizing outstanding student and<br />
faculty projects, new books published,<br />
prizes awarded, and the amazingly rapid<br />
progress being made in constructing<br />
our beautiful new Campus Center and<br />
Student Residence (CCSR).<br />
In this issue of <strong>Wheelock</strong> Magazine,<br />
we share with you some of the excitement<br />
surrounding these events and a<br />
theme that runs through them. The<br />
theme is innovation, a characteristic that<br />
defined <strong>Wheelock</strong> at its beginning and<br />
that is the foundation for the <strong>College</strong>’s<br />
“To see what has come out of facultyand<br />
staff-led projects in collaboration<br />
with Boston youth after just one year —<br />
results such as SPARK the Truth, Violence<br />
Transformed, and a Bridges to Hope<br />
and Understanding creative showcase —<br />
is most inspiring.”<br />
new programs and projects that are carrying<br />
it into the future.<br />
In this issue’s Action Update on the<br />
CCSR, we share our celebration of a construction<br />
milestone: the building’s steel<br />
framework with its own version of the<br />
centuries-old “topping off” ceremony.<br />
Interviews with the building’s architect,<br />
Bill Rawn, demonstrate how the advantages<br />
of <strong>Wheelock</strong>’s small campus and the<br />
CCSR’s innovative mixed-use design are<br />
being used to support community building<br />
among students, faculty, and staff.<br />
Adding to the excitement of watching<br />
the CCSR become a reality so fast is the<br />
announcement that <strong>Wheelock</strong> is the<br />
recipient of a prestigious challenge grant<br />
from The Kresge Foundation. This is<br />
both a vote of confidence in the <strong>College</strong>’s<br />
future plans and a welcome opportunity<br />
to take up the challenge to complete<br />
funding for the CCSR.<br />
Other events of last semester showcased<br />
<strong>Wheelock</strong>’s very exciting new<br />
programs that are deepening the <strong>College</strong>’s<br />
commitment to the well-being of<br />
Boston’s youth. These innovative programs<br />
require new approaches by our<br />
dedicated faculty and staff to serious<br />
issues affecting the larger Boston community<br />
and new collaborations with Boston<br />
schools and community organizations.<br />
The programs combine <strong>Wheelock</strong>’s<br />
resources as a higher education institution<br />
with its special strengths in areas of education<br />
and juvenile justice and advocacy.<br />
To see what has come out of faculty- and<br />
staff-led projects in collaboration with<br />
Boston youth after just one year — results<br />
such as SPARK the Truth, Violence<br />
Transformed, and a Bridges to Hope and<br />
Understanding creative showcase — is<br />
most inspiring.<br />
Another innovative idea — bringing<br />
groups of elementary and middle school<br />
children into our community to connect<br />
them to the concept of higher education<br />
and make them feel comfortable on a<br />
college campus early in their lives—<br />
brought the bonus of extra joy to our<br />
campus last semester! Children from<br />
Boston schools were everywhere, participating<br />
in math, art, music, and storytelling<br />
programs developed by <strong>Wheelock</strong><br />
alumni, staff, and faculty.<br />
With so much new and worthwhile<br />
activity happening on campus, I am<br />
happy — but not surprised — to report<br />
that there is much more going on in the<br />
lives of our alumni. Each time I visit<br />
with alumni anywhere, I learn what<br />
they are thinking and doing and come<br />
away amazed at the varied lives and the<br />
wonderful work they are accomplishing.<br />
My recent off-campus visits with alumni<br />
in New York, Florida, and California<br />
were no exception.<br />
I was especially pleased to be able to<br />
visit with several alumni who are spotlighted<br />
in this issue of the magazine as<br />
excellent examples of <strong>Wheelock</strong> alumni<br />
innovators. They share a characteristic<br />
that I believe all of our alumni have in<br />
common: Whatever the fields they are<br />
working in, <strong>Wheelock</strong> alumni are imaginative,<br />
responsive, creative, and active<br />
innovators. Their values, beliefs, education,<br />
and experiences provide the foundations<br />
for them to see things from many perspectives,<br />
imagine a new response to a need,<br />
and then use their skills creatively to<br />
make what they have imagined actually<br />
happen. Many are excellent problem<br />
solvers who are challenged and excited<br />
by using nontraditional approaches in<br />
their work. Some are innovators within<br />
their own lives, enthusiastically reinventing<br />
their careers and themselves in<br />
the process.<br />
We are excited to share comments<br />
from students in our Singapore program at<br />
Ngee Ann describing their positive experiences<br />
with <strong>Wheelock</strong>’s theory- and practice-based<br />
curriculum. They are eager to<br />
share their comments with alumni in the<br />
U.S. through this issue of the magazine,<br />
and I hope you will enjoy reading them.<br />
There are also articles in this issue demonstrating<br />
some of the new ways in which<br />
<strong>Wheelock</strong> is being responsive to the<br />
changing needs of our students in the<br />
graduate programs, to the increasingly<br />
critical field of early childhood education,<br />
and to the very serious issues involved in<br />
climate change that affect all of us.<br />
It has been an eventful and extremely<br />
positive spring for <strong>Wheelock</strong>. I thank you<br />
for the many ways in which you have<br />
given your support to the <strong>College</strong> and<br />
made so much progress possible!<br />
With best wishes for a wonderful<br />
summer,<br />
JACKIE JENKINS-SCOTT<br />
President<br />
2 <strong>Spring</strong> <strong>2008</strong>
Thrive in Five<br />
Boston’s New School Readiness Road Map<br />
During the past year, Boston’s 65-member School Readiness<br />
Action Planning Team (“the APT”), co-chaired by<br />
President Jenkins-Scott and Children’s Hospital Chief<br />
Operating Officer Sandra Fenwick, met regularly to develop a<br />
Birth to Five School Readiness Initiative. Led by the City of<br />
Boston and United Way of Massachusetts Bay and Merrimack<br />
Valley, the APT’s work was informed by a diverse group of 35 parents,<br />
grandparents, and guardians from all Boston neighborhoods,<br />
called “the Parents APT.” Together they brought into the process<br />
an additional 300 Boston leaders and residents and funders<br />
through focus groups and meetings.<br />
On March 12, Boston’s Mayor Thomas M. Menino and<br />
United Way President Michael Durkin announced a new initiative<br />
that has resulted from the yearlong collaboration. Thrive in Five<br />
is a public-private partnership to prevent the achievement gap in<br />
the next generation of students by promoting their school readiness<br />
and healthy development. It is a 10-year effort that for the first<br />
time aligns families, educators, health care and human service<br />
providers, the private sector, and city departments — working in<br />
collaboration with state agencies — to ensure that all of Boston’s<br />
children will be ready for school entry and sustained school success.<br />
Joined by over 250 parents and Boston leaders for the<br />
announcement at the Boston Children’s Museum, Menino and<br />
Durkin highlighted the simple yet profound equation that underscores<br />
Boston’s school readiness road map.<br />
“We have an ethical obligation — informed by science and<br />
economics — to focus on our children’s earliest years and provide<br />
them and their parents with the tools they need to achieve,” Mayor<br />
Menino said. “My administration is already aligning the work of<br />
city departments to implement this plan, and I am pleased to<br />
announce $3.25 million in commitments from public and private<br />
funders to support Thrive in Five.”<br />
The City of Boston has committed $750,000 to Thrive in<br />
Five, and United Way has pledged an additional $1.3 million.<br />
Three lead partners in the effort — Children’s Hospital Boston;<br />
Partners HealthCare and its founding hospitals, Brigham and<br />
Women’s and Mass. General Hospital; and the Nellie Mae<br />
Education Foundation — have committed another $1.2 million<br />
over the next three years.<br />
Thrive in Five is not a new initiative, but a new citywide<br />
approach, a collaborative plan to ensure universal school readiness,<br />
building on the many superb programs, organizations, and agencies<br />
that serve Boston’s children and families. “This is a community<br />
effort. Families, government, health care, nonprofits, the business<br />
sector — we all win when a child is ready to succeed in school and<br />
life,” said Durkin. “To sustain the kind of long-lasting change that<br />
Thrive in Five lays out requires that we work together. Because<br />
together, we can accomplish more than any single organization —<br />
public or private — can alone.”<br />
Dr. Jack Shonkoff, of Harvard University’s Center on the<br />
Developing Child, highlighted the importance of early childhood<br />
investment: “When communities support the health and development<br />
of young children, everyone benefits.” The Center has compiled<br />
extensive research that reveals the scientific, economic, and<br />
moral imperative of focusing on the early years.<br />
To manage the entire Thrive in Five effort, in addition to a<br />
newly forming leadership board, a small staff will be housed at<br />
United Way. Each of the five parts of Boston’s School Readiness<br />
Equation (Ready Families + Ready Educators + Ready Systems +<br />
Ready City = Children Ready for Sustained School Success) will<br />
have implementation teams convening throughout <strong>2008</strong>. Watch<br />
the Thrive in Five website for opportunities to join these citywide<br />
teams. Positions are being posted on the website<br />
www.Thrivein5Boston.org.<br />
Early Childhood in the News<br />
The announcement of Thrive in Five garnered significant<br />
media attention, including a Boston Globe editorial (“Progress<br />
in the First Five Years,” March 12, <strong>2008</strong>) and same-day article<br />
(“Menino to Unveil Preschool Program”), as well as stories on<br />
WBUR and WBZ.<br />
A few weeks later, the Boston Globe’s education reporter Tracy<br />
Jan focused on one of the issues highlighted by Thrive in Five, the<br />
vocabulary gap, with a front-page story about ReadBoston’s Early<br />
Words campaign (“With Babies, Words for Wisdom,” April 2,<br />
<strong>2008</strong>). The article highlighted activities going on in Charlestown<br />
and other Boston neighborhoods to help low-income parents support<br />
their children’s vocabulary development.<br />
Smart from the Start — a new initiative to pilot many of the<br />
goals of Thrive in Five led by the Family Nurturing Center and a<br />
number of city partners — drew the attention of Boston Herald<br />
columnist Peter Gelzinis (“Baby! Bold Plan Might Work,” April 4,<br />
<strong>2008</strong>). Gelzinis covered the launch of Smart from the Start’s<br />
prenatal programming to engage families before the birth of a<br />
child, connecting them early on to one another and to vital neighborhood<br />
services and educational activities.<br />
Check out www.Thrivein5Boston.org for links to the articles<br />
mentioned above.<br />
ON CAMPUS
ON CAMPUS<br />
News Nuggets<br />
presented a series of workshops that provided<br />
a setting for students, activists, and<br />
educators to participate in an educational<br />
process that will help move the planet<br />
toward sustainability.<br />
(L to R): Associate Professor Ellen<br />
Faszewski and <strong>Wheelock</strong> student<br />
organizers Tanya Sullivan ’08 and<br />
Stephanie Ladd ’08<br />
Focus the Nation at <strong>Wheelock</strong><br />
<strong>Wheelock</strong> and other <strong>College</strong>s of the<br />
Fenway participated in Focus the<br />
Nation last winter, the two-day national<br />
teach-in that engaged over a thousand colleges,<br />
universities, high schools, and middle<br />
schools with political leaders, faith groups,<br />
and civic organizations in galvanizing young<br />
people to solve the most urgent problem<br />
facing their generation: global warming.<br />
As part of this nationwide initiative,<br />
the <strong>College</strong> hosted a screening of The 2%<br />
Solution, a live webcast with appearances<br />
by actor and clean energy advocate Edward<br />
Norton, green jobs pioneer Van Jones,<br />
sustainability expert Hunter Lovins, and<br />
co-recipient of the 2007 Nobel Prize for<br />
Peace, Stephen Schneider. In addition to the<br />
screening and group discussion, <strong>Wheelock</strong><br />
<strong>Wheelock</strong><br />
Commits to Becoming<br />
Climate Neutral<br />
Last winter, <strong>Wheelock</strong> joined the rising<br />
number of colleges and universities recognizing<br />
their leadership role in addressing<br />
global warming. President Jenkins-Scott signed<br />
the American <strong>College</strong> & University Presidents<br />
Climate Commitment, a high-visibility effort<br />
to support higher education institutions in<br />
preparing those who will develop new social,<br />
economic, and technological solutions to destabilization<br />
of the earth’s climate. The Commitment<br />
also provides a framework for the colleges<br />
as they enact plans to reduce greenhouse gas<br />
emissions and become climate neutral in their<br />
use of energy. This involves:<br />
✓ Completing an emissions inventory<br />
✓ Within two years, setting a target date and<br />
interim milestones for becoming<br />
climate neutral<br />
✓ Taking immediate steps to reduce greenhouse<br />
gas emissions by choosing from a<br />
list of short-term actions<br />
✓ Integrating sustainability into the curriculum<br />
and making it part of the educational<br />
experience<br />
<strong>Wheelock</strong> Selected to Participate in the FAO Schwarz<br />
Family Foundation Fellows Program<br />
<strong>Wheelock</strong> has won a two-year grant from the FAO Schwarz Family<br />
Foundation Fellows Program, which will support training of a student<br />
who has the potential to be a leader in the youth development and<br />
education fields. The goal of the Fellows Program is to train future leaders<br />
by placing them with organizations that not only provide direct service to<br />
children and youth, but also initiate new projects, research, or programs<br />
that involve public policy, organizational replication, and sustainability.<br />
During the first year, 50 percent of the <strong>Wheelock</strong> fellow’s time will be<br />
spent developing expertise in best practices for conflict resolution, including<br />
peacemaking circles, group conferences, peer and gang mediation, and<br />
peace-building activities. The other 50 percent of fellow time will be<br />
devoted to working with faculty to develop a research project and articles<br />
for national publications and to providing direct services. Service activities<br />
will include teaching conflict resolution for middle school and elementary<br />
school students, leading weekly beginning and end-of-week relationship<br />
circles, creating and leading community-building activity groups, and<br />
mentoring and building conflict leadership skills for teams in after-school<br />
and summer programs.<br />
4 <strong>Spring</strong> <strong>2008</strong>
<strong>Wheelock</strong> receives <strong>2008</strong><br />
Community Leadership Award<br />
for Field Scholars Program<br />
We know that the key element in quality early childhood education<br />
is teacher development, and we know that <strong>Wheelock</strong>’s<br />
Field Scholars Program, which prepares individuals with associate<br />
degrees working in child care education to earn their bachelor’s degrees,<br />
is a much-in-demand, high-quality program. Now word about the program’s<br />
commitment to provide better-educated early childhood teachers<br />
is spreading. At its annual Celebrate the Dream benefit in March,<br />
Roxbury-Weston Programs Inc., a preschool program with the mission<br />
of bringing families together in a learning community dedicated to<br />
the celebration of diversity and excellence in early care and education,<br />
presented the Field Scholars Program with its <strong>2008</strong> Community<br />
Leadership Award.<br />
Field Scholars is part of <strong>Wheelock</strong>’s National and Regional Programs,<br />
led by Director Debra Johnston-Malden ’00MS and Assistant Director<br />
Julie Thomson ’01MS. The <strong>College</strong> has Field Scholars cohorts in<br />
Boston and Hyannis, MA, and future cohorts will soon begin programs<br />
in Maine and Connecticut. National and Regional Programs also has<br />
graduate programs in early childhood and elementary education. These<br />
early childhood cohorts are located in Massachusetts, New Hampshire,<br />
and Maine, and there is an elementary cohort in South Carolina.<br />
NAEYC President Updates<br />
Our Students and Faculty<br />
Anne Mitchell, president of the National Association for the Education<br />
of Young Children (NAEYC) board and president of Early<br />
Childhood Policy Research (ECPR) in Climax, NY, stopped by <strong>Wheelock</strong><br />
in February to spend time with alumni, students, and faculty discussing<br />
issues in the early childhood education field such as universal preschool<br />
and NAEYC’s position on quality rating systems. Mitchell reported that<br />
NAEYC is working on task forces dedicated to early childhood workforce<br />
needs and helping states to create professional development and<br />
workforce development systems.<br />
On a personal note, Mitchell reminisced about how a course she<br />
took with <strong>Wheelock</strong>’s Gwen Morgan ’76MS truly changed her life.<br />
Mitchell said it was the turning point in her career and that she is<br />
eternally grateful to the <strong>College</strong> and to Morgan.<br />
NAEYC is the world’s largest organization working on behalf of<br />
young children, with nearly 100,000 members; a national network of<br />
over 300 local, state, and regional affiliates; and a growing global<br />
alliance of like-minded organizations. The NAEYC website is an<br />
excellent resource. Visit it at www.naeyc.org. ECPR is an independent<br />
consulting firm specializing in evaluation research, policy analysis,<br />
and planning on child care/early education issues for foundations and<br />
government and national nonprofit organizations.<br />
Froebel Coming to <strong>Wheelock</strong><br />
<strong>Wheelock</strong> is honored that the International Froebel Society has chosen<br />
the <strong>College</strong> as the place to hold its first annual meeting in the<br />
United States, July 9-11, <strong>2008</strong>. Given the historical context of the work of<br />
Friedrich Froebel and Lucy <strong>Wheelock</strong>, we think it’s perfectly fitting that the<br />
<strong>College</strong> host this important event for an international audience of early<br />
childhood scholars and practitioners. Learning to Play — Playing to Learn is<br />
the theme of the three-day conference. Keynote speakers include Tina Bruce<br />
of the Froebel Educational Institute, David Elkind, Nancy Carlsson-Paige,<br />
and <strong>Wheelock</strong>’s Professor in Early Childhood Diane Levin ’69MS.<br />
Keeping Current with<br />
Grad Programs<br />
To ensure that <strong>Wheelock</strong>’s programs remain flexible and meet the needs<br />
of contemporary graduate students as well as the workforce they are<br />
graduating into, a nine-member Graduate Strategic Planning Committee,<br />
which included administrators and faculty members, thoroughly assessed the<br />
<strong>College</strong>’s graduate offerings during the past 18 months. Their recommendations<br />
have been endorsed by the board of trustees, with the expectation that<br />
when the program revisions are completed, <strong>Wheelock</strong> will provide an even<br />
broader array of specializations from which students can choose.<br />
Areas of specialization from the Birth to Three; Child and Family Studies;<br />
and Leadership, Policy and Administration programs are being integrated<br />
into all graduate programs, and <strong>Wheelock</strong> will no longer offer<br />
discrete master’s programs in these areas. The Child Life master’s degree<br />
program will transition into a five-year program, and the Elementary and<br />
Special Education programs will be combined. Throughout the spring<br />
<strong>2008</strong> semester, faculty planning sessions also were held to review innovative<br />
graduate programs and to discuss the potential for several new programs<br />
at <strong>Wheelock</strong>. Stay tuned for new developments, and check the<br />
<strong>College</strong>’s website, www.wheelock.edu, for updates.<br />
<strong>Wheelock</strong> Magazine 5
Looking at Climate Change<br />
and Public Health<br />
(L to R) Deanne Williams Morse ’60; Dr. Ed Klugman, faculty emeritus; Dr. Eleonora Villegas-Reimers, dean<br />
of education and child life; Dr. Evelyn Hausslein, faculty emerita; Virginia Coleman ’84MS, instructor in<br />
child life; and Stefi Rubin, associate professor of child and family studies<br />
First Visiting Health Scholar,<br />
Dr. Laura Gaynard ’84MS<br />
by Brianne Kimble<br />
<strong>Wheelock</strong> welcomed Dr. Laura Gaynard ’84MS, CCLS, adjunct<br />
associate professor of family and consumer studies at the University<br />
of Utah, back to campus in April to inaugurate an<br />
important new visiting scholar program at <strong>Wheelock</strong>. Dr. Gaynard is the<br />
first <strong>Wheelock</strong> <strong>College</strong> Visiting Health Scholar to be sponsored by Betsy<br />
Reed Wilson ’55/’82MS of the Betsy Reed Wilson Let’s Face It Fund. More<br />
than 100 alumni, faculty, and students attended her presentation, “Child<br />
Life: Psychosocial Healing for the Whole Child and Family,” which was the<br />
lead event of her visit.<br />
President Jenkins-Scott, who welcomed guests at a reception for Dr.<br />
Gaynard, described the atmosphere of the event, with child life specialists and<br />
their conversations filling the room, as “old home week.” Faculty Emerita<br />
Evelyn Hausslein, for whom the Evelyn Hausslein Child Life Scholarship<br />
Endowed Fund — also sponsored by the Betsy Reed Wilson Let’s Face It<br />
Fund — is named, and Faculty Emeritus Dr. Edgar Klugman were there to<br />
welcome Dr. Gaynard and to help celebrate <strong>Wheelock</strong>’s new visiting scholar<br />
program devoted to the child life field.<br />
“Laura set a standard as our first Betsy Reed Wilson Visiting<br />
Health Scholar. Her eloquent presentation reminded us all<br />
about how many developmental principles inform the practice<br />
of family-centered care and how key child life specialists are to<br />
the well-being of pediatric patients and their families.”<br />
—Stefi Rubin, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Child & Family Studies<br />
During her visit, Dr. Gaynard spent time with child life students, who<br />
were impressed with her interest in their work and with her encouragement.<br />
“It was an honor to spend so much time with such an advocate for child life<br />
as Dr. Gaynard is, especially when she met with the students in <strong>Wheelock</strong>’s<br />
Child Life Organization and learned about our activities,” says Micaela Francis<br />
’09, president of the <strong>Wheelock</strong> Child Life Organization. “It was nice to see a<br />
<strong>Wheelock</strong> alumna so proud of what we have accomplished and how the club<br />
is continuing to grow.”<br />
Dr. Gaynard also took time after her presentation to sign all of the students’<br />
copies of her manual Psychosocial Care of Children in Hospitals and wrote an<br />
individualized message to each of them. “She took the time to really get to<br />
know <strong>Wheelock</strong> students and make us feel very much included in the child life<br />
profession,” says Micaela.<br />
Talk about climate change often focuses on long-term impacts that can<br />
only be imagined. But destabilization of the environment is already<br />
causing trouble we can see in the form of flooding, droughts, fires,<br />
and spreading diseases, all of which are having an impact on public health that<br />
is bound to grow.<br />
In February, Sylvia Hobbs, the director of research and evaluation for<br />
the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (MDPH) in the Office<br />
of Emergency Medical Services, came to <strong>Wheelock</strong> to give students an<br />
overview of the situation lying ahead and the state and federal action needed<br />
to avoid the worst impacts of global warming.<br />
Hobbs focused much of her talk on severe temperatures that are expected in<br />
the form of heat waves. Heat spells, she pointed out, are always a health concern,<br />
especially in<br />
urban areas, but with<br />
more of them anticipated<br />
due to destabilization,<br />
and in a more<br />
severe form, we can<br />
expect more serious<br />
consequences for<br />
people and animals.<br />
Children and the<br />
Sylvia Hobbs<br />
elderly will be most<br />
vulnerable, as will be<br />
those with pre-existing medical conditions, those with mental health issues, and<br />
those living in isolated circumstances. Low-income and less-educated populations<br />
have fewer resources available to mitigate severe temperatures and will be<br />
at higher risk. City dwellers in air-conditioned office buildings may be protected<br />
from higher summer temps in the city, but families living in neighborhoods<br />
where there are few trees for daytime shade will feel the impact even at night.<br />
According to Hobbs’ data, there will be more cardiovascular emergencies,<br />
more cases of eye inflammation such as conjunctivitis, and — because excessive<br />
heat affects the brain — more psychiatric reactions such as anxiety, sleep problems,<br />
and intensification of personality disorders. We should also be aware that<br />
increases in ground-level ozone will exacerbate respiratory disorders such as<br />
asthma, and rises in pollen production will result in more people visiting emergency<br />
rooms with allergic reactions. The spread of infectious diseases such as<br />
Lyme disease and West Nile virus (which made its appearance in the U.S. only<br />
in 1999) will likely widen.<br />
Public health in a time of increasing climate change is not a pretty picture,<br />
and Hobbs stressed the need to strategize and to act now to address<br />
the increased burden that will be felt by public support systems. She<br />
emphasized the good each of us — the teachers, social workers, and child<br />
life specialists who will be affected professionally and ordinary civilians as<br />
well — can do by actively playing a role in capping pollution, speeding the<br />
transition to a cleaner energy, and planning ahead for changes that are<br />
undeniably headed our way. As an example of municipal systems that are<br />
taking seemingly simple steps to rebalance the pollution equation, she<br />
pointed to Boston, where 100,000 trees are being planted during the next<br />
12 years to provide cooling shade and air cleansing in the city’s least green<br />
neighborhoods.<br />
6 <strong>Spring</strong> <strong>2008</strong>
ON CAMPUS<br />
New Trustees on Campus<br />
So much of the work that <strong>Wheelock</strong> trustees do happens<br />
quietly, behind the whirlwind scene of campus activities,<br />
but it’s their leadership that makes it possible for everyone<br />
in the college community to fulfill <strong>Wheelock</strong>’s mission.<br />
Five new trustees joined <strong>Wheelock</strong> this year and are contributing<br />
their talents and experience to the <strong>College</strong>’s present and<br />
to its future. So, at the same time, we say both “Welcome to<br />
<strong>Wheelock</strong> and thank you!”<br />
Stephanie Bennett-Smith is<br />
president emerita of Centenary<br />
<strong>College</strong> in New Jersey. During<br />
her time at Centenary, Stephanie<br />
instituted the transition of the<br />
women’s college to coeducation,<br />
spearheaded and completed the<br />
college’s first capital campaign,<br />
and oversaw its first curriculum<br />
expansion to include graduate<br />
programs. She received a B.A.<br />
and an M.F.A. from the University<br />
of New Mexico, a Ph.D.<br />
from the University of Iowa, and<br />
she holds honorary degrees from<br />
Obirin University in Japan and<br />
Centenary <strong>College</strong>. Having spent<br />
her career as a faculty member,<br />
administrator, and trustee at<br />
small, independent colleges and<br />
universities, Stephanie views her<br />
service to <strong>Wheelock</strong> as a continuation<br />
of her commitment to<br />
educational resources that are<br />
vital to our country. “<strong>Wheelock</strong><br />
<strong>College</strong> is a shining example of<br />
educational focus and commitment.<br />
I am honored to serve<br />
this fine institution,” she says.<br />
Stephanie is a member of the<br />
board’s Educational Policy Committee.<br />
She and her husband,<br />
Orin, split their time between<br />
Florida and Massachusetts.<br />
Adrian Haugabrook has many<br />
years of experience in education<br />
and nonprofits because of his<br />
work as a vice president of<br />
TERI; executive director of public<br />
policy, alliances and innovation<br />
at Citizen Schools; and<br />
assistant dean at UMass Boston<br />
and Framingham State <strong>College</strong>.<br />
Adrian received his bachelor’s<br />
degree from the University of<br />
West Georgia, his master’s from<br />
Georgia Southwestern State University,<br />
and his doctorate in<br />
higher education administration<br />
from UMass Boston. Adrian is<br />
also an adjunct professor at<br />
Lesley University’s School of<br />
Education and serves on many<br />
nonprofit boards. He has been<br />
honored for his work in Boston<br />
by the Chamber of Commerce<br />
and currently serves as a deacon<br />
at his church. Adrian is a new<br />
member of <strong>Wheelock</strong>’s Educational<br />
Policy Committee. He and<br />
his wife, Angela, have a daughter<br />
and a son.<br />
Three years ago, John Knutson<br />
and his wife, Judy, moved to<br />
Boston after his long career with<br />
the Chrysler Corp. During his 33<br />
years at Chrysler, John worked in<br />
many positions, most related to<br />
finance, in the U.S. and Mexico.<br />
In Boston, John has joined the<br />
Executive Service Corps of New<br />
England, where he is a volunteer<br />
consultant to nonprofit organizations.<br />
He sings with choral groups,<br />
notably the Saengerfest Men’s Chorus<br />
and the Yale Alumni Chorus.<br />
John says that joining the <strong>Wheelock</strong><br />
board has been an opportunity<br />
to use his experience to support<br />
this vital institution along with<br />
many other dedicated board and<br />
staff members. He is currently the<br />
chair of the Audit Committee and<br />
a member of the Executive and the<br />
Finance committees. John and<br />
Judy have two children and five<br />
lovely granddaughters. John<br />
received a B.S. from Yale and an<br />
M.B.A. from Harvard.<br />
Juan Carlos Morales is senior vice<br />
president and chief financial officer<br />
at BNY Mellon Wealth Management,<br />
one of the largest wealth<br />
management companies in the<br />
U.S. Prior to joining BNY Mellon,<br />
Juan Carlos held various roles at<br />
Bank of America and PricewaterhouseCoopers.<br />
Juan Carlos is a<br />
board member of “The Partnership,”<br />
one of Boston’s oldest diversity<br />
talent think tanks, and of<br />
Boston Medical Center. He also<br />
serves on the advisory board of the<br />
Boston chapter of the Association<br />
of Latino Professionals in Finance<br />
and Accounting (ALPFA), which<br />
he co-founded in 1998. Juan<br />
Carlos graduated from UMass<br />
Amherst, is a licensed C.P.A., and<br />
is currently a member of the<br />
Finance Committee of <strong>Wheelock</strong>’s<br />
Board of Trustees. He lives on<br />
Beacon Hill with his wife, Jennifer,<br />
and their children.<br />
Elizabeth (Lisa) Cluett Thors is<br />
a vice president of Wellington<br />
Management Co., LLP. She<br />
received her B.A. from Yale University<br />
in 1987 and an M.B.A.<br />
from Harvard Business School. In<br />
1995, she was appointed to the<br />
Health Care Security Trust of the<br />
Commonwealth of Massachusetts,<br />
which provides funding for healthrelated<br />
services, including those<br />
intended to control or reduce the<br />
use of tobacco. Lisa is secretary of<br />
the Blue Hill Country Club in<br />
Canton, MA. She and her husband,<br />
Rex, have two children. “I<br />
chose to join the <strong>Wheelock</strong> Board<br />
because of the school’s commitment<br />
to education, children, and<br />
families and President Jackie Jenkins-Scott’s<br />
vision for the <strong>Wheelock</strong><br />
of the future,” she says. “In addition,<br />
I have a neighborly interest,<br />
as we live in Brookline in close<br />
proximity to <strong>Wheelock</strong>.” Lisa is<br />
currently a member of <strong>Wheelock</strong>’s<br />
Investment Committee.<br />
<strong>Wheelock</strong> Magazine 7
STUDENTS & FACULTY<br />
Michelle Joeoosay Thomas<br />
Siti Aishah Binte Amir<br />
Students in <strong>Wheelock</strong>’s bachelor’s degree program in Early<br />
Childhood Educational Studies and Leadership, which was<br />
launched by the Center for International Education, Leadership,<br />
and Innovation last June at Ngee Ann Polytechnic in Singapore,<br />
are much like students on the <strong>College</strong>’s Boston campus. They<br />
are very busy with their studies and they are deeply committed<br />
learners who also take their numerous responsibilities outside of<br />
school seriously.<br />
Many of the 60 students in the program — all women graduates<br />
of Ngee Ann Polytechnic’s diploma program in Early Childhood<br />
Education — have accepted the challenges of working<br />
periodically, and in some cases regularly, in the field, matching what<br />
they have learned in the classroom with the realities of professional<br />
practice. They are convinced that their work experience is deepened<br />
by the knowledge they gain in the classroom, and likewise report<br />
that their classroom studies, discussions, and group projects are<br />
enriched by what they see and experience in the field.<br />
This is an affirming concensus because <strong>Wheelock</strong>’s philosophy<br />
has always sought to find the right balance between classroom<br />
knowledge and theory and meaningful applications in the world<br />
outside of academia, whether in Boston or in the bustling island<br />
nation of Singapore. As Alfred North Whitehead wrote many<br />
decades ago, “Education is the art of the utilization of knowledge.”<br />
Michelle Joeoosay Thomas has worked as a relief teacher in a<br />
child care center assisting the permanent staff in mentoring and<br />
managing the children in teaching and playtime activities.<br />
“The courses that we are taking are preparing me to go out to<br />
work more confidently in the field. When working with children,<br />
I am able to apply many of the strategies that I have learned in the<br />
textbooks. Likewise, the experience at the center gives me a clearer<br />
picture when I get back to reading my textbooks for class. For<br />
example, in my work experience, I had to deal with a child with<br />
separation anxiety, and just today, in my Coping with Stress class,<br />
the instructor spoke about separation anxiety and how stressful it<br />
can be to children. I was able to better relate to the subject, as I had<br />
gone through the experience before.”<br />
Siti Aishah Binte Amir has worked in a child care center, where<br />
she was given the assignment of class teacher for 4-year-olds and<br />
later asked to teach English to kindergarten students.<br />
Siti Nurrafidah Binte Samat<br />
Student Voices from Singapore<br />
Reflecting on Links Between Classroom Studies and Practice<br />
by David Fedo, executive director and visiting scholar at <strong>Wheelock</strong> <strong>College</strong> Center for International Education,<br />
Leadership, and Innovation in Singapore. Photos by Nuradurrah Binte Abdul Bar.<br />
Lim Hong Li Sharon<br />
“One of the most valuable lessons I have learned during the job<br />
was the importance of teamwork. My colleagues and I constantly<br />
shared ideas and lent a hand to each other whenever help was needed.<br />
Even the children began to enjoy themselves more clearly, as we<br />
realized that when we tapped into each other’s strengths, we were<br />
able to create more interesting activities for the children. All of the<br />
<strong>Wheelock</strong> <strong>College</strong> courses have proved to be related to my work<br />
experience. To take one example, Reading and Writing for Young<br />
Children has allowed me to better understand the circumstances of<br />
special needs children and has provided me with greater insight into<br />
the various ways language can be taught. The conventional method<br />
of teaching English was through phonics, but I found out that<br />
there is a more systematic way of introducing phonics to emergent<br />
readers and writers.”<br />
Siti Nurrafidah Binte Samat has most recently worked at a child<br />
care center, serving as a teacher in a toddlers class and as a teacher’s<br />
assistant in kindergarten activities.<br />
“I became more aware of the value of being culturally responsive<br />
toward the needs of the different parents. It was interesting to<br />
put what was being taught in the <strong>Wheelock</strong> classes into practice<br />
at work, and I felt that when I was practicing culturally responsive<br />
pedagogy with the parents, they seemed to be more open and<br />
receptive to me much more quickly.”<br />
“I love the surprises that each child gives me every<br />
day, telling me about what they had learned and<br />
using the knowledge to learn something else. I love<br />
the fact that I do not feel as though I am working,<br />
because I look forward to and enjoy each day spent<br />
with the children and my colleagues.”<br />
— Siti Nurrafidah Binte Samat<br />
Lim Hong Li Sharon has worked at a private child care<br />
center as a temporary English teacher for kindergarten and<br />
nursery children.<br />
“I learned that support from colleagues is very important,<br />
and that values like cooperation and patience are essential in<br />
this field. Early childhood educators must be alert and on task<br />
8 <strong>Spring</strong> <strong>2008</strong>
STUDENTS & FACULTY<br />
Nurafida Binte Abdul Razak<br />
Toh Lay Hoon/Zhuo Li Yun<br />
at all times. I was excited to integrate the Arts course into the activities<br />
of the children. I encouraged children to dramatize stories and learn<br />
through songs, and I implemented a miniproject in the visual arts. I<br />
feel more confident to engage children in new learning experiences<br />
from what I have learned in the classroom.”<br />
Nurafida Binte Abdul Razak has worked in a number of settings,<br />
including teaching phonics, English, music, and art in kindergarten,<br />
and English, math, art, and Islamic culture to nursery students.<br />
“I find that I can relate the case studies discussed in class to what I have<br />
learned at work. I used to be clueless as to how to teach reading effectively,<br />
and the Reading and Writing course gave me more insights into how to<br />
provide appropriate opportunities for children to grow in their literacy competency.<br />
Another example: I had always loved drama, but I had never used it<br />
in a classroom setting because I felt that I needed to be trained in drama to<br />
use it. The <strong>Wheelock</strong> Drama course helped me realize that it is not impossible<br />
to incorporate drama into my lessons, and I look forward to imparting<br />
this knowledge to my future colleagues.”<br />
Toh Lay Hoon/Zhuo Li Yun has worked at two child care facilities as<br />
a lead teacher in nursery and playgroup classes.<br />
“I learned that teaching requires a lot of patience, tolerance, creativity,<br />
and genuine love for children. And I can definitely relate my work experiences<br />
to the knowledge I am gaining in class. In fact, I have really enjoyed<br />
all of the modules I am taking so far under the bachelor’s degree offered by<br />
<strong>Wheelock</strong>. The information presented is both practical and relevant. For<br />
instance, the class on Reading and Writing for Young Children in a Diverse<br />
Society offered valuable insights into effective teaching methods and strategies<br />
to promote children’s literacy skills. Another example is the class on<br />
Research Methods. The knowledge I learned there really has helped me to<br />
analyze situations and be more objective and critical about what I read and<br />
what people may say.”<br />
Singaporean Students in Boston for<br />
Summer Immersion Program<br />
All students in the two-year <strong>Wheelock</strong> <strong>College</strong> degree program in<br />
Singapore will be in residence on the Boston campus for five weeks this<br />
summer. They will be engaged in a Summer Immersion experience,<br />
an exciting centerpiece of the <strong>Wheelock</strong> program organized by the<br />
<strong>College</strong>’s Center for International Education, Leadership, and Innovation.<br />
While in Boston, the students will enroll in two courses, taught<br />
jointly by <strong>Wheelock</strong> faculty and Singaporean faculty from Ngee Ann<br />
Polytechnic and RTRC Asia. They will also be integrating their classroom<br />
learning with insights gained through regular visits to child care<br />
and preschool centers and other cultural institutions in the Greater<br />
Boston area. These field trips will include meetings with professionals,<br />
practitioners, and leaders in professional practice.<br />
IN ORBIT<br />
Math & Science Student<br />
Recognition Awards<br />
<strong>Wheelock</strong> students, faculty, and staff crowded the Larsen Alumni<br />
Room in April for the <strong>2008</strong> Math & Science Student Recognition<br />
Awards Ceremony and to cheer for Amy Goods and Sarah<br />
Tallman, two outstanding students who received cash prizes for their academic<br />
achievements. Continuing the tradition of recognizing students who<br />
lead weekly math/science study groups on campus, <strong>Wheelock</strong> also congratulated<br />
37 Math Leaders for their service during the academic year and<br />
rewarded them with a book, The Golden Ratio: The Story of PHI, the World’s<br />
Most Astonishing Number by Mario Livio, and certificates of professional<br />
development.<br />
Amy Goods, who graduates in fall 2009, was taking a sabbatical from<br />
college when she discovered her love for teaching and science while working at<br />
Nature’s Classroom, an outdoor education program in Yarmouth Port, MA.<br />
While researching where to complete her education, she was drawn to <strong>Wheelock</strong><br />
<strong>College</strong>’s mission statement and joined the <strong>Wheelock</strong> community in the<br />
2007 spring semester as a Math/Science major with a concentration in Special<br />
Education. Amy said she<br />
feels that the Math/Science<br />
Department has given her<br />
the confidence to become<br />
a strong math and science<br />
teacher. Last year, she<br />
taught in an after-school<br />
science enrichment program<br />
and was a Math<br />
Leader, while also finding<br />
time to work at the New<br />
England Aquarium.<br />
Congratulations,<br />
Sarah Tallman (left)<br />
and Amy Goods!<br />
Sophomore Sarah<br />
Tallman came to <strong>Wheelock</strong><br />
because she liked its<br />
small community and<br />
because she would be able to study both Math/Science and Elementary<br />
Education. During high school, Sarah volunteered at her school district’s<br />
Helmer Nature Center, and she worked at the Rochester Museum & Science<br />
Center as a teacher’s assistant for seven years. While science was her favorite<br />
subject in high school, Sarah also enjoys studying math and environmental<br />
sciences at <strong>Wheelock</strong>. She is pleased that so many of her <strong>Wheelock</strong> Math/<br />
Science classes have shown her how to share her love for the subjects with<br />
children in the classroom. Sarah was president of the Math Science Alliance<br />
and was also a Math Leader last year.<br />
Guest speaker Heather Knutson, a fourth-year graduate in the astronomy<br />
department at Harvard, spoke about how inspiring her math and science<br />
teachers had been and how important they were to her pursuing a fascination<br />
with astronomy. She is developing her thesis on the properties of extrasolar<br />
planets under a National Science Foundation Graduate Research<br />
Fellowship. Heather uses observations of eclipsing systems, where the planet<br />
periodically passes in front of and then behind its parent star, to determine<br />
the properties of the planet, including its radius, composition, temperature,<br />
and atmospheric circulation patterns.<br />
<strong>Wheelock</strong> Magazine 9
STUDENTS & FACULTY<br />
Final Score<br />
by Joe Atchinson, Director of Sports Information<br />
It’s been a successful and eventful year for Wildcat athletics,<br />
with the big news being the debut of men’s sports teams at<br />
the <strong>College</strong>. <strong>Wheelock</strong> men took their skills to the basketball<br />
and tennis courts with spirit and sportsmanship, joining<br />
our five varsity women’s teams in achieving high marks<br />
across all three playing seasons.<br />
In the fall, both the Wildcat field hockey and soccer teams won North Atlantic<br />
Conference (NAC) Sportsmanship Awards. Soccer finished at 5-13, while field<br />
hockey finished at 5-12. Soccer player Lindsey Lacourse was named 2nd team allconference.<br />
For field hockey, Lauren Widing was named 2nd team all-conference,<br />
finishing second in the NAC in assists. Jill Chaffee won an honorable mention,<br />
finishing sixth in the NAC in goals and points per game.<br />
The <strong>Wheelock</strong> swimming and diving team wrapped up another impressive<br />
winter season in which they won three dual meets, split two tri-meets, and had<br />
strong showings throughout.<br />
The Wildcat women’s basketball team ended their season with a blowout victory over<br />
<strong>College</strong> of New Rochelle by a score of 90-49, making it five victories for the season with<br />
several players placing among the NAC season leaders. Notably, Sarah Brown finished<br />
third in scoring and first in three-pointers per game. Erin Reardon was third in steals.<br />
Men’s basketball received the NAC team sportsmanship award in their inaugural<br />
season of play. Sherard Robbins was named second team all-conference in the NAC as he<br />
finished third in scoring, first in rebounding, and first in blocked shots.<br />
At press time, the <strong>Wheelock</strong> softball team was only six games into their season, but<br />
they are building off of last year’s six-win season. Eight Wildcats returned from last year’s<br />
team and were joined by five first-years, all led by junior Stacy Seidner.<br />
Joining the men’s basketball team this year as <strong>Wheelock</strong> expands athletics offerings<br />
for students was the men’s tennis team, coached by Cory Tusler. The team concluded<br />
their inaugural season at the NAC Championships, where the highlight was a win by<br />
<strong>Wheelock</strong> in the #1 doubles championship.<br />
Next up — look for the addition of cross-country to <strong>Wheelock</strong> athletics next year!<br />
Game Start<br />
The game of basketball originated in Massachusetts,<br />
the basketball we know today was originally a soccer<br />
ball, and the game might have been called<br />
boxball if not for sheer happenstance. The invention of<br />
basketball is credited to James Naismith, who was athletic<br />
director of the YMCA Training School in <strong>Spring</strong>field,<br />
MA, in 1891. Naismith was looking for a recreational<br />
activity that could be played indoors during winter’s cold<br />
months and one that would develop skill rather than<br />
depend on strength alone. For the first game of what we<br />
now call basketball, Naismith intended to use two boxes<br />
posted at opposite ends of a court to catch a tossed soccer<br />
ball. Finding no boxes handy at the Y, he used what<br />
were available — peach baskets. The soccer ball was still<br />
a soccer ball, and the baskets were not cut out at the<br />
bottom so players had to climb up to retrieve the ball<br />
each time a basket was made, but it was a great tip-off<br />
for a sport that would grow by leaps and bounds during<br />
the next century.<br />
Hockey Scholars<br />
Sweep the Field<br />
Kudos to the field hockey team for winning<br />
the 2007 NFHCA Division III National<br />
Academic Team Award (National Field<br />
Hockey Coaches Association). In order to receive this<br />
award, the team had to achieve a cumulative GPA of<br />
3.0 or higher. In addition, 10 team members were<br />
named to the 2007 NFHCA Division III National<br />
Academic Squad in recognition of obtaining a<br />
cumulative GPA of 3.30 or higher.<br />
GO, WILDCATS!<br />
10 <strong>Spring</strong> <strong>2008</strong>
Be a Maniac!<br />
Did You Know?<br />
Recyclemania came to <strong>Wheelock</strong> last<br />
semester in the form of seminars teaching<br />
students to increase the power of recycling<br />
products into usable materials and to<br />
reduce the power wasted in producing<br />
new raw materials.<br />
• If just 25% of U.S. families used 10 fewer plastic bags a month, we<br />
would save over 2.5 BILLION bags a year.<br />
• Every ton of recycled office paper saves 380 gallons of oil.<br />
• Energy saved by recycling ONE aluminum can is the equivalent of<br />
half a can of gasoline.<br />
• Glass produced from recycled glass instead of raw materials reduces<br />
air pollution by 20% and water pollution by 50%.<br />
Students Support<br />
Week of the Young Child<br />
Early childhood care and education was a definite theme on<br />
campus last semester, and students made sure they were part of<br />
the action by advocating for moving children to a top-priority<br />
position at the state policy level. Fliers went up, e-mails went out,<br />
and workshops were organized. <strong>Wheelock</strong> students are already great<br />
advocates for children. Go, <strong>Wheelock</strong> students!<br />
Yes, We’ve<br />
Got Jeans!<br />
<strong>Wheelock</strong>‘s student organization<br />
ALANA regularly<br />
collects donations from<br />
staff and faculty in return for the joy<br />
of wearing jeans to work on designated<br />
Got Jeans? Days. Proceeds go to a different<br />
charity each month. The organizations appreciate the funds that students raise<br />
on their behalf, and for faculty and staff, the fundraiser’s a perfect fit!<br />
COF Great Performances<br />
One great benefit to being a <strong>Wheelock</strong> student<br />
is that you have instant membership in the<br />
larger <strong>College</strong>s of the Fenway (COF) community<br />
and can not only cross-register for courses,<br />
but also participate in the many programs and<br />
activities offered by each of the colleges. In<br />
April, students had the chance to enjoy a week<br />
of performances by the COF Performing Arts Ensembles. Twenty members<br />
of the COF Chorus performed a collection of pop and a cappella<br />
hits at the Mass. <strong>College</strong> of Pharmacy and Health Sciences; the COF<br />
Orchestra performed at Emmanuel <strong>College</strong>, where winners of a concerto<br />
competition and a conducting competition showcased their work;<br />
the COF Dance Project presented “Dancing Through Time” at Mass-<br />
Art; and also at MassArt, the COF Theater Project performed “Crazy<br />
for Love: Scenes and One-Acts & More.”<br />
Behind the Scenes — All-<strong>College</strong> E-Mail<br />
Subject: Thank you for supporting the<br />
Muddy River Team!<br />
From: Muddy River Cleanup<br />
Sent: Wed., April 30, <strong>2008</strong><br />
To: All<br />
The Muddy River Team would like to<br />
thank all of those who came out to<br />
participate in the Muddy River Cleanup<br />
last Saturday, April 26. We truly<br />
appreciate the effort and concern shown<br />
by <strong>Wheelock</strong> and our neighboring<br />
community, and we hope that everyone<br />
had a good time, too. Thank you all!<br />
The Muddy River Team<br />
<strong>Wheelock</strong> Magazine 11
STUDENTS & FACULTY<br />
Patricia, sixth from left, celebrating at<br />
her May retirement party with some<br />
of her friends and colleagues<br />
Wishes for a Grand Retirement<br />
to Patricia Hogan<br />
by Lauren Wholley<br />
<strong>Wheelock</strong> Professor Patricia Hogan retired this spring after 25 years at the <strong>College</strong>.<br />
Patricia came to <strong>Wheelock</strong> in March 1983 from San Jose State University in California,<br />
where she was associate dean and interim dean of the School of Social Work. At<br />
<strong>Wheelock</strong>, Patricia was the first director of the Bachelor of Social Work Program. She is most proud<br />
of the role she played in creating this program and leading it to accreditation. She has also served<br />
the <strong>College</strong> as chair of the Professional Studies Department, dean of Social Work Programs, and<br />
professor of social work.<br />
“I am privileged to have worked with so many<br />
wonderful students and alums. Those relationships<br />
are the best part.”<br />
In May, the on-campus <strong>Wheelock</strong> community celebrated Patricia’s retirement and thanked her for her<br />
commitment and service to the <strong>College</strong>; in March, she was also honored by former students,<br />
colleagues, and friends at the <strong>Wheelock</strong> <strong>College</strong> Celebrates Social Work Dinner. “I am privileged to have<br />
worked with so many wonderful students and alums,” she said. “Those relationships are the best part.”<br />
In May, Patricia moved to Portland, OR, to be near her two sons and her granddaughter, Mia. She will<br />
have plenty to keep her busy during retirement, as she is an eBay entrepreneur and a fine arts photographer.<br />
“Those are two things that I’m going to focus on — in addition to my granddaughter!” she said.<br />
Patricia contributed so much to the <strong>College</strong> and to the education of <strong>Wheelock</strong> students<br />
during her career here. She will be missed, but we extend best wishes for her next adventures<br />
in Portland.<br />
Faculty on<br />
Sabbatical<br />
What They Do<br />
■ Associate Professor of Mathematics Galina<br />
Dobrynina (full year) – Research comparing<br />
methods for teaching mathematics<br />
across different cultures (American, Russian,<br />
and Bulgarian; possibly also Israeli and<br />
Singaporean)<br />
■ Associate Professor of Language and<br />
Literacy Lowry Hemphill (full year) –<br />
Literacy research project in the Boston<br />
middle schools<br />
■ Professor of Early Childhood Diane Levin<br />
’69MS (full year) – Promotion and workshop<br />
presentations based on her newly<br />
published book, So Sexy, So Soon<br />
■ Associate Professor of Humanities Lee<br />
Whitfield (spring 2009) – Research on<br />
three existing projects: French law and the<br />
impact on women; a book, Exorcising<br />
Algeria; and writing on the Berber culture<br />
in North Africa<br />
12 <strong>Spring</strong> <strong>2008</strong>
STUDENTS & FACULTY<br />
Thinking Linguistically<br />
A Scientific Approach to Language<br />
Associate Professor Maya Honda and Wayne O’Neil<br />
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology) have published<br />
a new course text for students pursuing serious<br />
scientific inquiry using linguistics. Visit their publisher’s website<br />
at www.blackwellpublishingcom.<br />
“The authors skillfully engage readers in doing linguistics as a kind of<br />
scientific inquiry. An elegant demonstration of the steps in identifying<br />
patterns, formulating and testing hypotheses, and offering parsimonious<br />
descriptions and explanations.”<br />
—Walt Wolfram, North Carolina State University<br />
“Honda and O’Neil have taught linguistics at the center and on the periphery,<br />
to grade schoolers, teachers, and graduate students: always theoretical, always<br />
understandable, always useful. These unique materials show that the study of<br />
English and of every other language can be a science accessible to all.”<br />
—Nigel Fabb, University of Strathclyde (Glasgow, Scotland)<br />
Off Campus, Michael Williamson Preps<br />
Next Generation of Lacrosse Officials<br />
Mike Williamson with daughter,<br />
Sarah, also a lacrosse official,<br />
at the <strong>2008</strong> U.S. Lacrosse<br />
Convention<br />
Everyone knows Associate<br />
Professor Michael<br />
Williamson as the man<br />
behind the multiple award-winning<br />
online educational science program<br />
WhaleNet. But we’re here to tell you<br />
that he’s also an expert on lacrosse<br />
and helping to train up the next generation<br />
of professional lacrosse officials.<br />
Williamson is on the<br />
Training Committee of the Men’s<br />
Division Officials Council, writing<br />
educational materials to use in<br />
training lacrosse officials around the<br />
country. And for the Scholastic Officials<br />
Committee for U.S. Lacrosse,<br />
the governing body for lacrosse in the<br />
United States, he’s working on a program<br />
to recruit more officials as well<br />
as on professional development programs<br />
for youth and high school<br />
lacrosse officials.<br />
<strong>Wheelock</strong>’s Math and<br />
Science Education<br />
Center Races to the<br />
Planets<br />
As the night sky changed constellations<br />
last April in honor of<br />
spring, <strong>Wheelock</strong>’s Math and<br />
Science Education Center, managed by<br />
Cathy Clemens, held an astronomically<br />
fun event for families of <strong>Wheelock</strong> faculty<br />
and staff. At Race to the Planets we<br />
learned more about the planets and created<br />
our own stories based on what we<br />
learned. As a bonus, each family took<br />
home a free copy of the game Race to the<br />
Planets. The event and the game came to<br />
<strong>Wheelock</strong> via the Astronomical Society<br />
of the Pacific (ASP), a leader in the field<br />
of astronomy education.<br />
Flip to the Resources section of<br />
<strong>Wheelock</strong> Magazine to learn about ASP’s<br />
many resources for educators and families.<br />
<strong>Wheelock</strong> Magazine 13
ALUMNI<br />
Alumni Collaborating on<br />
Innovative Campus Programs<br />
Boston-area alumni who teach at the Mary Lyon School were part of a group of teachers who visited <strong>Wheelock</strong> this spring<br />
as part of a Women Count mentoring program for middle-school students. First row, far right is Elise Cucchi ‘00MS, and<br />
Janice Watts Hanrahan ’94/’95MS to her right. Behind Janice is Associate Professor Maya Honda, and in the second row to<br />
the far right seated behind the table is Cheryl Brown-Green ’93MS.<br />
Author! Author! Author!<br />
Buried<br />
(Dutton Books, 2006)<br />
by Robin Merrow MacCready ’81<br />
Robin Merrow MacCready ’81 has written<br />
a standout debut mystery novel for<br />
young adults that is sending her to the top<br />
of booklists. Buried was nominated by the<br />
mystery organization Deadly Ink for the<br />
Ida Chittum Award for Best Young<br />
Adult/Children’s Mystery Novel of 2006,<br />
and in 2007, it won the Edgar Allan Poe<br />
Award for the Best<br />
Young Adult Mystery<br />
and made the<br />
New York Public<br />
Library’s Best Books<br />
for Teens list.<br />
The protagonist<br />
of Buried, Claudine,<br />
is a teenager burdened<br />
by adult responsibilities<br />
and a need for order that many children of<br />
alcoholics share. Despite her formidable coping<br />
skills, the emotionally safe life Claudine seeks for<br />
herself threatens to derail when she tries to solve<br />
the riddle of her mother’s sudden disappearance.<br />
Kirkus Review calls Buried “an absorbing psychological<br />
study.” BookLoons Reviews praises its<br />
honest, raw emotions and advises, “As the book<br />
hurtles toward an astonishing conclusion, it’s<br />
impossible to put down.”<br />
Robin currently teaches language arts to<br />
children in grades 4, 5, and 6 in Edgecomb,<br />
ME. So what drew her to writing young adult<br />
fiction? “Some of the best writing that is happening<br />
now is in YA fiction,” she explains. “It<br />
goes deep but gets to the point more quickly,<br />
and it’s all about character, which is what interests<br />
me. One of my surprises was to be nominated<br />
by Mystery Writers of America and then<br />
to win. I didn’t belong to the group and didn’t<br />
think of the book as a plot-driven mystery; I<br />
think of it as a character-driven novel that asks<br />
14 <strong>Spring</strong> <strong>2008</strong>
ALUMNI<br />
many of the questions teenagers are asking<br />
themselves but are afraid to ask adults about.”<br />
Robin is writing her second novel while<br />
teaching and raising her two children. Get to<br />
know more about her, her book, and her<br />
humorous adventures preparing for the Edgar<br />
Awards ceremony by going to her website at<br />
www.robinmerrowmaccready.com.<br />
Secrets of Great Parents<br />
(SGP Press, LLC, 2007)<br />
by Dayle Lynn Pomerantz ’76<br />
As every parent<br />
knows, parenting is<br />
as exhausting as it<br />
is rewarding, and<br />
the benefits are not<br />
always immediately<br />
evident. Dayle<br />
Lynn Pomerantz<br />
’76 is a parent<br />
skills coach and<br />
child development specialist who has a lot to<br />
offer parents, whether they are novices or<br />
experienced hands who know the ropes but<br />
still manage to get tangled up in knots from<br />
time to time.<br />
Dayle knows that a successful parent-child<br />
relationship depends on parents having the skills<br />
required to be effective teachers, disciplinarians,<br />
mentors, and communicators, but that many<br />
parents have not had the opportunity to fully<br />
learn and acquire these skills. She believes that<br />
children, and society as a whole, will benefit<br />
tremendously if more parents take the time to<br />
educate themselves about raising children in a<br />
supportive and loving way. Dayle’s current book<br />
divulges 12 “secrets” that she feels parents need<br />
in order to be the best they can be: awareness,<br />
balance, communication, discipline, encouragement,<br />
framework, growth, health, independence,<br />
joy, knowledge, love. “Anyone who cares deeply<br />
for their child has the ability to be an excellent<br />
parent,” she says. “Good parenting<br />
doesn’t require money and<br />
material things. Good parenting<br />
requires love, dedication, and<br />
knowledge.”<br />
Dayle is a presenter at national<br />
and regional conferences, and she<br />
has written on timely parenting<br />
topics, focusing especially on the<br />
need for parents to understand<br />
their children’s developmental<br />
stages in order to be more responsive<br />
and effective. She and her husband,<br />
Jay, live in Orchard Park, NY,<br />
and have two grown children, Erica<br />
and Steven.<br />
Winning Against<br />
the Wackos in Your Life<br />
(paperback/Larstan, 2007)<br />
by Christina Moulton Eckert ’84<br />
As Christina Moulton Eckert ’84 makes clear<br />
in her book, Winning Against the Wackos in<br />
Your Life, irksome characters are everywhere —<br />
cutting you off in traffic, insulting you at PTA<br />
meetings, making life at work miserable, and<br />
(can you believe it?) igniting fuses at family<br />
gatherings. Like many of us, Christina has<br />
experienced her share of troublesome relationships<br />
and encounters, but she has taken her<br />
hard lessons learned and transformed them<br />
into advice to aid others in avoiding unfulfilling<br />
entanglements.<br />
“This is not a book about what to do<br />
after you have been in a bad relationship,”<br />
says Christina.<br />
“It’s about how<br />
to prevent getting<br />
into one in the<br />
first place.”<br />
Christina has<br />
two goals for her<br />
book: to help<br />
others identify<br />
negative people<br />
in their lives and to recognize the traits within<br />
themselves that could actually be drawing<br />
stress-inducing people to them. Her chapter<br />
headings suggest the book’s survival guide content<br />
and the humorous slant she takes on rising<br />
above life’s little troublemakers. From<br />
What Wackos Look For to As Wacko Behavior<br />
Broadens, A Final Word on Family, and Helping<br />
Teens Cope with Wackos (the subject of<br />
Christina’s next book), she talks frankly about<br />
people who could be nicer and “how to spot<br />
them and stop them in their tracks.”<br />
Christina is living in the desert Southwest<br />
with her husband of 20 years and their three<br />
children. Visit her website at www.winningagainstthewackos.com,<br />
and look for her book in<br />
paperback in bookstores and online shopping<br />
sites.<br />
<strong>Wheelock</strong> Magazine 15
ALUMNI<br />
New <strong>Wheelock</strong><br />
Alumni Book<br />
Groups<br />
Thanks to everyone who responded<br />
to this past winter’s call to start more<br />
<strong>Wheelock</strong> alumni book groups, we have four new chapters: on the<br />
South Shore of Massachusetts; and in Seattle; Sarasota, FL; and Orange County,<br />
CA. E-mail the Alumni Relations Office at alumnirelations@wheelock.edu if<br />
you are interested in joining any of these groups or if you would like to start a<br />
group in your area. Keep those pages turning!<br />
L to R: Susan West ’77,<br />
President Jenkins-<br />
Scott, Jim Scott, and<br />
Sandra Miller ’77<br />
We ♥ New York!<br />
In March, President Jenkins-Scott, Jim Scott, and Deanne Morse ’60<br />
had a great time visiting with Regina Frankenberger Dubin ’58 and<br />
her husband, Larry Dubin, Sarah Jarvis ’68, Jo Loskill Jenks ’53,<br />
Nicky Wheeler L’Hommedieu ’54 and her husband, Paige L’Hommedieu,<br />
Mary Hathaway Hayter ’50, Nance Kulin Liebgott ’69, Pamela<br />
Long, Arlene Keizer Lovenvirth ’58, Sandra Miller ’77, Shirley Collins<br />
Schwarz-Gutherz ’57, Susan West ’77, and Anne Runk Wright ’50 at a<br />
luncheon hosted by Nicky and Paige at The Williams Club.<br />
Thanks to Alumni Who Have<br />
Joined the Center for Career<br />
Development Alumni Network<br />
To date, over 270 alumni have responded to the Alumni Network<br />
Survey and volunteered to support the professional development<br />
of students in a variety of ways, including:<br />
• Speaking at a Club Meeting, Class, or Educational Workshop<br />
• Conducting Informational Interviews, answering students’<br />
questions about their job, career, or profession<br />
• Conducting Mock/Practice Interviews<br />
• Networking with Current Students by E-mail<br />
• Hosting a Community Service Opportunity<br />
• Providing a Resume/Cover Letter Critique<br />
• Providing a Shadowing Opportunity<br />
Alumni data are made available to students through the Center’s<br />
online job posting and networking site, <strong>Wheelock</strong> Works! Take a look at<br />
their website (www.wheelock.edu/ccd) and see what other helpful services<br />
the <strong>College</strong> offers to students who are about to take their professional<br />
place in the world.<br />
Resources<br />
<strong>Wheelock</strong>’s Math and Science<br />
Education Center Suggests<br />
The Exploratorium<br />
The Exploratorium science museum in San Francisco has an excellent<br />
website (www.exploratorium.edu) that covers many science topics and<br />
offers fun ideas and tools for teaching under its Educate dropdown<br />
menu: Cathy Clemens, manager of <strong>Wheelock</strong>’s Math and Science<br />
Education Center, welcomes your ideas for engaging students in math<br />
and science learning: “The MSEC is here to support our alumni and<br />
your students!” Contact her at cclemens@wheelock.edu.<br />
The Astronomical Society of the Pacific,<br />
a Science Literacy Resource<br />
The Family ASTRO program presented by <strong>Wheelock</strong>’s MSEC in<br />
April is a program of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific<br />
(ASP), a recognized leader in the field of astronomy education.<br />
The Society’s goal is to advance science literacy by increasing public<br />
understanding and appreciation of astronomy through public<br />
outreach by scientists, educators, and enthusiasts.<br />
ASP’s Project ASTRO is an innovative program that pairs amateur<br />
and professional astronomers with teachers and classes in the San<br />
Francisco Bay area and also works with the ASTRO National Network<br />
with sites in 13 locations across the country. ASP’s free teachers’<br />
newsletter, The Universe in the Classroom, is posted on their website<br />
(www.aspsky.org/), and their online store, the AstroShop, offers an<br />
array of educational products for teachers and anyone interested in<br />
spreading appreciation and understanding of astronomy.<br />
<strong>Wheelock</strong> Is Your Go-To Professional Development Resource<br />
Your school, agency, or organization can benefit from a <strong>Wheelock</strong><br />
course held conveniently at your work site. National and Regional<br />
Programs will work with you to select from a variety of undergraduate<br />
and graduate courses. Interested in learning more? E-mail<br />
National and Regional Programs at natreg@wheelock.edu or call<br />
(617) 879-2311.<br />
16 <strong>Spring</strong> <strong>2008</strong>
The Kresge Challenge Grant to Expand<br />
Our Community and Make Us Stronger<br />
In April, <strong>Wheelock</strong> received wonderful news from the distinguished Kresge Foundation that it was<br />
awarding an $800,000 challenge grant to the <strong>College</strong> to assist in raising the remaining funds necessary<br />
to complete construction of its beautiful new Campus Center and Student Residence (CCSR).<br />
In his award letter to President Jenkins-Scott, Kresge Foundation President Rip Rapson noted,<br />
“We are extremely pleased to support your institution and its excellent track record of providing<br />
access to higher education. . . . With awarding this grant, we are saluting your efforts to improve<br />
conditions and advance opportunities in your community.”<br />
The Kresge award is not an outright grant; it is something better. The challenge grant is intended to<br />
help <strong>Wheelock</strong> grow by supporting construction of the new CCSR — and that definitely is something to<br />
celebrate — but even more important, it challenges <strong>Wheelock</strong> to stretch institutionally, to interest a broader<br />
range of organizations and individual donors in what <strong>Wheelock</strong> and its mission are<br />
all about. The Kresge Foundation poses a challenge to <strong>Wheelock</strong> that we have<br />
eagerly accepted: Raise $2,350,050 of the remaining amount needed to finish<br />
construction from private donors within the next 12 months, and the Foundation<br />
will complete the funding with its $800,000 grant.<br />
“The Kresge grant provides an exceptional opportunity for the <strong>College</strong> to<br />
expand its private base of support, to become stronger as an institution, and to<br />
fulfill its strategic plan for future growth,” Jenkins-Scott said in announcing the<br />
award. “We are also very excited about this grant’s prospects for widening recognition<br />
of <strong>Wheelock</strong>’s place in and importance to the broader Boston community.”<br />
Education is one of six fields in which The Kresge Foundation has been active<br />
for many years and is expanding in the U.S. and around the world. The Foundation<br />
is most interested in supporting educational institutions that address concerns<br />
about systematic and pervasive inequities and that have a positive impact on the<br />
community; promote diversity, opportunity, and access; and educate a workforce<br />
capable of competing successfully in the changing economy.<br />
The challenge helps to advance the shared goals of <strong>Wheelock</strong> and The Kresge Foundation while creating<br />
a stunning addition to the campus. And it is a wonderful vote of confidence in <strong>Wheelock</strong>’s extended<br />
community of supporters who will take up the challenge to complete funding of the CCSR, which so<br />
dramatically embodies the <strong>College</strong>’s future orientation.<br />
While the CCSR will be a<br />
fabulous new addition to<br />
<strong>Wheelock</strong>’s campus and to<br />
Boston’s cityscape, the Kresge<br />
challenge grant presents a<br />
great opportunity for <strong>Wheelock</strong><br />
to engage many more individuals<br />
and organizations in its<br />
mission to improve the lives<br />
of children and families.<br />
<strong>Wheelock</strong> Magazine 17
Skyscraper–Flying by crane, the “topping<br />
off” beam and its tree cargo land with<br />
perfect precision in the hands of workers<br />
waiting to position it at the highest point<br />
of the building’s completed frame.<br />
“We spent huge amounts of<br />
time talking with students<br />
about how we could support<br />
the idea of community in<br />
the evening as well as during<br />
the day. Because so many of<br />
the students are in class or<br />
in the field during the day,<br />
the mixed use of the building<br />
at night became all the<br />
more important.”<br />
—William Rawn, principal,<br />
William Rawn Associates, Architects, Inc.<br />
Nothing But Blue Sky for the<br />
CCSR Topping Off Ceremony<br />
The day couldn’t have been brighter than it was on April 15, when <strong>Wheelock</strong><br />
students, faculty, staff, and trustees gathered with the CCSR designers and<br />
builders to finish off the framing phase of construction by the Shawmut<br />
Design and Construction crew. After everyone had a chance to sign their name<br />
to a steel beam that would be the last one placed at the very top of the<br />
structure, a crane smoothly hoisted it high over the crowd. At one end<br />
of the beam, a small evergreen rode up and into place at the highest point of<br />
the frame, topping off the building in a ritual that is thousands of years old.<br />
Design Innovations That Nurture Community<br />
“There are several ways in which the Campus Center and Student Residence<br />
stands out as innovative, but most obviously it is in its design as a mixed-use<br />
space which celebrates community,” says William Rawn, principal of William<br />
Rawn Associates, Architects, Inc., the firm that designed the CCSR.<br />
“Traditionally, most colleges and universities have separate buildings<br />
for separate functions, widely separated across large campuses, but the<br />
CCSR has within its walls spaces for dining, living, meeting, and working,”<br />
he points out. “On a small campus such as <strong>Wheelock</strong>’s, establishing the<br />
CCSR as a mixed-use building makes it a destination and focal point for<br />
everyone on campus. This is innovative not only in that it is a change from<br />
the traditional, but also because it expresses the <strong>College</strong>’s strong sense of<br />
itself as a community.”<br />
Inside the CCSR, there are three and one-half floors of residential living<br />
space, but mixed with this on the first through third floors are spaces<br />
intended for daily use by students, faculty, and staff alike — a large dining<br />
area as well as a café and a 24/7 coffee bar, meeting rooms for student<br />
activities, and areas for entertainment. “Different segments of the community<br />
will be coming and going throughout the day, rubbing shoulders,<br />
and crossing paths with much more frequency,” Rawn says. “The spaces<br />
themselves are an open invitation to meet up to work on projects, make<br />
plans for events, or just settle in for conversation.”<br />
The building’s interior design will create a light, open, welcoming<br />
environment. Curtains of large glass windows will allow sunlight to<br />
pour in, a grand staircase will connect the first<br />
floor to the second-floor dining commons with<br />
a beautiful view of the greenery across the<br />
18 <strong>Spring</strong> <strong>2008</strong><br />
The Topping Off Ritual<br />
The tradition of a “topping off” ceremony has been<br />
linked to many cultures, but one possible point<br />
of origin is with the Scandinavians.The first reference<br />
dates to 700 A.D., when sheaves of grain were attached<br />
to the tops of newly constructed halls.The grain was an<br />
offering to the god Odin’s horse and was meant to bring<br />
good favor or luck to future occupants of the building.<br />
The custom spread to Germanic tribes that substituted a pagan symbol of new life —<br />
the evergreen — for the grain sheaves.<br />
The ritual is re-enacted today to celebrate a job well and safely done by the steel<br />
workers and, as in the old days, to bring good luck to the rest of the construction<br />
process and to those who will be using the new building.
Green Innovations That Nurture Nature<br />
Green buildings are becoming more integrated into urban and campus<br />
environments as awareness of the need to conserve and protect the<br />
planet grows. Going green with the CCSR and minimizing its impact<br />
on the environment is consistent with the social and educational<br />
aspects of <strong>Wheelock</strong>’s mission. But Erik Tellander, project architect<br />
for William Rawn Associates, points out that the green value of the<br />
CCSR extends beyond its own perimeters because it will impact future<br />
campus renovations and construction. The CCSR will serve as a<br />
model of how green technologies can be incorporated into most buildings<br />
and how sustainable practices might be put into play throughout<br />
the campus.<br />
Riverway, and there will be a light-filled third-floor dining space with<br />
an outdoor balcony for seating overlooking the community courtyard.<br />
The balcony and courtyard will enjoy sunlight from the south and<br />
provide an inviting open space for students, faculty, and staff to enjoy<br />
every day and on special occasions.<br />
William Rawn Associates is committed to designing buildings that<br />
in some way participate in the civic or public realm, buildings in the<br />
city or buildings in important public landscape settings, such as the part<br />
of Frederick Law Olmsted’s famed “Emerald Necklace” system of parks<br />
and tree-lined walkways that border <strong>Wheelock</strong>’s Riverway campus,<br />
where the CCSR is being constructed.<br />
“From the very beginning, <strong>Wheelock</strong> envisioned a building that would<br />
fit in with its surroundings while also reflecting the <strong>College</strong>’s contemporary<br />
qualities,” says Rawn. The north side of the building is elegantly curved<br />
to fit the existing path of the Riverway, while the corresponding curve on<br />
the building’s south side gently frames the inner courtyard. Blending with<br />
the natural curve of the Riverway as the CCSR will, it still will catch the<br />
eye and make a modern, forward-looking statement. The building’s mattefinished<br />
aluminum sides will stand out, but in a subdued, elegant way. At<br />
night, the large windows facing the Riverway will show the illuminated<br />
interior, creating a warm, glowing effect.<br />
“One example of the building’s environmentally responsible design is<br />
the green roof on the third-floor terrace outside the dining room,” says<br />
Tellander. “The planted roof will catch and absorb rainwater, slowing<br />
down its flow into the sewer system. There will be chambers under the<br />
green courtyard as well that will act as holding tanks and that will recharge<br />
the water into the soil through perforated pipes — helping to sustain<br />
plantings and trees — before it goes into the sewer.”<br />
Materials with recycled content are being used throughout the building,<br />
according to Tellander, from the steel framework, which is 40 percent<br />
recycled, all the way down to the cables used in the electrical systems.<br />
“Other good environmental practices include the use of wood from sustainable<br />
forests, nontoxic materials, and compact fluorescent lights<br />
throughout the electrical systems,” he says. “Additionally, there will be<br />
energy recovery systems that capture heat from exhaust air in winter to<br />
preheat fresh air coming into the building. The principle works in<br />
reverse during the summer when the cooler exhaust air will be used to<br />
cool the building’s interior air.”<br />
<strong>Wheelock</strong> Magazine 19
LEED Leads the Way<br />
If you read about the green building movement or<br />
listen to experts talk sustainable practices, the term<br />
LEED pops up in every other paragraph. What is it?<br />
LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental<br />
Design (LEED) Green Building Rating<br />
System TM , which was developed by the U.S. Green<br />
Building Council and is a nationally accepted benchmark<br />
for the design, construction, and performance of green buildings. The<br />
system encourages global adoption of green building and development practices<br />
by establishing universally understood and accepted performance criteria.<br />
The move toward sustainable green building practices is accelerating<br />
because of the tremendous benefits that result from hewing to LEED guidelines.<br />
Green buildings improve air and water quality and reduce waste, and<br />
they create healthier, more comfortable work and living environments. They<br />
also use key resources more efficiently when compared to conventional<br />
buildings that are simply built to code, which means there are substantial<br />
economic as well as environmental and health benefits to going green.<br />
Green buildings cost more to design and to construct when compared with<br />
conventional buildings, but these increased costs typically represent up-front<br />
costs incurred at the start of the project. According to LEED, studies suggest<br />
that an initial investment of 2 percent will yield more than 10 times the<br />
amount over the life cycle of the building. From this perspective, the initial cost<br />
is actually a smart investment that more than pays for itself in the long run.<br />
“I am absolutely thrilled when I think about<br />
using this new space so soon in the future. It<br />
has been a wonderful learning experience for<br />
me to work with my colleagues, the architects,<br />
and the students throughout the process of conceiving<br />
and creating this building.”<br />
– Marjorie Hall, chair and associate professor of art history<br />
Marjorie Hall was on the <strong>Wheelock</strong> committee that selected William Rawn Associates,<br />
Architects, Inc. and was co-chair of the small working group that met with them weekly<br />
during the early design phase of the project.<br />
One feature of the building that stands out immediately is the visually<br />
striking design of the windows, which allows enormous amounts of<br />
natural light inside. It’s a design element that also serves the goal of<br />
energy conservation. “This building is all about letting daylight in,” says<br />
Tellander. “The lower floors are almost all glass, and on the south side<br />
there are sun shades that reflect light onto the ceiling so that it penetrates<br />
even deeper into the building. Student rooms all have very large<br />
windows that make the spaces very pleasant, but they also have the<br />
function of cutting down on the daytime use of electricity.”<br />
Appealing design elements such as these are environmentally friendly<br />
and will also contribute to conservation of the <strong>College</strong>’s resources and<br />
lower long-term operating costs. From whatever perspective you view it,<br />
green design is good design.<br />
What’s Next?<br />
C<br />
onstruction of the CCSR continues during the summer.While others are<br />
vacationing, Shawmut construction workers will be installing the basics —<br />
mechanical, electrical, plumbing, and fire protection systems.Then the exterior<br />
wall — a curtain of glass on all four sides of the first two floors and metal panels<br />
of anodized aluminum on all sides of all floors — goes up. Interior work begins<br />
this summer too. Look for some mighty progress this fall when the next issue of<br />
<strong>Wheelock</strong> Magazine hits your mailbox.<br />
20 <strong>Spring</strong> <strong>2008</strong>
Kids on Kampus!<br />
It was great to see (and hear)<br />
the Gallery filled with children<br />
looking at art close up and<br />
making their own, which they<br />
loved seeing hung in the Gallery<br />
at morning’s end. So come back<br />
soon — It was fun having kids<br />
in the Gallery!<br />
<strong>Wheelock</strong> has a strong commitment<br />
to providing college access<br />
programming for young people<br />
in Boston that focuses on college<br />
awareness, preparation, and<br />
success. This year, our commitment<br />
expanded in a new direction, bringing<br />
more groups of young children as well as precollege<br />
teens to campus for events that are fun<br />
and educational. Is it ever too early to introduce<br />
children to the concept of college, make them<br />
comfortable in a campus setting, and get them<br />
thinking about going higher, higher, higher?<br />
Not if you’re <strong>Wheelock</strong>!<br />
Kids in the Gallery — A Picture-<br />
Perfect Day for Making Art<br />
The Towne Art Gallery’s biannual exhibit<br />
Nurturing the Artist in Each Student: Art from<br />
the Boston Public Schools, which is organized<br />
by Art Instructor and Gallery Director Erica<br />
Licea-Kane with generous financial support<br />
from The Gary Silverstein Memorial Art Fund,<br />
is always a special and beautiful event. But<br />
this year something magical happened. At the<br />
March 29 opening reception, the principal<br />
of the James Otis Elementary School in East<br />
Boston mentioned that she would love it if<br />
some of her students could have an opportunity<br />
to see the exhibit. Of course, <strong>Wheelock</strong> staff,<br />
faculty, and students jumped into action to<br />
make it happen.<br />
Director of Athletics, Recreation and Wellness<br />
Diana Cutaia quickly arranged to transport all<br />
80 of the school’s fourth- and fifth-graders to<br />
campus one morning in April and coordinated a<br />
remarkable program for them in the Gallery.<br />
Associate Professor and Chair of the Arts Department<br />
Marjorie Hall provided a list of all<br />
<strong>Wheelock</strong> art students on campus, several of<br />
whom were able to volunteer for the program,<br />
and Associate Professor in Early Childhood Amy<br />
Phillips agreed to have the students in her Art<br />
for Children course develop art-making activities<br />
for the students. Licea-Kane coordinated the<br />
opening of the Gallery and arranged for the student<br />
volunteers to help with viewing and talking<br />
about the exhibit and with organizing the art<br />
activities. And finally, <strong>Wheelock</strong> Family Theatre<br />
Marketing and Public Relations Director Charles<br />
Baldwin gave an impromptu talk and offered<br />
tickets to the students so that they could come<br />
back to see the fabulous production Lilly’s Purple<br />
Plastic Purse, then showing in the Theatre.<br />
It was great to see (and hear) the Gallery<br />
filled with children looking at art close up<br />
and making their own, which they loved seeing<br />
hung in the Gallery at morning’s end.<br />
So come back soon — It was fun having kids<br />
in the Gallery!<br />
Adding it up —<br />
<strong>College</strong> is for<br />
everyone!<br />
<strong>Wheelock</strong> students explained their fractions lesson to Murphy School<br />
children and their teachers.
Kids in the Classroom —<br />
Adding It Up<br />
In April, Director of Community Engagement<br />
Initiatives Ceronne Daly partnered with the TERI<br />
<strong>College</strong> Access Center to arrange a visit by 50<br />
fourth-graders from the Richard J. Murphy School<br />
in Dorchester to campus for a <strong>College</strong> Explorers<br />
Pilot Program, which is part of <strong>Wheelock</strong>’s <strong>College</strong><br />
Access program. The morning of activities included<br />
a traditional college tour and a custom-designed<br />
math learning experience. <strong>Wheelock</strong> students<br />
in Associate Professor Debbie Borkovitz’s and<br />
Associate Professor Galina Dobrynina’s spring<br />
math courses designed interactive math lessons to<br />
give the Murphy students a hands-on approach<br />
to learning 3D geometry and fractions.<br />
For many of the children, this was their first<br />
visit to a college campus. The consensus at the<br />
end of the morning? <strong>College</strong> is BIG, college is<br />
fun, and college is for everyone.<br />
Kids in the Music Room —<br />
Reprise at Hawes Street<br />
Last year’s spring visit to <strong>Wheelock</strong> by children<br />
from the James J. Chittick Elementary School<br />
in Mattapan for an afternoon of music was such<br />
a hit, it was repeated again in May this year.<br />
Tanya Maggi, director of the Performance<br />
For Mary Lyon middle<br />
school students, visiting<br />
<strong>Wheelock</strong> was a great<br />
start to seeing college<br />
as an attractive and<br />
realistic goal.<br />
Outreach Program at the New England Conservatory<br />
of Music, brought five students from<br />
the Conservatory’s outreach program to the<br />
Brookline Campus for a program of music and<br />
reading aloud that introduced the connections<br />
between music and storytelling to the children.<br />
Thanks again to Sandy Christison ’92MS for<br />
having the idea to hold these musical afternoons<br />
for kids and to Beverly “Bev” Simon Green<br />
’50, whose wonderful grand piano gift provides<br />
the centerpiece for so much fun!<br />
Kids on Campus Everywhere —<br />
Making the <strong>College</strong> Connection<br />
In April, Associate Professor Maya Honda<br />
arranged for 15 seventh- and eighth-grade girls<br />
from the Mary Lyon School in Brighton to visit<br />
campus and experience college as part of the<br />
Women Count Program. Women Count started<br />
as a mentorship program in math and science<br />
for teen girls and is expanding to explore different<br />
careers and the college pathway. Last November,<br />
Honda visited girls in the program and talked<br />
with them about her work as a linguist and as a<br />
professor at <strong>Wheelock</strong>.<br />
During their campus visit, students met<br />
Associate Director of Alumni Relations Brianne<br />
Kimble in the Alumni Relations Office, went<br />
on a campus tour with Admissions staff, visited<br />
classes, toured campus dormitories and the<br />
<strong>Wheelock</strong> Family Theatre, and finally settled<br />
down for lunch in the dining hall.<br />
Three of the teachers from Mary Lyon who are<br />
<strong>Wheelock</strong> graduates — Elise Cucchi ’00MS,<br />
Cheryl Brown-Greene ’93MS, and Janice Watts<br />
Hanrahan ’94/’95MS — were happy to be visiting<br />
their alma mater and making the college connection<br />
for their students. The students themselves<br />
were excited to be at a college and living the life of<br />
a <strong>Wheelock</strong> student for a day. It was a great start to<br />
seeing college as an attractive and realistic goal.
Ubuntu<br />
in the<br />
Works<br />
Building on the Success of the<br />
Bridges to Hope and<br />
Understanding Youth<br />
Symposium<br />
<strong>Wheelock</strong> made a promise to stay connected to the<br />
Boston schools and student leaders who participated<br />
in last fall’s Bridges to Hope and Understanding:<br />
Exploring Truth and Reconciliation Youth Symposium,<br />
which was designed to work on issues of urban<br />
violence facing the city’s youth and their communities. And in the spirit<br />
of ubuntu — the African philosophy introduced to the <strong>Wheelock</strong> community<br />
during Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s symposium visit — <strong>College</strong> faculty<br />
and staff continued collaborating with Boston schools and community<br />
organizations throughout the academic year on innovative programs aimed<br />
at building stronger, more supportive relationships among Boston teens<br />
and their communities.<br />
Youth Leadership Summit and<br />
SPARK the Truth<br />
In November, immediately after Tutu’s visit, <strong>Wheelock</strong> hosted a Youth<br />
Leadership Summit that helped to launch SPARK the Truth, a social<br />
action organization of <strong>Wheelock</strong> <strong>College</strong> and Boston high school students<br />
working with Ceronne Daly, director of community engagement<br />
initiatives; Ann Tobey, director of the <strong>College</strong>’s Juvenile Justice and<br />
Youth Advocacy (JJ&YA) program; Patricia Cedeño-Zamor, director<br />
of <strong>Wheelock</strong>’s B.S.W. program; John Bay ’94MS, <strong>Wheelock</strong> Family<br />
Theatre education director; and JJ&YA program students.<br />
At the summit, the students worked to refine their group identity and<br />
mission: “We are a group of students working to encourage and support positive<br />
community action amongst students in Boston Public Schools. We<br />
believe that giving youth every conceivable opportunity to facilitate, engage<br />
in, and enact their own community initiatives is an essential aspect of fostering<br />
the changes needed in their individual and collective communities.”<br />
Building on a speech delivered at Bridges to Hope and Understanding by Pharlone<br />
Toussaint, a student from the Boston Community Leadership Academy,<br />
and the leadership of <strong>Wheelock</strong> student co-president Lucia “Lucy” Mock<br />
’09, the students named their new organization SPARK the Truth.<br />
<strong>Wheelock</strong> Magazine 23
Juvenile Justice and Youth Advocacy<br />
Program Initiatives<br />
Youth Transforming Violence: Ubuntu in the Works<br />
Last year, Tobey initiated a faculty-staff-student project that evolved<br />
into Life Worth Remembering: Images from Four Street Memorials, an<br />
exhibit of photography and digital<br />
images commemorating teenage<br />
victims of violence in 2006 that<br />
was exhibited at the Towne<br />
Art Gallery and then chosen<br />
for display at the Violence<br />
Transformed exhibit at<br />
the Massachusetts Statehouse.<br />
This year, she<br />
worked with the Violence<br />
Transformed organization<br />
to create a sequel exhibit<br />
of art created by Boston<br />
youth and titled Youth Transforming<br />
Violence: Ubuntu in the<br />
Works. Tobey said that last year’s exhibit<br />
represented a “statement of the problem” of urban youth losing their<br />
lives to street violence, traumatized individuals and communities, and<br />
a society that has failed to respond compassionately and effectively.<br />
This year’s exhibit theme moved from stating the problem to working<br />
on solutions through ubuntu.<br />
Much of the commitment and energy to work on follow-up projects<br />
with Boston youth originated with students in Tobey’s JJ&YA integrative<br />
seminar who developed them as senior projects. Students worked with<br />
several community-based organizations on projects that introduced teens<br />
to two ideas common to all of the projects: Collaborative art making can<br />
have the power to transform violence into its opposite, and ubuntu can be<br />
used to imagine alternatives to violence.<br />
HUMAN Hear Us Make Artistic Noise<br />
Several seminar projects developed under the theme of Hear Us Make<br />
Artistic Noise gave seniors the chance to facilitate teen learning, art making,<br />
and expression as they created ubuntu-themed art that was exhibited<br />
at <strong>Wheelock</strong>’s Towne Art Gallery and the Massachusetts Statehouse.<br />
One project involved <strong>Wheelock</strong> senior Heather Perez and artist Kate<br />
Jellinghaus working with girls living in a DYS detention facility. Heather<br />
gave a tutorial on ubuntu and collaborative art making which, interestingly,<br />
resulted in the girls working on three hair-braiding projects that expressed<br />
both their creative talents and the ubuntu idea of caring for each other. The<br />
final pieces exhibited in the Gallery were a 15-foot, interactive wall installation;<br />
Violence Transformed, a film about hair braiding that is now on<br />
YouTube; and letters from a writing project hung on the Gallery wall.<br />
St. Stephen’s<br />
<strong>Wheelock</strong> students Julia MacMahon ’08 and Lucy Mock ’09 and SPARK<br />
members who were leaders in the celebration of Archbishop Tutu’s visit to<br />
<strong>Wheelock</strong> collaborated with youth in the St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church<br />
Place of Opportunity for Teens program in Boston’s South End. Julia and<br />
Lucy encouraged these teens to imagine ubuntu happening in their communities<br />
and to create a sculpture representing their ideas about what ubuntu<br />
24 <strong>Spring</strong> <strong>2008</strong>
Collaborative art making has transformative powers.<br />
At Milton High School, students worked on a six-panel<br />
drawing titled “Road to Reconciliation.”<br />
means to them and its importance for the world. The teens not only learned<br />
about the new concept of ubuntu, but they also took ownership of it and<br />
applied it, working collaboratively to create something of their own out of it.<br />
Milton Public High School<br />
At Milton Public High School, senior Larrice Welcome worked with art<br />
teacher Karen Hughes and students in her class to develop ubuntu ideas about<br />
reconciliation and community support, and then to make art out of them.<br />
Students worked in pairs to create six separate painted images and then<br />
collaborated as a group to fit them together into a larger painting titled<br />
“Road to Reconciliation.” For the students, it was a rare opportunity to experience<br />
collaborative decision making and working as a team with classmates.<br />
The Cloud Foundation<br />
Tobey and <strong>Wheelock</strong> senior LaToya Salvant worked with teen visual art<br />
curators at The Cloud Foundation in Boston, a nonprofit organization<br />
devoted to teens and the arts, to co-curate a spin-off exhibit, Violence<br />
Transformed: An Exhibition of Visual and Performing Arts. The exhibit<br />
traveled from <strong>Wheelock</strong>’s Towne Art<br />
Gallery to the Massachusetts Statehouse,<br />
where it was shown as part of<br />
the Violence Transformed art and performance<br />
event held in concert with<br />
the annual Victim Rights Conference<br />
of the Massachusetts Office for Victim<br />
Assistance. <strong>Wheelock</strong> student Tina<br />
Jordan ’08 also worked with Violence<br />
Transformed on a project called Wind<br />
Song for which schoolchildren created<br />
peace flags that were strung in a<br />
Tibetan flag motif at the Towne Art<br />
Gallery and at the Statehouse.<br />
Other programs that contributed to the gallery exhibit were YouthBuild<br />
Boston, the Watertown Mural Club, and RAW Artworks in Lynn, MA.<br />
<strong>College</strong> Courses to Change Social and Academic<br />
Outcomes for the Youth of Boston<br />
In the spring, <strong>Wheelock</strong> took the collaborative concept of ubuntu to the<br />
college level by joining with the Boston Public Schools and Teaching for<br />
Change, a program that encourages teachers and students to question and<br />
rethink the world inside and outside their classrooms, to build a more equitable<br />
and multicultural society, and to become active global citizens.<br />
Together they created a program that gives local high school students the<br />
chance to earn four undergraduate college credits by taking the course<br />
Bridges to Hope, Understanding and Changing the Social and Academic<br />
Outcomes of the Youth of Boston, taught by Felicity Crawford, assistant<br />
professor in the <strong>College</strong>’s School of Education and Child Life.<br />
The course was designed to build on the “spark” that the symposium<br />
youth of Boston and undergraduate students at <strong>Wheelock</strong> have ignited<br />
with their ideas about social change following Archbishop Tutu’s visit.<br />
The ideas explored in this course were intended to lay the foundation<br />
for high school students to build the knowledge, skills, and criticalthinking<br />
strategies that would enable them to create positive change in<br />
their communities. Students in the course read, analyzed, and evaluated<br />
literature about youth activism and community change and then<br />
applied their learning by using the virtual world Second Life to build<br />
and display the better Boston they envisioned.<br />
Participants in the course joined youth from SPARK and other teens<br />
from the symposium who worked on ubuntu and reconciliation projects at<br />
their schools and in their organizations during the winter and presented and<br />
showcased their work at <strong>Wheelock</strong>’s Bridges to Hope and Understanding:<br />
Ubuntu in the Works held on the Brookline campus on May 2.<br />
By the close of the academic year, <strong>Wheelock</strong>, Milton and Boston<br />
high school students, and local youth organizations had taken the idea<br />
of ubuntu and put it into action in a variety of creative ways among<br />
themselves and in their respective communities. Ubuntu is in the works<br />
both as a concept already creating change and as a work in progress.<br />
Watch ubuntu evolve next fall when this year’s successes spark new ideas<br />
for <strong>Wheelock</strong> and Boston youth collaborations.<br />
<strong>Wheelock</strong> Magazine 25
A LUMNI<br />
I NNOVATORS<br />
<br />
When students graduate from <strong>Wheelock</strong>, they are<br />
already innovators. Being part of an academic community<br />
such as ours challenges and changes them.<br />
The <strong>College</strong> fosters their curiosity, nurtures their<br />
imaginations, and instills the idea that they can be<br />
leaders—attributes that all innovators share. Many<br />
will reinvent themselves several times over before<br />
Commencement day, when they magically transform<br />
into <strong>Wheelock</strong> alumni.<br />
With any luck, they will make their marks by continuing<br />
to exercise creative-thinking skills. Like the<br />
six alumni spotlighted in these pages, they will look<br />
at complex problems and imagine solutions. They<br />
will apply what they<br />
know about alternative<br />
perspectives—look at something from<br />
a different slant, and you might discover<br />
something new. No matter what<br />
their field of endeavor, they will share<br />
the excitement of discovering, creating<br />
change, trying out new ideas, going in<br />
a better direction.
W H E E L O C K<br />
I N N O V A T O R<br />
Sandra Smith ’74<br />
“My grandmothers were<br />
very innovative women.<br />
They encouraged me to<br />
try new things, including<br />
a career other than<br />
teaching.”<br />
was soon cutting and stitching her way into<br />
galleries throughout the country. The American<br />
Craft Museum in New York; the Maryland State<br />
House in Annapolis; New England Quilt Museum<br />
in Lowell, MA; the Spelman <strong>College</strong> Museum of<br />
Fine Art in Atlanta; and the New England School<br />
of Art & Design in Boston are just a few of the<br />
many venues that have shown her work. Sandra<br />
uses her teaching skills in quilting, too, through<br />
workshops and presentations at the Smithsonian’s<br />
Renwick Gallery and the Textile Museum<br />
in Washington, as well as at elementary schools<br />
and art and design colleges.<br />
In talking with Sandra about quilt making,<br />
there is a definite sense of curiosity and discovery<br />
about what will happen when two pieces of<br />
fabric are placed together. “Every piece is<br />
unique,” she says. “Sometimes I use the same<br />
Reinventing Herself<br />
and Her Art<br />
Sandra Smith ’74 loves trying out new<br />
ideas and different directions to see how<br />
far she can take them. After graduating<br />
from <strong>Wheelock</strong>, Sandra taught for six<br />
years and then moved into the corporate world,<br />
where she reinvented her professional career.<br />
Sandra says she moved from teaching in<br />
search of additional intellectual challenges,<br />
always building on the skills that she acquired<br />
along the way. “At Data General, my first corporate<br />
job, the challenge was to reinvent<br />
myself, to convince myself and others that I<br />
had what it took to teach adults. I trained<br />
inspectors in the manufacturing group to<br />
inspect printed circuit boards. Then I transferred<br />
to the Field Services Division to broaden<br />
my experiences as an adult trainer and learn<br />
more about quality assurance techniques.”<br />
Sandra next moved to Interactive Training<br />
Systems in Cambridge, an innovative startup<br />
company, where she worked with a group to invent<br />
technology-based training procedures, methodologies,<br />
and video applications. “This gave me the<br />
chance to travel extensively and work with senior<br />
managers and subject-matter experts in Fortune<br />
50 companies,” she says. “I learned management<br />
and people skills and worked my way up to a<br />
position as department director.”<br />
Her next leap was to Washington, D.C., to<br />
work at Watson Wyatt, an HR consulting firm.<br />
“At Wyatt I used people and training/teaching<br />
skills to define requirements and interface<br />
designs for employee self-service benefit systems,”<br />
she explains. “I managed a group of programmers<br />
and communications consultants who<br />
introduced technology-based communications<br />
and human resource transactions to the firm and<br />
its clients, which was an innovation for Wyatt.”<br />
“<strong>Wheelock</strong> has been in play all along,”<br />
Sandra says of her work in the corporate world<br />
and her current job in Washington, D.C., in<br />
the Office of the Chief Technology Officer.<br />
As a training and deployment manager there,<br />
she heads the training initiatives in a group<br />
that is responsible for improving technology<br />
for District social service agencies.<br />
Sandra’s mix of energy, understanding of<br />
complex systems, and eagerness to try new ways<br />
of doing things spun her in an entirely different<br />
direction when she began quilting as a way to<br />
relax. Like many quilters before her, Sandra<br />
transformed necessity into works of art and<br />
fabrics in more than one quilt, but none of my<br />
quilts are alike. My favorite techniques include<br />
working with fabric to create transparencies in<br />
the quilt, with one fabric appearing to overlap<br />
another, and designing without templates. One<br />
method is very detailed and requires a lot of<br />
concentration, while the other just happens.”<br />
Sandra makes quilts for her own pleasure and<br />
on commission, as well as to exhibit and sell.<br />
Many of her commissions are from families who<br />
want to incorporate meaningful elements of<br />
their family experience into an heirloom quilt.<br />
“When clients request work, it forces me to be<br />
innovative and go in different directions,” she<br />
says. It is all part of the creative imagination that<br />
quilting lets free.<br />
Sandra will be exhibiting a selection of her<br />
quilts at <strong>Wheelock</strong>’s Alumni of Color Reunion,<br />
Oct. 3-4. She also has a wonderful website at<br />
www.sandrasmithquilts.com with galleries of her<br />
quilts completed and in progress. <br />
<strong>Wheelock</strong> Magazine 27
W H E E L O C K<br />
I N N O V A T O R<br />
Bonnie Simon Grossman ’55<br />
Celebrating Everyday Art<br />
Talking long-distance from Boston<br />
with Bonnie Simon Grossman ’55<br />
in Berkeley, CA, about the collection<br />
of art in her Ames Gallery makes you<br />
want to book a flight and go see each piece she is<br />
describing with a fascination you can imagine is<br />
just as enthusiastic as when she first discovered it.<br />
Even at a distance, Bonnie’s detailed descriptions<br />
and teaching instincts make connections<br />
that are eye-opening. “I have a big collection of<br />
tramp art, which is akin to quilting because of the<br />
shared vocabulary of salvaged scrap materials cut<br />
into geometric shapes, pieced together, and layered,”<br />
she says, comparing two types of folk art.<br />
“Decorative chip carving on tramp art is similar<br />
to stitches on a quilt. One uses fabric and the<br />
other wood, but there is a very close connection.”<br />
A kindergarten teacher for several years after<br />
graduating from <strong>Wheelock</strong>, Bonnie drifted into<br />
the art gallery world when she volunteered to<br />
organize exhibits in a small craft gallery owned by<br />
a friend. Her innovative early shows introduced<br />
emerging Bay area printmakers and included the<br />
first show of photo etchings on the West Coast.<br />
Curiosity, a predisposition to discovery, and a<br />
respect for stories embedded in the work of<br />
unknown artists led Bonnie and her husband,<br />
Sy, to establish a gallery.<br />
Today, Bonnie collects, curates, sells, and<br />
writes and consults about work not typically<br />
found in mainstream galleries: utilitarian<br />
Americana, contemporary visionary art, and<br />
naive and outsider art that is created by artists<br />
who are self-taught. Some are individuals who are<br />
homeless or isolated by virtue of being housebound<br />
or institutionalized in treatment facilities<br />
or prisons. “I don’t like the term ‘outsider’ or any<br />
of the labels because they all are pejorative, but<br />
that’s the common term used,” Bonnie is quick to<br />
note. “I like to let the work speak for itself.”<br />
“These are unschooled artists whose creative<br />
impulse is direct and personal, unfiltered by<br />
formal values and expectations, and possessing<br />
qualities of spontaneous enthusiasm and feeling<br />
that I admire,” she explains. “Their personal<br />
fulfillment has nothing to do with being in a<br />
museum or a collection. Working with them is<br />
much more gratifying.”<br />
The Ames Gallery is now the West Coast’s<br />
only gallery to feature antique Americana folk art,<br />
the handmade and homemade “relics of our<br />
heritage” as Bonnie calls them, as well as paintings,<br />
drawings, and sculpture by contemporary<br />
self-taught artists, mostly Californians. “We have<br />
succeeded in introducing many previously<br />
unknown artists, notably A.G. Rizzoli, Dwight<br />
Mackintosh, Alex Maldonado, and Barry Simons,<br />
who now have substantial followings, enjoying<br />
national and, in some cases, international<br />
recognition,” says Bonnie.<br />
Bonnie’s slant on collectible art is as unique as<br />
the artists themselves, who may see any object —<br />
bedsheets, hubcaps, or wire cords — as canvas<br />
material to transform. “The work is less intimidating<br />
and just as precious to the artist,” she says.<br />
One of Bonnie’s shows, “On the Mend,” featured<br />
repaired objects — not just darned socks,<br />
but also stapled china and sewn-up wooden<br />
bowls. A collection of creatures made by former<br />
aluminum product salesman Jim Bauer out of<br />
kitchen tools and appliances shares space with<br />
wooden figures that Cuban exile Julio Garcia<br />
carves in his backyard and decorates with leftover<br />
house paint.<br />
Another discovery — 40 years’ worth of dusty<br />
utopian drawings by an unknown artist, A.G.<br />
Rizzoli, that Bonnie found in a San Francisco<br />
garage — was celebrated by the San Diego Museum<br />
of Art with a traveling show. Rizzoli’s “Yield to<br />
Total Elation” themes were reviewed by Frank<br />
Rich in The New York Times as “pure-hearted<br />
romantic hallucinations” representing “the soul of<br />
mental health.”<br />
When she isn’t involved with the Gallery,<br />
traveling to shows, and uncovering new artists,<br />
Bonnie is active in the California arts community.<br />
A founding member of Bay Area (now<br />
California) Lawyers for the Arts, she has served<br />
on museum boards and advisory committees<br />
and curated public art exhibitions. She has coproduced<br />
and directed seven public television<br />
shows about California artists and consulted<br />
for numerous series on antiques. She also lectures<br />
widely, teaching others to see the art in<br />
everyday old and new homemade objects. For<br />
Bonnie, there’s always something new under<br />
the California sun. <br />
The Ames Gallery<br />
www.amesgallery.com<br />
28 <strong>Spring</strong> <strong>2008</strong>
W H E E L O C K<br />
I N N O V A T O R<br />
Sarah Mann Hanscom ’77<br />
“We have a beef stew<br />
recipe for 2,500 sailors,<br />
which is amazing in<br />
itself, but then we ask<br />
the kids to break it<br />
down to dinner for a<br />
family of six — they’re<br />
learning math, and<br />
they’re having fun too.”<br />
missions, so we ask kids to figure out how many<br />
beds could be put in the hangar bay. For kids<br />
who don’t see the point of math — Aha! —<br />
suddenly it has a very important purpose.”<br />
From the beginning, Sarah worked with<br />
advisers to design a museum and education center<br />
curriculum that would teach the California<br />
Content Standards and be relevant to educator<br />
goals as well. Now she works with a Midway<br />
team she describes as “very gifted teachers who<br />
share a passion for learning and being creative.”<br />
The Midway education program is in fullspeed-ahead<br />
mode, serving 31,000 children<br />
last year, and is so popular that individual<br />
programs are typically booked a solid half-year<br />
in advance. School programs in math and social<br />
Magic Touch<br />
Magic” was a term<br />
known throughout the<br />
‘‘Midway<br />
Navy during the USS Midway’s<br />
47-year career as an<br />
aircraft carrier that never drew a mission it<br />
couldn’t accomplish. No other carrier served as<br />
long or with such distinction as the Midway,<br />
from its commissioning in 1945 to its flagship<br />
days in Desert Storm. In fact, the carrier is<br />
back in service today in San Diego, CA, as a<br />
unique floating museum and education center.<br />
At the helm of its education programs is Sarah<br />
Mann Hanscom ’77, using her own brand of<br />
magic to teach children math, science, and<br />
social studies.<br />
Three years ago, Sarah came aboard the<br />
Midway and took on the assignment of creating<br />
from scratch its school and overnight education<br />
programs. Although Sarah has been in<br />
museum education since first discovering the<br />
field when she was an undergraduate at <strong>Wheelock</strong><br />
and she has worked in major cities as far<br />
away as New Delhi, she ranks her Midway<br />
post as the creative opportunity of a lifetime.<br />
“It was like starting a school and developing a<br />
curriculum for grades 2-8 from zero,” Sarah<br />
says. “I took it very seriously because I realized<br />
we were creating a foundation that would last<br />
a long time.”<br />
Sarah uses the USS Midway Museum as a<br />
tool to develop real-life, hands-on learning<br />
experiences that she feels too many children are<br />
missing out on. “Kids in earlier generations<br />
could go home from school and immediately<br />
apply what they had learned because they were<br />
cooking in the kitchen or working in the family<br />
store or on the farm,” she explains. “It’s harder<br />
for kids today to see the practical applications of<br />
some subjects, especially math.”<br />
Sarah and her team of innovative teachers<br />
knew the USS Midway offered opportunities to<br />
teach history, but they also saw a boatload of<br />
math and science projects that could spark children’s<br />
imaginations. “The carrier is really a floating<br />
city, and its operations — how the electrical<br />
and radar systems work, how the planes fly, the<br />
importance of understanding weather — offer<br />
amazing real-life applications of math and science<br />
that tap kids’ imaginations,” she says. “The<br />
Midway went on many rescue and humanitarian<br />
Grade 4 kids<br />
studying electricity<br />
and magnetism<br />
studies that the Midway launched for September<br />
<strong>2008</strong> were already filled in May partly, she says,<br />
because she and her team go directly to teachers<br />
and ask what they need.<br />
Thanks to Sarah’s plotting an innovative<br />
course of Midway Magic, San Diego children<br />
have new reasons and ways to learn math, science,<br />
and social studies. Just recently, the Education<br />
Department received a note from the parent<br />
of a boy who had participated in one of the carrier’s<br />
education programs: “May I tell you how<br />
exciting it was for my son to spend the night on<br />
your ship. My son just brought me a drawing of<br />
how the engines work. This from a child who<br />
wants to sit and play on his PlayStation all day.”<br />
See what exciting learning activities Sarah<br />
and the USS Midway Museum are up to now at<br />
www.midway.org. <br />
<strong>Wheelock</strong> Magazine 29
W H E E L O C K<br />
I N N O V A T O R<br />
WATERWORKS —<br />
Transforming an<br />
Ancient Ritual<br />
Barbara Grogins Sallick ’61 • <strong>Wheelock</strong> trustee<br />
Look up “waterworks” in a dictionary,<br />
and you’ll find that the word defines a<br />
complete system of reservoirs, pipelines,<br />
and conduits by which water is collected,<br />
purified, stored, and pumped to urban users.<br />
Visit one of Barbara Grogins Sallick’s (’61)<br />
Waterworks stores in 38 locations across the U.S.<br />
or her elegant website at www.waterworks.com,<br />
and you’ll see a different definition, one that<br />
understands waterworks as an experience, an<br />
evolving concept of soothing comfort blended<br />
with luxury and high design. And you’ll easily see<br />
why Barbara, the co-founder (with husband<br />
Robert) and senior vice president of design at<br />
Waterworks, was named one of New York Magazine’s<br />
25 Design Luminaries last year.<br />
The first trickle of Waterworks’ evolution as<br />
an idea started with Barbara growing up in a family<br />
that founded a plumbing supply business in<br />
Danbury, CT, devoted to “the best mechanical<br />
offerings around.” In 1978, Barbara and Robert<br />
took the family commitment<br />
to the “best” and set out to<br />
create a revolution in bathroom<br />
design, bringing extraordinary<br />
visual appeal and<br />
impeccable performance to<br />
what was typically experienced<br />
as a merely utilitarian room,<br />
or water “closet,” in the home.<br />
Barbara’s innovative take<br />
on the bath fits historically<br />
and across cultures around<br />
the world where bathing has<br />
been valued for its calming,<br />
healing, and transforming<br />
effect. She renews this ancient<br />
ritual through creative design<br />
that suits contemporary life.<br />
“Of the many baths I’ve<br />
been in, the ones I remember<br />
most are those that accomplish<br />
serenity,” she says.<br />
“The bathroom as personal<br />
spa is a recent phenomenon<br />
that’s developed in the past<br />
five years, I think, because people are so busy<br />
and crave tranquillity.”<br />
If serenity is the objective, water is Barbara’s<br />
muse. “Everything revolves around water, from<br />
the oversized soaker tub, maybe even with a<br />
runoff trough to create a waterfall effect, to the<br />
highly functional shower with multiple settings<br />
and jets,” she explains. “The sound of water is<br />
hypnotic, and the feeling is soothing. The bottom<br />
line is about personal comfort.”<br />
Under Barbara’s design leadership and in<br />
partnership with teams of architects, designers,<br />
developers, and contractors, Waterworks creates<br />
a continuous stream of elegant environments —<br />
not only baths, but also kitchens, bar areas,<br />
lobbies, and restaurants — in homes, hotels,<br />
spas, and resorts around the world. And Waterworks<br />
stores offer fixtures, fittings, accessories,<br />
hard surfaces, and finishings that please the<br />
senses while performing their usual functions at<br />
the highest level, in keeping with the best of<br />
Barbara’s family tradition.<br />
Not everyone has Barbara’s eye for design or<br />
ability to create new concepts for old functions<br />
and rituals of daily life. For those of us who<br />
could use some inspiration, go to the Waterworks<br />
website or pick up Barbara’s latest book,<br />
The Definitive Guide to Designing the Perfect<br />
Bath (Perfect Paperback, 2006). <br />
30 <strong>Spring</strong> <strong>2008</strong>
W H E E L O C K<br />
I N N O V A T O R<br />
Kathy Luneau Simons ’79MS<br />
Higher education post-docs, faculty,<br />
staff, and their partners and families<br />
have Kathy Luneau Simons ’79MS to<br />
thank for doing the work she loves—<br />
making balanced, fulfilling lives possible<br />
for those who work in academe.<br />
Family/Work Solutions<br />
Over the past decade, academic institutions<br />
have increasingly focused attention<br />
on the importance of work and<br />
family issues for students, faculty, and<br />
staff, generating rapid growth in the number and<br />
variety of campus programs designed to address<br />
them. Providing work flexibility and investing in<br />
support resources for children and families are bringing<br />
big returns in the form of health, happiness, and<br />
success at work that are welcomed by employees and<br />
employers alike. Kathy Luneau Simons ’79MS,<br />
innovator with a capital “I,” was one of the catalysts<br />
for bringing these issues to light, and credits <strong>Wheelock</strong><br />
for framing her view of what children and families<br />
need to thrive.<br />
Kathy’s career began in early education at<br />
the John Winthrop School in Boston, where she<br />
supervised student teachers from <strong>Wheelock</strong><br />
under the tutelage of Hildred Dodge Simons<br />
’75MS (her future mother-in-law and a <strong>Wheelock</strong><br />
2007 honorary degree recipient). “I began taking<br />
graduate courses at <strong>Wheelock</strong> because as a new<br />
teacher I was so hungry for information and<br />
support,” she says. “<strong>Wheelock</strong> helped me develop<br />
a perspective on child development and learning<br />
and establish my values.”<br />
Kathy continued working as a preschool teacher<br />
and director and as a consultant and early childhood<br />
instructor at <strong>Wheelock</strong> and other Boston-area colleges.<br />
She then shifted from teaching to working at<br />
MIT as a child care specialist, a move that would<br />
ultimately have a big impact on her professional<br />
interests and help shape the emerging work/life field.<br />
“At MIT I was helping faculty and staff with child<br />
care issues, but I became convinced that this was just<br />
the tip of the iceberg for working families,” she<br />
explains. “They had needs that went way beyond<br />
child care.”<br />
At the time in 1989, Kathy says, resources to<br />
help with work/family issues were being developed<br />
for employees in the corporate sector but not in<br />
higher education. Still, she says, “MIT is all about<br />
supporting new ideas, giving you the freedom to run<br />
with an idea and see where it takes you.”<br />
Kathy and her colleague Rae Simpson used their<br />
autonomy at MIT to survey the Institute’s faculty,<br />
staff, and graduate students to find out how work<br />
experiences impacted their life plans and, conversely,<br />
how outside-of-work demands impacted MIT in<br />
terms of who the Institute was able to hire and<br />
retain and in terms of work productivity.<br />
Kathy established a comprehensive child care<br />
resource program for families at the Institute and<br />
then, together with Rae, moved on to develop<br />
responsive parenting programs and resources to<br />
help with family concerns, elder care, children’s<br />
schooling, raising adolescents, and many other<br />
issues. MIT institutionalized the programs as the<br />
Center for Work, Family & Personal Life, with<br />
Kathy and Rae as co-directors who continued to<br />
grow more resources — establishing guidelines for<br />
flexible work practices and developing Center<br />
consultations, lunchtime seminars, discussion<br />
groups, briefings, a library, and more — all free<br />
of charge to MIT affiliates.<br />
The model programs and practices the two<br />
women established brought MIT national recognition<br />
as a leader in the work/family field. More<br />
important, Kathy leveraged her success to co-found<br />
and serve as president of the <strong>College</strong> and University<br />
Work/Family Association, a national organization<br />
that in the past 10 years has supported the evolution<br />
of employer-based work/family resources on college<br />
and university campuses across the U.S.<br />
Institutionalizing work/family supports that<br />
improve the lives of children and families at the<br />
national level is a major and long overdue cultural<br />
shift, and it might be a great motivator for Kathy’s<br />
next new idea. But for her, it’s something simpler.<br />
After many years in the field, it’s the ongoing daily<br />
contact with parents and kids that still inspires her.<br />
“I hear their stories, and I help problem solve the<br />
things that are getting in their way,” she says.<br />
“There’s nothing more important.”<br />
Kathy led the effort to expand and reorganize MIT’s child<br />
care centers and, most recently, coordinated an innovative,<br />
state-of-the-art design for the Institute’s newest child care<br />
program at the Frank Gehry-designed Stata Center.
W H E E L O C K<br />
Space to Grow In<br />
I N N O V A T O R<br />
Louis Torelli ’83MS<br />
When Louis Torelli graduated<br />
with a master’s from <strong>Wheelock</strong><br />
25 years ago, he had a<br />
head full of best-practice ideas<br />
about educating and caring for young children.<br />
But after six years of teaching, he developed<br />
some equally strong ideas about the classroom<br />
environment itself and the effect it can have on<br />
learning, ideas strong enough to make him<br />
change his career path.<br />
“Depending on their environment, young<br />
children can be aimlessly wandering or focused,<br />
and their peer relationships can be confrontational<br />
or involved with parallel play and interaction,”<br />
he explains. “The amount of space, how<br />
it is organized, and the types of equipment and<br />
activity areas in the environment have a huge<br />
impact on children. I’m also interested in how<br />
the environment can reduce the physical and<br />
emotional stress on caregivers so that they can<br />
focus on the deeper issues and work. Without<br />
the right environment, it’s easy for teachers and<br />
care providers to end up simply managing<br />
instead of teaching and caring for children in<br />
ways that stimulate development.”<br />
Today, Louis is known nationwide as a<br />
first-tier educational consultant and child<br />
development environmental designer, credited<br />
with establishing state-of-the-art standards for<br />
child care centers serving newborns through<br />
preschool-age children. Together with architect<br />
Charles Durrett, Louis founded Spaces for<br />
Children (www.spacesforchildren.com), a child<br />
care facility design firm that has<br />
merged child development and<br />
environmental design theory to<br />
provide children with environmentally<br />
and emotionally supportive<br />
group care experiences. Louis has<br />
gone on to design and renovate<br />
hundreds of child care centers and<br />
classrooms throughout the country<br />
and internationally. His consultancies<br />
include Educare Programs out<br />
of Chicago, recently completed<br />
work with Google on the design of<br />
their employee-sponsored child<br />
care centers, and his current projects<br />
at UC Berkeley and San Francisco<br />
State University.<br />
Louis’ approach to designing<br />
spaces for children is centered in his understanding<br />
of child development, play, and relationships<br />
with peers and care providers. Not<br />
surprising given his <strong>Wheelock</strong> education, Louis<br />
is a strong advocate for small groups, continuity<br />
of care, and designing environments that support<br />
children in developing a strong sense of<br />
identity, security, and curiosity. And because<br />
of his own experience, he knows the importance<br />
of making teacher convenience and enjoyment<br />
of the environment priorities.<br />
Improving children’s physical environments<br />
isn’t the only idea Louis has about how to optimize<br />
their development. His observations about<br />
gender are leading him to new policy ideas that<br />
“I realized the teaching environment was<br />
affecting my ability to do what I had been<br />
educated to do because so many of the issues<br />
that came up were impacted by the way the<br />
physical environment was organized. ”<br />
“I would like to see every student in<br />
middle school and high school serve in<br />
child care centers as a way to interest<br />
boys in the child care field and to give<br />
them experience so that they will be<br />
strong parents and advocates for childand<br />
family-friendly policies where<br />
they work.”<br />
could positively affect children and adults. “I<br />
almost never see men caring for infants and<br />
toddlers, and there are fewer men teaching now<br />
than when I began in 1979,” he says. “If we<br />
really want to change human behavior and if<br />
we understand about identity formation, then we<br />
need to look at having good men as role models<br />
for children, making teaching programs malefriendly,<br />
and hiring men in teaching and child<br />
care positions.”<br />
Louis isn’t shy about thinking up ways to<br />
make life better for children, teachers, and<br />
families. And he easily gives credit to his own<br />
teachers at <strong>Wheelock</strong> for helping him to think<br />
in innovative ways. “Gwen Morgan was wonderful<br />
in giving me a better sense of day care<br />
policy and politics and of being an advocate,”<br />
he says. “I use the skills she taught regularly in<br />
the advocacy work that I do.” And keep an eye<br />
out for the second edition of Educating and<br />
Caring for Very Young Children: The Infant/Toddler<br />
Curriculum, which Louis has co-written<br />
with former <strong>Wheelock</strong> Graduate School Dean<br />
Doris Bergen. <br />
32 <strong>Spring</strong> <strong>2008</strong>
CLASS NOTES<br />
This <strong>Wheelock</strong> Magazine includes<br />
Class Notes news that was received<br />
before March 7, <strong>2008</strong>.<br />
1933<br />
Isabel Ward Knowlton’s son Peter notified<br />
<strong>Wheelock</strong> in late winter that Isabel had died<br />
Feb. 19. “She passed away peacefully at her<br />
home, with her family,” Peter wrote, adding<br />
that his mother’s interactions with others proved<br />
the value of good elementary education training:<br />
“Until the end, nobody (young or old)<br />
could get away with anything.”<br />
1934<br />
Corinne Martin Bryan wrote: “I am proud to<br />
realize the growth of ideas at <strong>Wheelock</strong> <strong>College</strong>.<br />
It is interesting to me from alumni news about<br />
the new building being created by William<br />
Rawn, Architect. I have known Bill, my daughter’s<br />
classmate, since we all lived in San Marino,<br />
CA.” Corinne is “well and grateful for life” in<br />
her home in Waterbury Center, VT. She fondly<br />
remembers having dinner with Lucy <strong>Wheelock</strong><br />
long ago. Jeanette Woodruff Fischer “hit 95”<br />
in March and feels fortunate to be in her wonderful<br />
retirement home in Bryn Mawr, PA,<br />
where she loves the people and the activities.<br />
She is grateful for her experience at <strong>Wheelock</strong>,<br />
her time as a wife, and now her wonderful son<br />
and daughter.<br />
1935<br />
Mary Hammer Heron of Oakville, Ontario,<br />
Canada, sent cordial greetings to the “survivors of<br />
1935” and other alums. She delights in the weekly<br />
cryptic crossword puzzle in the Toronto Globe<br />
and Mail. “Another special interest is in the<br />
Scrabble games I play with a fascinating friend<br />
here at Sunrise [her senior living place],” Mary<br />
wrote. “She is competitive, and we challenge each<br />
other. Sometimes she wins, and sometimes I do.”<br />
One of Mary’s firmly held beliefs, at age 94, is,<br />
“Most people are about as happy as they make up<br />
their minds to be.”<br />
<strong>Wheelock</strong>’s Alumni Relations Office was sorry<br />
to hear from Elsie Medlicott Jacob’s daughter,<br />
Jere, that Elsie passed away in September 2006.<br />
“She always treasured her experience at <strong>Wheelock</strong><br />
and was proud of that association,” Jere wrote.<br />
1937<br />
Eleanor Blossom Fisher turned 92 in January<br />
and is still living on her own in East Orleans,<br />
MA. She enjoys visits from family and friends,<br />
belongs to a knitting club, and loves <strong>Wheelock</strong>’s<br />
Cape Cod Club. “I was thrilled to be able to<br />
come to my Reunion [last] year and sit beside<br />
the <strong>Wheelock</strong> president,” she wrote.<br />
“It’s a good fun life in retirement,” Ellen<br />
Moak Lloyd wrote late last year. She works on a<br />
school’s scrapbook in its library once a week in<br />
addition to working at another local library and<br />
doing other things in the community. She also<br />
takes care of her home and knits a lot. Her family<br />
now includes 10 great-grandchildren, and she<br />
enjoys seeing and talking to them often.<br />
Katherine Douglas Smith and husband David<br />
had some serious surgeries in the summer of 2007<br />
but were thankful to be “all well and healthy”<br />
again by year’s end. They still walk a mile each day<br />
and are very busy with volunteer work and church<br />
work. Katherine was thrilled to be able to see her<br />
family, including four great-grandchildren, last<br />
Christmas.<br />
1938<br />
Reunion <strong>2008</strong><br />
May 30-June 1<br />
Margery Conley Mars ’66 notified <strong>Wheelock</strong> that<br />
Mildred Wheeler Flanders passed away last<br />
December. Not only did they live in neighboring<br />
towns in Maine, but Mildred had played organ at<br />
Margery’s church when Margery’s husband was pastor<br />
there, and he was a speaker at the funeral.<br />
Margery further mentioned that Mildred worked in<br />
the social work field for many years and that she and<br />
her husband owned a funeral home in the area and<br />
together founded the Monmouth (ME) Museum.<br />
<strong>Wheelock</strong> Magazine 33
CLASS NOTES<br />
Betty Quick Collin ’38 and daughter Alice, Reunion <strong>2008</strong> attendees, at<br />
a wedding shower thrown for Alice in June 2007 by fellow members<br />
of her Zonta Club in Oregon<br />
Betty Quick Collin has been living with daughter<br />
Alice in Grants Pass, OR, since 1998. After Alice’s<br />
marriage in June 2007 — Betty was her attendant in<br />
the wedding — the two moved into new husband<br />
Rich’s home in the same town, also joining Rich’s<br />
17-year-old daughter and four cats!<br />
1940<br />
Mary Brewer Allen is fine in Kilmarnock, VA,<br />
and enjoys summer visits to Connecticut, where<br />
she enjoyed many lunches with Alma Mathewson<br />
Hinman ’43/’44 before her recent death. “I am so<br />
proud and love hearing all the great things going<br />
on at <strong>Wheelock</strong>,” Mary wrote.<br />
“With advanced age, ‘No news is the best<br />
news,’” Louise Martin Klemmer wrote. She is glad<br />
she settled in Concord, MA, a few years ago and is<br />
happy to report that she still chats with Katie Mara<br />
Madigan over lunch and keeps in touch with Inez<br />
Gianfranchi Snowdon by phone and letter. Louise<br />
continues to send greetings to friends despite having<br />
inherited familial tremors from a long-ago relative.<br />
“Chins up!” she wrote. Inez wrote in, too, from<br />
Kennebunk, ME, and shared about her weekly volunteer<br />
work at a church-sponsored “second time<br />
around shop.” She still gets to her summer place on<br />
Great East Lake and loves having young neighbors<br />
about while there. She hopes class members are<br />
keeping busy and doing well.<br />
1942-’43<br />
Stevie Roberts Thomas<br />
Gertrude “Becky” Gerenbeck Coady doesn’t<br />
“stray far from home” in Cranston, RI, where she<br />
and her husband have lived for 62 of their 64 years<br />
of marriage. Still gardening, they “eat, sleep, and<br />
read good books” on their front porch, enjoying<br />
relatively good health in their high 80s. Their children,<br />
grandchildren, and friends visit, and now and<br />
then Becky and Jan Gifford Rogers visit by phone.<br />
Elizabeth Newman Dubois wrote in January to<br />
inform us of the July 2007 death of her husband,<br />
Ed, after 64 years of marriage. “I’m alone but very<br />
lucky as my six ‘kids’ help me immeasurably,” she<br />
wrote. She has kept up her swimming, walking,<br />
and sewing for her church. She has fond memories<br />
of being at Reunion 2007 with Stevie, Eleanore,<br />
and Dorothy (all below).<br />
Eleanore Moginot Fisher says “Another year!”<br />
without much change in her home in Rockport,<br />
MA, although her house seems to get bigger every<br />
year. She does what she can and doesn’t worry about<br />
the rest. She is still out and around and independent,<br />
but she is glad that three of her sons are nearby<br />
to help at times. Eleanore’s oldest grandson is an<br />
artist, working at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts,<br />
and her youngest grandson, at 6 and living in<br />
Quebec, speaks English and French fluently. She<br />
sends greetings to all. Betty Crooks Morris spends<br />
winters with her daughter in Fort Myers, FL, and<br />
summers in the Adirondacks in Inlet, NY, with<br />
another daughter. Betty had a nice surprise this summer<br />
when Dotty Dondero Shorey, who lives in<br />
Maine but is in Massachusetts in the summertime,<br />
called. Both were <strong>Wheelock</strong> commuters many years<br />
ago. Betty had a bad fall last summer and took a<br />
long time to recover, but she is now fine and happy<br />
to be in Florida with “her girls” and, at 88, away<br />
from cold and snow. Barbara Bragdon Motas<br />
wrote: “After retiring from teaching, being a principal,<br />
being a top salesperson for cars, being an entrepreneur<br />
for a women’s specialty shop, and being a<br />
religious education director at St. Andrew’s<br />
Cathedral, I am relaxing and writing my autobiography.<br />
Someday I hope to visit <strong>Wheelock</strong> and see all<br />
of my friends.”<br />
Our class has so little news now, that I (Stevie)<br />
want to give a special thanks to you who do<br />
respond, and to give my warmest greetings to the<br />
rest who may find it difficult for one reason or<br />
another. I have my days and some evenings full<br />
with teaching Tai Chi for Health and Healing. It is<br />
rewarding work, and now I am developing a<br />
Sitting Tai Chi for Assisted Living people who<br />
would find it impossible to balance on foot but<br />
can benefit just the same. In early February, I was<br />
in China to celebrate the Chinese New Year<br />
(<strong>Spring</strong> Festival), my birthday, and the birthday of<br />
my Tai Chi master’s mother. We were in the northern<br />
city of Dandong on the Yalu River, feasting,<br />
wining and dining, exchanging gifts, and, best of<br />
all, setting off round after round of firecrackers in<br />
the land that invented them. I had a glorious trip<br />
to my home country. What a treat — a gift to me<br />
for helping my very dear immigrant family get on<br />
its feet in this country.<br />
Congratulations to Harriet<br />
<strong>Spring</strong> Critchlow ’43/’44<br />
Harriet received a special honor last year<br />
when Easton (MD) Day Care Center<br />
Inc. changed its name to Critchlow Adkins<br />
Children’s Centers to honor her and another<br />
founder of the organization, both of whom<br />
remain involved there today.<br />
The nonprofit child care program welcomed<br />
eight 3- and 4-year-olds when it<br />
opened in 1970 at a Methodist church in<br />
Easton; today, the organization serves about<br />
350 children at five sites in Talbot County.<br />
Harriet is credited with helping the center<br />
grow and develop over the years and has<br />
served as president and treasurer of its board.<br />
1943-‘44<br />
Jean Sullivan Riley<br />
1945<br />
Reunion <strong>2008</strong><br />
May 30-June 1<br />
Jean Reilly Cushing<br />
As always, I (Jean) am so pleased to hear from all of<br />
you, as I am sure your other classmates are. From<br />
the time when we were all focused on the same<br />
thing in college to now when our lives are so different,<br />
we all love to know what each of us is doing.<br />
Patty Slater Carey wrote that she had a rough<br />
year healthwise but is well on the road to recovery<br />
and feels fortunate to have been given another<br />
chance. She said Jane Tomlinson Lamb also had a<br />
difficult year but is recuperating. Patty keeps in<br />
touch with Maryanne Weber Lockyer and hears<br />
about Nancy Peirce Kyle through a neighbor, and<br />
all are grateful for their wonderful children who<br />
help through difficult times.<br />
Sally Dvlinsky Glickman wrote that she and<br />
husband Murray are enjoying the wellness center and<br />
book club at North Hill, a retirement community in<br />
Needham, MA. She has had a hip replacement. They<br />
enjoy watching their girls raising their families in the<br />
<strong>Wheelock</strong> tradition — both attended <strong>Wheelock</strong>.<br />
Natalie Alger Gorczyca enjoys two Red Hat Society<br />
groups. She has a new great-granddaughter, a little<br />
sweetheart, and enjoys her peace and quiet in her<br />
waterfront home overlooking the Elizabeth Islands<br />
(Fairhaven, MA). Lyn Peck Kenyon ’45/’69BS<br />
describes her job title as “slave” but seems to enjoy<br />
her many interesting projects of volunteering at<br />
school, choir, “Hyacinth Series” (music in her<br />
church), Philharmonic concerts, and Garden Club.<br />
She was looking forward to the <strong>Wheelock</strong> luncheon<br />
on March 13 and had had Jackie Jenkins-Scott and<br />
husband Jim visit for luncheon on Jan. 5. Nadene<br />
“Deanie” Nichols Lane has five young adults in her<br />
34 <strong>Spring</strong> <strong>2008</strong>
CLASS NOTES<br />
family plus nine grandchildren and two “great<br />
ones” — all a great pleasure. She has spent the past<br />
five winters in Islamabad, Pakistan, but this winter<br />
was in Dubai with her family. She says she is well but<br />
slowing down.<br />
Rosalie Russo is treasurer of her church and<br />
very active in it in many ways. She still keeps up<br />
with the Pigeon Cove Circle, a social and benevolent<br />
organization in Rockport, MA. She hopes to<br />
get to our next Reunion. Mary Sabine Schade is<br />
living near her eldest daughter in upstate New<br />
York. “She knows she has less memory now but<br />
talks joyfully of her years of teaching for which she<br />
credits <strong>Wheelock</strong> for her excellent and creative<br />
preparation,” daughter Camilla wrote. Daughter<br />
Carolyn sent the Alumni Relations Office some<br />
newspaper photos of Mary — two from when<br />
Mary was a <strong>Wheelock</strong> senior and had just painted<br />
a mural at the <strong>College</strong>, and one from last fall,<br />
when a photographer covering an art show in<br />
Ithaca got a great shot of her admiring a fellow<br />
artist’s painting. Mary Davies Wolff continues to<br />
volunteer at the hospital woman’s club and<br />
church. Her children are a wonderful help to her<br />
as her husband passed away two years ago. Both<br />
her son and her daughter have two children.<br />
Bill and I are still in Madison, CT, and<br />
Vermont. We are truly enjoying four grandchildren.<br />
We bring library books to Aidan, and I<br />
“Cat” and Bill “Mr. Walters” take turns reading —<br />
she is “Chicago.” All are characters from “Chicago<br />
and the Cat.” We baby-sit twice a week or more<br />
with Jasmin, our daughter Gretta’s 10-month-old,<br />
as she is a doctor of psychology and has opened<br />
her own practice! We are well — and I am still<br />
tutoring at home.<br />
1947<br />
Carol Sisson Freeman still sings with a Sweet<br />
Adeline chorus and goes to the gym three times a<br />
week with husband Bill. Their summers are very<br />
busy since they live on the St. Lawrence River and<br />
have a lot of company visit. “The <strong>College</strong> looks<br />
great, and I am sure it will continue to grow,” Carol<br />
wrote. Mary Hemphill Haring sounded thrilled<br />
that her “tribe” was all with her for Thanksgiving<br />
last year, including her new daughter-in-law and<br />
three dogs! Last winter she was involved in a<br />
hat/glove/scarf drive (for inner-city youth) sponsored<br />
by the Women’s Guild of her church. She<br />
keeps busy between her church group, health club,<br />
and “lady lunches.” Ann-Penn Stearns Holton is<br />
very happy at her assisted-living place in Bedford,<br />
MA. “The 60th Reunion was wonderful!” she<br />
wrote. “The <strong>College</strong> did a great job. I loved seeing<br />
classmates.” Ann Gilbert Putnam wrote at<br />
Christmastime from California, where she was visiting<br />
her daughters. The summer of 2007 was “the<br />
hottest ever” in Scottsdale, AZ, so she escaped to<br />
Rhode Island for a couple of weeks. She wrote that<br />
keeping up with water aerobics seems to work for<br />
her: She is in good health.<br />
1948<br />
Carol Moore<br />
Lila Abrash Rosenthal goes to Richmond (from<br />
Lynchburg, VA) at least twice a month to visit her<br />
sister, son, and granddaughter. She finds it hard to<br />
believe it’s time for a 60th Reunion: “It seems as<br />
though we graduated last year.”<br />
1950<br />
Support Those Following Your Lead<br />
D<br />
id you know that 91 percent of <strong>Wheelock</strong> students need financial aid in<br />
order to graduate and join with thousands of proud alumni who are doing<br />
great things in the world? Your gift to the Annual Fund will help provide essential<br />
scholarship and financial support for students who share your dreams and goals.<br />
Remember, credit card gifts save time and money. To make a secure gift<br />
online, visit http://www.wheelock.edu/giving/index.asp. Thank you so much!<br />
Reunion <strong>2008</strong><br />
May 30-June 1<br />
Edith “Anne” Runk Wright<br />
Polly Page Cobb left Maine on Jan. 12 for her<br />
trailer in Dover, FL. “Since Ken passed away, it’s<br />
not the same,” wrote Polly, but she has many friends<br />
there, some also widows, who are supportive.<br />
Beverly Simon Green has had more than her share<br />
of, as she puts it, “Doctors! Doctors! Doctors!”<br />
That’s all behind, and now she enjoys her many<br />
friends from Florida to Vermont, Hilton Head to<br />
Oregon, and New York state to Colorado. She sees<br />
Dot Hutchens Seelow and keeps in touch with Russ<br />
and Edie Nowers White. Daughter Liz is just 10<br />
minutes away, and son Marty, from Connecticut,<br />
was married in February. All of that plus many activities<br />
at her church keep Bev busy, tired, and (I<br />
[Anne] bet) happy, too. Joan Rogers Libby and<br />
husband Frederic live at 126 Village Square Road,<br />
Centerville, UT 84014; (501) 294-0242.<br />
Joan Trace Riel’s good news is of a reunion in<br />
Massachusetts with Nancy Spencer Adams, her<br />
former roommate at Pilgrim House. Her sad news<br />
is that her husband, Len, was diagnosed with fourstage<br />
cancer in May 2007, the same month in<br />
which Joan broke her femur. He died in October.<br />
We extend our sympathy and best wishes to you,<br />
Joan. The Riel children and other family members<br />
are helping Joan learn to cope with this serious<br />
loss. Sydney Weaver Schultheis wrote about the<br />
nice visit we had together last summer in Rhode<br />
Island. (For more details, read my news.) Sydney<br />
and Walt planned a trip to Thailand this past<br />
February. It was probably hard for them to part<br />
with their new grandson, Christian, though, who<br />
Sydney says is “perfect!”<br />
Retirement has not been kind to either Dorothy<br />
“Dot” Hutchens Seelow or husband Don. Dot had<br />
serious eye surgery and has little vision in one eye.<br />
In addition, she has acute tendinitis in her left elbow<br />
and has been unable to play golf, her great love. Due<br />
to poor equilibrium, Don has had many falls, a broken<br />
left hand, and so much time in rehab that he<br />
wasn’t home for Christmas. In addition, the Seelows<br />
had to cancel a trip north last July. However, the<br />
warm weather in Florida is a plus. So are the occasional<br />
lunches with Russ and Edie Nowers White,<br />
but Beverly Simon Green’s move to the Cape is a<br />
loss for Dot, who so much enjoyed having her close<br />
by. Florence Milman Walker had a great year. As<br />
usual, she rented a cottage in Wellfleet, MA, for<br />
three weeks in August, and her children and grandchildren<br />
came for visits. In September, she went to<br />
Venice, Florence, and Rome with additional side<br />
trips, and she was planning to go to Antarctica in<br />
February. (You’re really burning with enthusiasm.<br />
Don’t stop!)<br />
Despite a few medical problems, late last year<br />
Edie Nowers White reported that she had “a<br />
good, happy 2007” and was looking forward to<br />
<strong>2008</strong>. She rides her three-wheel bicycle around<br />
the flat terrain of her neighborhood and does<br />
water exercises in their home pool. She had a<br />
good visit in May 2007 from her granddaughter<br />
Heather from Newton, MA. Heather is the manager<br />
of two Gymboree and Music franchises in<br />
Waltham, where children and their parents participate<br />
in exercises while sitting in a circle on the<br />
floor. Edie found it interesting to visit these classes.<br />
Edie and Russ spent two weeks in Maine over<br />
Labor Day. In November, they had a wonderful<br />
time in Bermuda, where they celebrated their<br />
57th anniversary, joined by Russ’ cousins from<br />
Bermuda, who celebrated their 54th anniversary<br />
with them. There was a lovely dinner for both<br />
couples where Edie had a chance to visit with<br />
Russ’ many cousins from Bermuda.<br />
I (Anne) continued my split life during 2007,<br />
enjoying New York all through the winter and<br />
early spring, especially in the company of Mary<br />
<strong>Wheelock</strong> Magazine 35
CLASS NOTES<br />
Hathaway Hayter. She lured me to the opera several<br />
times, and we enjoy going to plays, concerts, and<br />
movies and the chance to talk for hours over dinner.<br />
I had a wonderful winter visit with Mickey<br />
Livingston Epes and husband Morgan in Buffalo<br />
and saw Nancy Sayles-Evarts in her lovely home in<br />
the woods whenever I could. Both visits involved<br />
delicious food and drink, warm and gracious hospitality,<br />
stimulating talk, and strong criticism of the<br />
“Leave No Child Behind” bill.<br />
The spring, summer, and early fall found me<br />
spading up my vegetable garden, fighting weeds,<br />
monitoring the piping plovers on the nearby beach<br />
(we saved 39 chicks of this endangered species),<br />
and seeing family and friends. Walt and Sydney<br />
Weaver Schultheis came over for dinner, and I had<br />
a delicious lunch and a long walk on Sydney’s<br />
beach with them.<br />
I’m doing a bit of my own writing and waiting<br />
for the paperback of A Wild Perfection, the book I<br />
co-edited of my husband’s letters, to come out from<br />
Wesleyan University Press. I truly enjoy this life but<br />
find I now pack a lighter suitcase, dawdle longer<br />
over morning coffee and The New York Times, wish<br />
my feet didn’t hurt and that it wasn’t so hard to get<br />
up from a seated position, and forever bless my<br />
wonderful friends. I just wish the days didn’t skid<br />
by so fast, and I long for PEACE.<br />
1952<br />
Martha Brown McGandy<br />
Martha was kind enough to agree to serve as class<br />
scribe this year and help compile a 1952 column for<br />
<strong>Wheelock</strong>’s fall alumni magazine, but we would love<br />
to find another classmate who is willing and able to<br />
take on the job longer-term, ideally until Reunion<br />
2012. Anyone who might want to consider doing so<br />
should contact Lori Ann Saslav in Alumni Relations<br />
at (617) 879-2123 or lsaslav@wheelock.edu.<br />
Thank you.<br />
1953<br />
Ruth Flink Ades<br />
<strong>Wheelock</strong> was sorry to hear in February of the death<br />
of Peggy Ann Benisch Anderson’s husband, Carl.<br />
1954<br />
Lois Barnett Mirsky<br />
Elizabeth Bassett Wolf<br />
Ginger Mercer Bates wrote: “The greatest ‘thing’ I<br />
learned at <strong>Wheelock</strong> was the importance of being<br />
respectful of others. And the importance of friendship.<br />
These lessons have carried me on all the paths I<br />
have chosen to take and some paths that just happened.<br />
I am so thankful for those years.” She added,<br />
36 <strong>Spring</strong> <strong>2008</strong><br />
Reunion <strong>2008</strong><br />
May 30-June 1<br />
“Our youngest is getting married in April . . . finally!<br />
We love his fiance . . . a tiny wedding on the beach<br />
in California . . . in tux and with Fran Tedesco<br />
Lathrop in tow. Hugs all around.” Sylvia Tailby<br />
Earl wrote: “Last September, Jim and I had a wonderful<br />
art tour of Spain — the Prado in Madrid,<br />
Gaudi architecture in Barcelona, and visits to Dali<br />
and Picasso museums. Wonderful food and weather!”<br />
After attending a dinner to meet the architect for<br />
<strong>Wheelock</strong>’s new building last September, she said,<br />
“<strong>Wheelock</strong> has certainly changed since our day.”<br />
Our class sends its condolences to Eileen<br />
O’Connell McCabe on the death of her husband,<br />
Don, in January. Mary Jeffords Mills’ husband,<br />
Brooks, wrote that Mary is in a nursing home suffering<br />
from dementia. He thought her many friends<br />
would want to know their circumstances and ended<br />
the letter with, “<strong>Wheelock</strong> is always a milestone in<br />
her life and career.”<br />
Penny Power Odiorne had her house on the<br />
market in anticipation of moving to a senior residential<br />
complex in Vero Beach, but with the market<br />
change, she later withdrew it “until things turn<br />
around and settle down.” Her sons and a daughterin-law<br />
visit twice a year, and she will see her 16-<br />
and 13-year-old grandchildren while in Maine this<br />
summer. “It is always good to hear about my classmates,”<br />
Penny wrote. “Some of the news saddens<br />
me. I have lost all three of my siblings, and that is<br />
such a hard reality to deal with. As the saying goes,<br />
‘Aging is not for sissies.’” Nancy Pennypacker<br />
Temple and Dick traveled to the Southwest before<br />
Christmas, enjoying Phoenix, Sedona, and trips to<br />
the north, west, and east of Sun City. Nancy continues<br />
to take her dogs to Cape Coral (FL) Hospital<br />
to brighten the days for patients.<br />
Sue Hamburger Thurston wrote that husband<br />
Bob died last October of an incurable lung disease.<br />
They were married for nearly 51 years. Part of a<br />
long letter Sue wrote about how <strong>Wheelock</strong> still<br />
influences her life went like this: “For as long as I<br />
can remember, babies and young children were It. I<br />
was attracted to them like a magnet. I enjoyed my<br />
volunteer work in the public schools in Illinois and<br />
here in Florida, where I help immigrant children<br />
who need extra one-on-one help. I also teach ESL<br />
to adults.” She also wrote, “Our two daughters are<br />
elementary school teachers, and though they didn’t<br />
go to <strong>Wheelock</strong>, something wore off from their<br />
mother because they parent just like a <strong>Wheelock</strong><br />
grad would.”<br />
Elizabeth “Chippy” Bassett Wolf shared: “A<br />
highlight for me last fall was going on my first<br />
cruise, organized by a group of graduates from<br />
Harvard Business School, Class of ’50. Since Hans<br />
graduated in ’53 from HBS, I was able to be<br />
included, as was a widow friend from Stanford. It<br />
was the first trip that either of us had been on without<br />
our husbands. It was good to get out again and<br />
discover that life goes on. The Burgundy and<br />
Provence areas in France are so beautiful.”<br />
Every Tuesday when I (Lois) walk into the elementary<br />
school where I help six first-graders<br />
improve their reading skills, I realize how satisfying it<br />
is for me to be in a school environment. I credit<br />
<strong>Wheelock</strong> with instilling in me a love for lifelong<br />
learning and for giving me the skills to work creatively<br />
with children. For me, the best way to feel<br />
young (or at least young at heart) in these retirement<br />
years is to spend time with young children.<br />
1955<br />
Nancy Cerruti Humphreys<br />
Penny Kickham Reilly<br />
Happy spring to everyone! To start, our thoughts<br />
and prayers go out to Judy Barrett Theroux, who<br />
lost her son last spring. A trip to Alaska this summer<br />
should be great fun and good therapy. Judy<br />
was hoping to see Judy Haskell Rosenberg and<br />
Marilyn Dow Byrne in St. Petersburg in March.<br />
Joan Walthers Parks and Kathy Law Walker were<br />
also perhaps going to join them.<br />
Lil Prakelt Goss with Don and family had a<br />
reunion in Yellowstone. She and Don are enjoying<br />
their new home in West Lebanon, NH, near<br />
Dartmouth <strong>College</strong>. What a treat for them both!<br />
Betsey DeWitt Matteson is well and continues<br />
with her gardening and diary reading. (I [Penny]<br />
would love to know more about the diary reading.)<br />
Stella Barnes Johnson is busy with her estate sales.<br />
At the same time, she is on the board of the local<br />
Red Cross (fundraising for them with antiques and<br />
collectibles), a member of the Historical Society,<br />
and a great-grandmother. She is a busy lady!<br />
Former scribe Louise Baldridge Lytle loves<br />
volunteering in a second grade. She is also working<br />
with a personal trainer and feels wonderful.<br />
She keeps in touch with <strong>Wheelock</strong> friends. It’s<br />
her scribe habit and her graciousness. Anne<br />
Vermillion Gleason and Ted are adjusting to life<br />
in Washington, D.C., near her youngest daughter<br />
and family. Ted is working on a novel and Ann on<br />
family memoirs. Except for a fractured ankle, she<br />
is well and happy. Joan Brassel Gerace is spending<br />
time between Florida and Rochester, NY. She<br />
and Vincent’s pride and joy are their grandchildren.<br />
Her best wishes go to all.<br />
The usually busy Joleen Glidden Ham and husband<br />
Dick are still working — Dick in the local<br />
schools, and Joleen with a senior citizens volunteer<br />
program. She is singing in the church choir and a<br />
small group called the Senior Echoes. She and Dick<br />
celebrated their 54th wedding anniversary and her<br />
mother’s 100th birthday. She sounds as enthusiastic<br />
as ever! Shirley Thurmond Stanley says she is alive<br />
and well in Green Bay, WI. She has 11 grandchildren,<br />
and her oldest returned safe and healthy from a<br />
tour of duty in Iraq. Her knee surgery was a success,<br />
and she was looking forward to spending some of<br />
March and April on Marco Island. She sounds great!
CLASS NOTES<br />
Speaking of Florida, your scribe Penny<br />
Kickham Reilly was invited to spend a few days<br />
with Shirl while in Florida during March. I am still<br />
part-time at St. Sebastian’s. I had my 75th birthday<br />
in September (ugh). The children are around, which<br />
is a joy. Three of my grandchildren are in college at<br />
Tampa, The <strong>College</strong> of Charleston, and Boulder,<br />
CO, and two are still in high school. Well, keep the<br />
news coming! It was great hearing from you who<br />
answered, but even more of you would be nice.<br />
1956<br />
Wilma Kinsman Marr<br />
Annette Stevens Wilton<br />
Marlene Hahn Powers followed through and sent<br />
<strong>Wheelock</strong> a copy of the story she said would appear<br />
in the Connecticut Education Association’s teaching<br />
paper in the spring of 2007 about her 50-year teaching<br />
career. Except for one sabbatical in the mid-<br />
1970s, Marlene taught continuously from 1956 to<br />
2007 — more than 1,500 students, she estimates.<br />
She started and ended in southwestern Connecticut<br />
but in between also taught in Maryland and Illinois.<br />
One of her proudest moments came in 2003, when<br />
she was teaching at South School in New Canaan,<br />
CT, and was honored by her fellow teachers with<br />
the school’s Excellence in Teaching award. “For me,<br />
teaching is a creative experience . . . an art — a mode<br />
of self-expression,” she told the “CEA Advisor” in<br />
the spring of 2007. To <strong>Wheelock</strong> last August, she<br />
wrote, “I am very proud of the article and my<br />
accomplishments, but I owe such applause to<br />
<strong>Wheelock</strong> for providing me the firm and secure<br />
foundation to pursue such a career.” Congratulations<br />
again, Marlene!<br />
1957<br />
<strong>Wheelock</strong>’s Alumni<br />
Class Notes and News<br />
M<br />
uch appreciation to everyone who sends us alumni news<br />
appearing in your local newspapers. We appreciate your<br />
keeping us informed! If you see any news about <strong>Wheelock</strong> alumni<br />
in your local paper, please clip it out, write the name of the publication and the<br />
date on it, and send it to: Lori Ann Saslav, <strong>Wheelock</strong> <strong>College</strong>, 200 The Riverway,<br />
Boston, MA 02215. Thank you!<br />
Joan Patterson Brown<br />
Gail Angleman Brusch had a great time at<br />
Reunion 2007. Late last year, she and Donald were<br />
getting ready to move to a retirement village and<br />
were “going crazy with all the ‘stuff’ to sort<br />
through” after 29 years in their house. Bernadette<br />
deGutierrez-Mahoney and husband Wallace wrote<br />
last December of a fun day Bernadette had just had<br />
taking her daughter, her granddaughter, and a<br />
friend from Australia into New York City to see the<br />
sights and go to a show. Ann Hewes Foden and<br />
husband Robert saw many castles and cathedrals<br />
and drank many different kinds of wine during<br />
their 17 rainy and snowy days on a river barge on<br />
the Danube and Rhine rivers last November. They<br />
had their “usual good time” hosting a Portland<br />
<strong>Wheelock</strong> Club party in December and were looking<br />
forward to spending April in Venice, FL.<br />
Late last fall, Carol Chapin Sawyer reported<br />
from Biltmore Lake, NC, that she was trying to figure<br />
out her next move after husband Griffith went<br />
to live with family in Kentucky after some major<br />
heart surgery he’d had. She felt peace about their<br />
separation but was feeling very alone with no family<br />
around her. She updated <strong>Wheelock</strong> in February<br />
that, after having her North Carolina house on the<br />
market for three months, she took it off and decided<br />
to stay put and enjoy her time there. She loves<br />
Asheville and all there is to do there: taking<br />
University of North Carolina courses and knitting<br />
and painting classes, doing volunteer work, teaching<br />
art at a Christian academy, and being active at her<br />
church and in a book club. Although she misses a<br />
lot of things about Maine, she was happy not to be<br />
there for all the cold and snow last winter and will<br />
get to South Portland for two months this summer.<br />
She spent last Christmas with one of her sons and<br />
his family. If you’d like to be in touch with Carol,<br />
she’s at Carol@painta.org.<br />
Having such a great time at Reunion and seeing<br />
the beautiful campus again made Shirley Collins<br />
Schwarz-Gutherz want to return to college! “I’m<br />
very proud of being a <strong>Wheelock</strong> graduate,” she<br />
wrote. “I think that Jackie Jenkins-Scott is an outstanding<br />
woman and is doing great things as president<br />
of <strong>Wheelock</strong>.” Shirley retired about 10 years<br />
ago and says she’s been busy ever since. She married<br />
Leon in 2004, and they have fun traveling and visiting<br />
the 10 grandchildren they have between them.<br />
Shirley saw Marlene Hahn Powers ’56 at a luncheon<br />
in Greenwich, CT, last year.<br />
“Our 50th Reunion was outstanding!” Francine<br />
McNamee Shea wrote. “We received so much<br />
attention, and I felt like it was 1957 again.” Sally<br />
Curran Smith’s husband, Arlen, has been diagnosed<br />
with brain cancer. Please keep them in your<br />
thoughts and prayers. Sachiko “Faith” Yamada<br />
Yamamoto ’56/’57MS (sfy@mtf.biglobe.ne.jp) would<br />
love to hear from any and all of you. She said it was<br />
wonderful to see us face-to-face at the Reunion in<br />
Boston even if it was such a short time. (It was so<br />
special to meet her daughter, Michiko. Imagine flying<br />
from Tokyo to Boston for a weekend! Faith and<br />
Michiko, it was fun having you with us! Hugs!)<br />
My (Joan’s) Boa Sisters raised $30,000 for their<br />
charities in 2007 — a total of $71,580 in five years!<br />
I am so proud of them.<br />
It’s GREAT to have responses from some of<br />
“The Ladies of ’57”; however, we will not be happy<br />
until we hear from the rest of you. Our 50th was<br />
such fun. We miss you all. Please send some news.<br />
We . . . are . . . waiting!<br />
1958<br />
Marcia Potter Crocker<br />
Carol Stuart Wenmark<br />
Barbara “Bobbie” Stumpf<br />
Moses ’58<br />
Barbara “Bobbie” Moses, of Riverhead, NY,<br />
was a teacher in the Riverhead Central School<br />
District for 28 years, enjoying her years of<br />
teaching fifth- and sixth-graders and often<br />
crediting <strong>Wheelock</strong> for making her the teacher<br />
she became. Bobbie died on April 7, <strong>2008</strong>, at<br />
Peconic Bay Medical Center after a short illness.<br />
She was born in Jamaica, Queens, NY,<br />
on July 22, 1935, to Orlando and Dorothy<br />
Stumpf and graduated from Norwalk High<br />
School before enrolling at <strong>Wheelock</strong>. Bobbie<br />
leaves a son, Trip Sanford Moses; a daughter,<br />
Allison Moses Nistico ’87; and a grandson,<br />
Austin. Her family requests that donations on<br />
Bobbie’s behalf be made to <strong>Wheelock</strong> <strong>College</strong>,<br />
Class of 1958.<br />
1959<br />
Sally Schwabacher Hottle<br />
In February, Bonnie Steele Clark wrote, “It is with<br />
great sorrow that I let you know about the passing of<br />
Eb (my husband of 49 years) on Jan. 13, <strong>2008</strong>. He is<br />
missed, but I know he is in a wonderful place.”<br />
1960<br />
Reunion <strong>2008</strong><br />
May 30-June 1<br />
Phyllis Pisano<br />
Susan Robbins Berger listed the many “pleasures”<br />
she finds in her life these days: her 93-year-old<br />
mother, who lives nearby; her children and<br />
<strong>Wheelock</strong> Magazine 37
CLASS NOTES<br />
grandchildren; her flourishing private practice;<br />
her pro bono work for the American Red Cross<br />
Holocaust Tracing Program; and her and Bob’s<br />
vacation home in Charlestown, RI. They love<br />
having family and friends visit them in Charlestown,<br />
and she said it’s zoned for horses . . . “in case<br />
you travel with one!” Priscilla Bagg Donham<br />
has enjoyed a “busy and rewarding life.” She<br />
retired in 2006 from two careers — running a<br />
preschool at M.I.T. for 19 years and teaching<br />
handicapped children and adults to ride horses<br />
for 18. She now trains horses for the program,<br />
Windrush Farm Therapeutic Equitation in<br />
Boxford, MA. She and husband Brett, who celebrated<br />
50 years of marriage this February, have a<br />
house in Headtide, Alma, ME, which they use<br />
on weekends and all summer. They also travel to<br />
Italy as much as possible to “visit friends, help<br />
with their olive oil harvest, and travel Tuscany<br />
and surrounds.” Their four children are all married<br />
and busy, and they have nine grandchildren.<br />
Linda McSwiney Lynch is using her <strong>Wheelock</strong><br />
education to teach 5-year-olds at Communitiy<br />
Bible Study in Avon, CT. She and husband<br />
George are raising their 10th guide dog puppy<br />
now, having had their ninth placed with a<br />
woman in Philadelphia. She feels very proud to<br />
be doing this work.<br />
“My passion continues to be singing excellent<br />
choral music with New Mexico State University<br />
Choirs,” Sara Thompson Orton wrote late last<br />
year. She also serves as the choirs’ publicity director.<br />
In May 2007, Sara joined other NMSU adults<br />
and students on a trip to Graz and “charming<br />
and fascinating” Vienna, Austria, where they<br />
sang in churches and cathedrals. “I think back<br />
to <strong>Wheelock</strong>, where our choir was also fortunate<br />
enough to go to other schools to perform:<br />
Bowdoin and Union <strong>College</strong>s, to name two,” she<br />
wrote. “And we sang at the Boston Pops. What a<br />
great start!” Daughter Sally was married in New<br />
Orleans last September, and Sara encourages anyone<br />
who can to go to the city either to visit or to<br />
help with rebuilding.<br />
Since Jan Halsted Sussebach last wrote, she<br />
and husband Heiner have retired from teaching<br />
at the University of Saarland; have made a pilgrimage<br />
to Chambon Sur Lignon, the village in<br />
France where they met in 1956; and have accumulated<br />
two more grandchildren, for a total of<br />
four. “For those of you who have family at long<br />
distances, we highly recommend Skyping,” Jan<br />
wrote. “We chat and see each other on the computer<br />
at no cost. It’s a terrific way of keeping little<br />
cousins connected as well.” In her family’s<br />
case, three grandchildren in Belgium are inspired<br />
to speak English with the little one in Vermont.<br />
She and Heiner plan to continue “straddling the<br />
Atlantic” and are considering moving their stateside<br />
residence from Piermont, NY, to somewhere<br />
A “special happening” for Tina Morris Helm ’64/’98MS — her and husband Bill’s whole family together, in July 2007<br />
in southern Vermont. “Are any of you classmates<br />
located up that way?” she asks. “Any recommendations/suggestions?”<br />
1963<br />
Jane Kuehn Kittredge<br />
1964<br />
Reunion <strong>2008</strong><br />
May 30-June 1<br />
Phyllis Forbes Kerr<br />
Roberta Gilbert Marianella<br />
Patricia Burke retired from her job of 17 years at<br />
Paramount and is now a consultant and director of<br />
dramatic rights for InkWell Management. She will<br />
represent InkWell’s lit properties to the movie business.<br />
She is excited about that and wrote, “Working<br />
at InkWell will allow me to continue to do what I<br />
love the most — to read a book while envisioning<br />
its movie.” Over Christmas, Patricia and Fergus<br />
enjoyed traveling to Paris and Guatemala.<br />
Sarah Beebe Davis had a busy year making six<br />
flower girl dresses for her granddaughters to wear in<br />
her daughter’s wedding this past summer. She also<br />
fashioned their baskets from silk and lace from her<br />
own wedding gown. Sarah continues to teach and<br />
participate in the Standardized Patient Program of<br />
the UMass Medical School. Barb Russell Williams<br />
can walk a mile trail to both of her part-time jobs in<br />
Bellevue, WA: education coordinator and program<br />
manager for the Eastside Heritage Center and director<br />
of the science-based K-5 education programs at<br />
the Bellevue Botanical Garden. Her son is a computer<br />
graphics wizard who lives nearby, and her daughter<br />
and family have recently moved to Scottsdale,<br />
AZ. Sue Greenleaf Anderson does the office work<br />
for her husband’s land surveying business, is curator<br />
at the Walpole (MA) Historical Society, and has<br />
taken a variety of trips, including a small ship tour of<br />
“Holland and Belgium in Bloom.”<br />
Betsy McIntyre Doepken retired on her 65th<br />
birthday — and not a moment too soon! Her son and<br />
daughter-in-law in Alaska had just had their second<br />
set of twin girls — baby twins, 10-year-old twins, and<br />
a big brother! Betsy keeps in touch with Barbara<br />
Wilson Parks and Priscilla Nelson Linville, who is<br />
still teaching in the New York state prison system.<br />
Eleanor “Noni” Noble Linton is another grandma<br />
(of seven) with long-distance grandchildren — China<br />
and Japan. Granddaughters ages 8 and 12 live in<br />
Beijing and attend a totally bilingual school. She also<br />
has a granddaughter in Japan. Noni and John enjoy<br />
living in a CCRC in Charlton, MA. They’ve been<br />
taking advantage of their ability to travel anytime<br />
now that Noni’s retired, and in 2007 they went on a<br />
cruise to Bermuda; visited a new grandson in<br />
Washington, D.C.; traveled to Minnesota to visit<br />
another child and family; and went to John’s parents’<br />
birthplace in Indiana to see some of his relatives.<br />
They are also involved in chorus, painting and drawing<br />
class, and fitness, and Noni is on the CCRC’s<br />
Resident Council.<br />
Jessi Ruth MacLeod ’64/’92MS traveled crosscountry<br />
to Morrowstone Island, WA, last June for a<br />
reunion of 21 family members. Cousins and siblings<br />
had great fun beachcombing, doing jigsaw<br />
puzzles, playing, and talking. (She doesn’t say who<br />
did the cooking!) The cycle of life offered sadness at<br />
the death of her dad and stepmother, and joy when<br />
two more grandchildren were born later in the year.<br />
Mary Ellen Freeman Smith is staying young with<br />
seven grandchildren under 8. She subs in special<br />
education and consults, and she had a great trip to<br />
Paris last fall. Janet Larsen Weyenberg wrote<br />
from Hawaii that her grandson Kaikane traveled<br />
from Columbus, OH, to celebrate his first birthday<br />
on Kaimana Beach, the same beach on which his<br />
mom had her first birthday! Janet and her husband<br />
see the USA by “collecting” National Parks.<br />
Rhoda Henkels Pykonen is owner-managerdesigner<br />
of Queen Anne’s Landscaping in<br />
Grapeview, WA. Her passion is the salvation and<br />
appreciation of native trees and plants. The arrival<br />
of big developers in her area has brought fallen trees<br />
and bulldozed plants, soon followed by flooding.<br />
Hopefully educators and nature conservancy groups<br />
can help stem the destructive tide. Rachel Ripley<br />
38 <strong>Spring</strong> <strong>2008</strong>
CLASS NOTES<br />
Roach substitutes in K-4, plays tennis, teaches in a<br />
literacy program, and is active in the California<br />
Retired Teachers’ Association. Tina Morris Helm<br />
’64/’98MS continues to serve as a trustee for<br />
<strong>Wheelock</strong> <strong>College</strong>, volunteers in the local (New<br />
London, NH) elementary school, drives for the<br />
Council on Aging, supports Bill in his role of board<br />
chair of the New London Hospital, plays tennis,<br />
AND has fun with her six grandchildren. She is<br />
proud and supportive of the new directions<br />
<strong>Wheelock</strong> is taking. She and Bill traveled to Nova<br />
Scotia to see Noel Stoodley Gray and Don. The<br />
Grays, who have three grandchildren, split their<br />
time between their Nova Scotia cabin and home in<br />
Yarmouth Port, MA.<br />
Glee Tilley Miner, Bob, Paul, and I (Roberta)<br />
joined friends in Boone, NC, for a beautiful week<br />
of autumn foliage and majestic mountain vistas.<br />
Glee retired in July 2007 but returns to Chase<br />
Collegiate as a substitute teacher. I serve on a variety<br />
of boards; swim and play Scrabble with the grandchildren;<br />
and play golf and travel with Paul. We<br />
have particularly enjoyed attending the Naples, FL,<br />
<strong>Wheelock</strong> lunch and hearing President Jenkins-<br />
Scott share her vision of the school and gains made<br />
each year in reaching lofty goals. Very exciting!<br />
1965<br />
<strong>Wheelock</strong> Alumni Social Networking!<br />
N<br />
ora Lerdau Howley ’81 and her alumni friends have created a<br />
<strong>Wheelock</strong> Group on Ravelry, an online social networking community<br />
for knitters and crocheters. They would love to find other <strong>Wheelock</strong><br />
folks already on Revelry or who want to join their group. Contact Nora<br />
directly if you have questions at norahowley@yahoo.com.<br />
Mary Barnard O’Connell<br />
Marsha M-Geough Vaughan<br />
Wonderful news comes from our classmates! Their<br />
experiences and work give ideas for each of us to<br />
consider for future endeavors. Donna Johnson<br />
Grinnell and Elsa Chaffee Distelhorst wrote from<br />
opposite coasts of the United States. Donna manages<br />
the gift shop at Emerson Hospital in Concord,<br />
MA. She oversees 40 volunteers and three buyers.<br />
This part-time position provides time to share with<br />
the “joy of her life” — her first and only grandchild,<br />
Emerson. Elsa is a major gift fundraiser at<br />
Whitworth University, a liberal arts university in<br />
Spokane, WA. She wrote, “I just love working in<br />
higher education, attending lectures and working<br />
with the young people!” Her work takes her all<br />
around the country and to Hawaii. She also serves as<br />
a nonprofit volunteer in several different areas. Her<br />
present favorite board work, shared with her husband,<br />
is with the Spokane World Affairs Council.<br />
Nancy Clarke Steinberger and Donna both know<br />
the joy of having a first grandchild. Nancy wrote<br />
that new grandparents share “the joys and thrills of<br />
touching and holding these little miracles of life.”<br />
Sue Bright Belanger participated in<br />
<strong>Wheelock</strong>’s international service learning trip to<br />
Belfast, Northern Ireland. Children from different<br />
generations continue the healing process after<br />
decades of sectarian fighting. Sue retired recently<br />
and cherished the opportunity to interact with<br />
children again. She also founded and directs her<br />
own business called Coaches for Kids. After interviewing<br />
parents and teachers, students are matched<br />
with teachers who can best meet the needs of each<br />
student. Daphne “Taffy” Hastings Wilcox is<br />
keeping herself healthy by means of a holistic<br />
lifestyle. Exercise and massage, coupled with chiropractic<br />
and homeopathic medicine, help her to<br />
attain a good quality of life. She volunteers in her<br />
own parish and for the Episcopal Diocese of<br />
Connecticut. She is a trustee of the Bishops’ Fund<br />
for Children, which grants money to programs for<br />
children at risk in Connecticut. Hospice care, a<br />
memory support center, and a safe home for children<br />
are places that Taffy and her cocker spaniels<br />
volunteer. Taffy welcomed three new grandchildren.<br />
Two children arrived from Ethiopia in time<br />
for Christmas. The holidays were filled with joy . .<br />
. but not much peace. Taffy so enjoys staying in<br />
touch with Barbara Curtis Baker.<br />
Retirement for Joan Anderson Watts<br />
’65/’83MS certainly does not mean idle time. She is<br />
presently supervising student teachers for <strong>Wheelock</strong><br />
and just loves the responsibility. Joan’s seven grandchildren,<br />
all under 5 years old, keep her busy in<br />
both Massachusetts and Florida. “I have the ultimate<br />
joy of using my <strong>Wheelock</strong> education with my<br />
seven grandchildren,” she wrote.<br />
For Marsha M-Geough Vaughan, the tropical<br />
island of St. John, Virgin Islands, provided the backdrop<br />
for her daughter’s wedding. Amazing beauty<br />
and time to cherish family and friends were spent in<br />
a villa on the hillside. Gwen Lloyd Wirtalla and<br />
Ann MacVicar traveled to Maine, spending time in<br />
Kennebunk Beach and Ocean Point. Gwen remembers<br />
wonderful summers in Ocean Point and could<br />
relive her memories. She visited Ann in Santa Fe<br />
only to be greeted by one of the largest snowstorms<br />
in history. Ann has had the marvelous opportunity<br />
to follow the bicycle racers in the Tour de France.<br />
What an experience that must have been.<br />
You should have seen me (Mary) waiting in<br />
my Maine home for Pat Holt Bennett and Sue<br />
Bright Belanger to visit. I could not sit still. I<br />
stood at the window anxiously awaiting their<br />
arrival. Pat is a retired assistant principal who<br />
now spends time between New Hampshire, with<br />
its lovely summers on Lake Winnipesaukee, and<br />
in Florida with its winters’ warmth. Far too many<br />
years had passed since all of us were together.<br />
Photograph albums and the computer helped to<br />
share our lives.<br />
Special thanks to all of you who have contributed<br />
to our class notes. How great it would be<br />
to hear from others. Pass the word, or share a<br />
friend’s news.<br />
1967<br />
Betsy Simmonds Pollock<br />
It was fun to visit with classmates who were able to<br />
attend our 40th Reunion held June 1 to June 3,<br />
2007. Some of us enjoyed the Boston Pops tribute<br />
to Sarah Vaughan with Dianne Reeves after the barbecue<br />
under the tent on Friday, June 1.<br />
Tina Feldman Crosby, Joan Blackman<br />
Youngman, Linda Hoe Palmer, Martha Walsh,<br />
Doryl Lloyd Rourke, and I attended the Saturday<br />
Luncheon. Judy Lambert Foster, Bonnie Lafean<br />
Bivins, Ellen Fitzgerald Brown, and Eleanor<br />
Labosky Stanwood joined the above for the<br />
Saturday night class dinner at Hawes Street.<br />
Tina Feldman Crosby awarded Barbara Taylor<br />
Posner the “Making a Difference” Service Award at<br />
the luncheon. Congratulations, Barbara! Barbara<br />
wrote that she continues to help families with special<br />
needs children to find schools and programs<br />
that meet their needs, sometimes looking at schools<br />
from California to Maine. She is recuperating from<br />
shoulder surgery.<br />
Thank you to the <strong>Wheelock</strong> staff members who<br />
devote many hours of planning and preparation to<br />
assure that a good time is had by all during<br />
Reunion Weekend.<br />
Judy Lambert Foster retired in June 2007, had<br />
knee surgery in July, and welcomed a new grandson<br />
in August. Donna Pulk Elliott wrote from Kennett<br />
Square, PA, that she was sorry to miss Reunion. She<br />
is caring full time for her husband, who is not well.<br />
Donna does wonderfully creative needlework suitable<br />
for framing. Bev Boden Rogers retired recently<br />
from Florida’s natural history museum. She<br />
created science/nature kits that circulate to schools<br />
across the state.<br />
Charlotte Gignoux Dwyer teaches kindergarten<br />
in an Alexandria, VA, public school. Donna<br />
Johnson retired in June 2007 after many years of<br />
being a public school principal in her hometown of<br />
<strong>Wheelock</strong> Magazine 39
CLASS NOTES<br />
Waltham, MA. Jeanne Doyle Marinelli retired as a<br />
reading coach from the Rockford, IL, School<br />
District in June 2005. She and her husband spend<br />
six months of the year in Naples, FL, and the other<br />
six months in Rockford. She is delighted with her<br />
first grandchild, born in June 2007. Carolyn<br />
Wright Unger had Lyme disease last spring, so she<br />
could not travel to Reunion. She wrote, “It has been<br />
a long, tough go, but I think I am finally getting<br />
better.” Carolyn teaches gifted education in a northern<br />
Virginia elementary school of over 1,000 diverse<br />
students (27 different nationalities). Among other<br />
focus areas, she teaches creative thinking and heads<br />
up an Invention Expo. Students are asked to invent<br />
something to solve an everyday problem. Many<br />
products are patent-worthy. This year she is establishing<br />
an outdoor classroom including a monarch<br />
butterfly garden.<br />
Ann Fisher Tuteur wrote, “My husband and<br />
I had the joy of being in Cleveland to attend the<br />
wedding of Howard and Susan Cahn Levine’s<br />
daughter Rebecca last October. For Bob and me,<br />
it brought back a flood of memories as Bob and<br />
I met 40 years ago in Cleveland (only a few weeks<br />
after graduation) at the wedding of Susan and<br />
Howard. Susan and I were <strong>Wheelock</strong> roommates<br />
all four years, and Howard and Bob were fraternity<br />
brothers at the University of Pennsylvania.<br />
Though separated by distance, we have all<br />
remained close throughout the past 40 years.<br />
Where has the time gone?”<br />
I (Betsy) retired in April 2007 after working in<br />
public schools (including a one-year stint teaching<br />
and living in a country school out in the South<br />
Dakota prairies, grades K-4), child care, Head Start,<br />
and 17 years for the S.D. Department of Education.<br />
During that time, my role was Title I representative,<br />
Even Start coordinator, and Head Start state collaboration<br />
director. Since retiring, I’ve been supervising<br />
and working on the never-ending job of updating<br />
my house, cleaning out clutter, and trying to simplify!<br />
Thanks to all who responded to the news request.<br />
I look forward to writing the next installment in the<br />
alumni magazine.<br />
1968<br />
Marilyn Rupinski Rotondo<br />
Cynthia Carpenter Sheehan<br />
Change of address?<br />
News to share? Professional update?<br />
tay in the loop by refreshing your contact information at<br />
Shttp://www.wheelock.edu/alum/alumupdates.asp.<br />
Reunion <strong>2008</strong><br />
May 30-June 1<br />
1969<br />
Lyn Peck Kenyon ’45/’69BS (See Class of ’45.)<br />
1970<br />
“My <strong>Wheelock</strong> training was the best for parenting<br />
and now for a new career!” Betsy Aldrich Garrison<br />
wrote. “After many years of staying home with our<br />
kids, I converted a room into a classroom and have<br />
been working as a reading tutor for the last five<br />
years. I am loving it! I took a refresher course on the<br />
Ortin Gillingham/PAF Reading Program and have<br />
15 students.” Betsy and husband Peter celebrated<br />
their 35th wedding anniversary in Bermuda with<br />
their three sons and their daughter and son-in-law.<br />
The “boys” have all been lacrosse players, so they<br />
spend a great deal of time traveling around watching<br />
the sport from February through August. Their<br />
grandchild born in April lives just a few blocks away<br />
from them in New Canaan, CT. Leigh Nickerson<br />
Beatty wrote, “Both my husband and I are retired<br />
and loving the freedom of planning our own days to<br />
travel, read, volunteer, and thoroughly enjoy the<br />
beauty here on Mount Desert Island [ME].” Marie<br />
Buckless Lacy retired in June 2007 and moved<br />
from Hopkinton, MA, where she’d taught art in<br />
the public schools for 13 years, to Cape Cod. Marie<br />
let <strong>Wheelock</strong> know about Brenda Gladding<br />
Alexander’s death in Texas during Easter weekend<br />
2007 after a long illness.<br />
“I get to use my <strong>Wheelock</strong> education with a<br />
precocious and adorable preschooler, and it’s great<br />
fun,” Mary Curtis Skelton wrote. She takes care<br />
of her 4-year-old grandson one day a week in addition<br />
to working full time as the showroom manager<br />
in a plumbing supply company. Marjorie Weiner<br />
e-mailed in March, “Gateway Community <strong>College</strong><br />
Early Learning Center Preschool Laboratory School<br />
[in New Haven, CT] has been awarded NAEYC<br />
accreditation under the new standards, one of the<br />
first programs in Connecticut.” Marjorie is the<br />
program director.<br />
1971<br />
Mary Curtis Skelton’s (’70) Gator Project<br />
Gwynne DeLong<br />
Julia-Ellen Davis moved from Fort Lauderdale,<br />
FL, to Charleston, SC, in 2005 to be closer to<br />
her mother and to take the position of director<br />
for the tri-county area Head Start/Early Head<br />
Start Program, which serves 1,658 children. She<br />
was previously the Head Start director for<br />
Broward County, FL. Julia-Ellen is now a member<br />
of the board of trustees for the South<br />
Carolina First Steps to School Readiness, whose<br />
purpose, she wrote, “includes assisting at the<br />
state and local levels to intensify services, to<br />
ensure efficient use of resources, and to serve the<br />
needs of South Carolina’s young children and<br />
their families.”<br />
“O<br />
ur Marine son, Greg, while stationed in Iraq four years ago, inspired me to found<br />
‘The Gator Project,’ whose mission is to make and send fleece neck warmers (gators) and<br />
neck coolers to servicemen and women serving abroad. To date, nearly 40,000 gators have been<br />
shipped, all made lovingly with volunteer hands from all over the country. Boy and Girl Scouts,<br />
church groups, quilting groups, senior citizens, high school students, and military family members<br />
have all found that making gators has given them a purpose and sense of peace.<br />
“The Gator Project was featured on Sewing with Nancy, a PBS television show, which resulted<br />
in many more people getting involved than I ever imagined possible! Nancy sent me a certificate<br />
of appreciation, as well as her book on sewing, which I gave to a prison inmate here in Vermont<br />
who made over 1,000 gators while he was incarcerated. I also received a Certificate of Commendation<br />
from the U.S. Marines, Department of the Navy.<br />
“Many of our servicemen/women are stationed at or near hospitals, orphanages, and schools,<br />
often assisting in rebuilding and refurbishing them. The Gator Project also conducted a ‘Beanie<br />
Baby Roundup’ here in northwestern Vermont and sent over 4,000 donated Beanies for soldiers<br />
to give to the Iraqi and Afghani children. The kids LOVE them.”<br />
Editor’s note: To find out more about Mary’s Gator Project and Beanie Baby Roundup and<br />
how you can participate, visit Mary’s site at www.thegatorproject.org.<br />
40 <strong>Spring</strong> <strong>2008</strong>
CLASS NOTES<br />
Kate Hansen ’06 (left) and<br />
Dr. Diane Tomaino Fisher ’72<br />
“So <strong>Wheelock</strong>!”<br />
Dr. Diane Tomaino Fisher ’72 writes<br />
from Texas, “In addition to my position<br />
as an assistant superintendent for a<br />
local school district here in the San Antonio<br />
area, I teach graduate classes at the University<br />
of the Incarnate Word (UIW). Imagine my<br />
surprise (and pleasure) when one of my<br />
students introduced herself as a <strong>Wheelock</strong><br />
graduate this past fall!<br />
“Kate Hansen ’06 teaches kindergarten<br />
in the Harlandale Independent School District<br />
and is a graduate student at UIW. We<br />
shared two semesters (and many memories<br />
of <strong>Wheelock</strong>) together. It is apparent that<br />
<strong>Wheelock</strong> continues to do an outstanding<br />
job of preparing young people to pursue<br />
excellence in education. <strong>Wheelock</strong> is written<br />
all over everything she does. We often<br />
laughed about our similarities despite being<br />
more than three decades apart, and we<br />
would often comment on many aspects of<br />
our philosophies as being ‘so <strong>Wheelock</strong>!’<br />
“Kate reminded me of how fortunate I<br />
was to receive a <strong>Wheelock</strong> education, and<br />
I count my undergraduate experience as one<br />
of the major reasons that I have remained<br />
so dedicated to the field for so long and<br />
that I am still passionate about finding ways<br />
to provide the very best public school experience<br />
for each and every child we touch.”<br />
1972<br />
Bonnie Paulsen Michael<br />
Two wonderful part-time jobs in her area are<br />
helping Barbara Zimmermann Murphy enjoy<br />
“retirement”: She is the part-time special education<br />
supervisor for a district in Oak Lawn, IL, and serves<br />
on a child find team for Lockport Cooperative. She<br />
is always trying to find the time to travel more with<br />
her husband and in February wrote of their plans<br />
to go to Colorado, Arizona, and Italy this year.<br />
Vicki Caplan Milstein has co-written Integrating<br />
Math Into the Early Childhood Classroom: Activities<br />
and Research-Based Strategies That Build Math Skills,<br />
Concepts, and Vocabulary Into Classroom Routines,<br />
Learning Centers, and More.<br />
1973<br />
Jaci Fowle Holmes<br />
Regina Frisch Lobree<br />
1974<br />
Reunion <strong>2008</strong><br />
May 30-June 1<br />
Laura Keyes Jaynes<br />
Greetings, Class of 1974! MARK YOUR CALEN-<br />
DAR! Next year is our 35th Reunion! As your<br />
scribe, I (Laura) hope to see and hear from more of<br />
you! I am doing fine and hope you are too! I heard<br />
from only a few of you this year. PLEASE make the<br />
effort to come to this Reunion. It is a wonderful<br />
time to catch up! I continue to love my job teaching<br />
fourth grade in Merrimack, NH. After 35 years<br />
of marriage, my husband and family are doing well.<br />
Janet Leonard O’Loughlin celebrated 30 years<br />
of marriage with a trip to Italy last summer. She<br />
continues to love teaching second grade in Westchester<br />
County, NY. She hopes to hear from and<br />
see friends who lived at Colchester House between<br />
1970 and 1974. Her e-mail is jlol@optonline.net. Jill<br />
Schunick Putnam ’74/’84MS now works for the<br />
National Association for the Education of Young<br />
Children as an assessor in accreditation. She is<br />
serving her town (Wellfleet, MA) on the School<br />
Committee in her fourth elected term. She periodically<br />
serves as an adjunct in teaching early childhood<br />
and professional development for preschool<br />
and kindergarten teachers.<br />
Linda Mayo-Perez has served on the <strong>Wheelock</strong><br />
Board of Trustees for 10 years and now resides in<br />
Jamaica Estates, Queens, NY. She moved back to<br />
New York City in 2001 to become the president<br />
and CEO of Maple Grove Cemetery, which is on<br />
the National Register of Historic Places as well as<br />
being a very active burial site. Her joy is the recent<br />
completion of their 18,000-square-foot combination<br />
spiritual, community, and administrative<br />
center. This project received a Silver rating when<br />
evaluated under the Leadership in Energy and<br />
Environmental Design (LEED) rating system of<br />
the U.S. Green Building Council. 2007 was an<br />
excellent year for new experiences and travel. Linda<br />
saw <strong>Wheelock</strong>’s mural on the walls of Habitat for<br />
Humanity’s Camp Hope in Louisiana. Last<br />
February, she and her daughter spent a week participating<br />
in a rebuilding effort in New Orleans’ 9th<br />
Ward. In November, they spent 14 days in South<br />
Africa for a traveling seminar co-sponsored by the<br />
Hartford Seminary (Linda is working toward an<br />
M.A. there) and Plowshares Institute.<br />
Diane Rothauser ’74/’81MS continues to<br />
love being a kindergarten after-school teacher in<br />
Wellesley, MA. During the summers she enjoys<br />
working with infants and toddlers. As she did in<br />
college, Diane spends her spare time involved in<br />
theater for the Wellesley Players, as their recording<br />
secretary and make-up artist. Her daughter, Kate,<br />
lives in Somerville, where she has her own jewelrymaking<br />
business, and works for a public relations<br />
firm in Boston. Her other daughter, Sarah, is a<br />
senior at Ithaca <strong>College</strong>.<br />
Thank you to those who have written! We are<br />
all so busy with very interesting lives. I encourage<br />
you to plan on coming to <strong>Wheelock</strong>’s Class of 1974<br />
Reunion next spring, May 29-31, 2009. We have<br />
much to share and be grateful for! Keep in touch!<br />
1975<br />
Leslie Hayter Maxfield<br />
“The whole time was wonderful!” Susan Reichart<br />
Allen wrote late last fall of the month she and her<br />
daughter spent in Argentina, where each received her<br />
Teaching English as a Foreign Language certificate.<br />
Husband Dean and their oldest daughter joined<br />
them for a week in the foothills of Patagonia. Judith<br />
Black wrote: “I have created a very funny and touching<br />
tale about one parent and educator’s learning<br />
curve when G-d delivers to them the child they were<br />
not expecting. ‘Esau, My Son’ was performed at the<br />
National Storytelling Festival in Jonesboro, TN, to a<br />
standing-room-only audience of over 800 people<br />
who gave it a long and loud standing ovation. It was<br />
the first time my son had heard this tale of our growing.”<br />
It is available on CD at Judith’s website,<br />
www.storiesalive.com, where you can also read about<br />
her “seditious comedy about women and aging”<br />
titled “That Fading Scent.” She added, “The wonderful<br />
education I received from <strong>Wheelock</strong> continues<br />
to echo out as I supervise a peer mentoring program<br />
for high school and elementary-aged students in my<br />
hometown of Marblehead [MA].”<br />
Barbara Stevens Rowe is teaching at the<br />
University of Wisconsin — Waisman Center Early<br />
Childhood Program in Madison. “[It] is a model<br />
program for meeting the needs of a developmentally<br />
diverse group of young children,” she wrote.<br />
“Approximately two-thirds of the children in our<br />
program are typically developing, while up to onethird<br />
may have a special educational need because<br />
of a developmental delay or disability.” Both her<br />
son and her daughter attend the university, and she<br />
and her husband live on a residential airport just<br />
north of Madison. “Come visit if you are in the<br />
area!” she wrote. Mary Ainslie Tracy wrote: “In<br />
September 2006, the Friends School of Portland<br />
[ME] opened its doors to 31 students, pre-K to<br />
grade 6, and this year we expanded to grade 7 with<br />
54 children. Next year we will add our final grade,<br />
<strong>Wheelock</strong> Magazine 41
CLASS NOTES<br />
8, aiming for 70 children. I founded this Quaker<br />
independent day school with enormous help from<br />
many other Quakers, educators, and parents, and I<br />
am happy to report that we are doing very well. My<br />
<strong>Wheelock</strong> education is at work every day in my role<br />
as curriculum coordinator and middle school<br />
teacher. We welcome visitors to our website,<br />
www.friendsschoolofportland.org, and to our school.<br />
Contact me at mary@friendsschoolofportland.org.”<br />
Debbie Cann Westcott left the Pennysaver as a<br />
display advertising representative in January 2007<br />
and the following month started working for an<br />
advertiser she’d been calling on, American Pest<br />
Management, a locally owned pest management<br />
company based in the D.C./Virginia/Maryland<br />
area. “We service Ted Koppel’s (formerly of the TV<br />
show “Nightline”) home and the White House!”<br />
she wrote. “We provide service for residential, commercial,<br />
and government properties. I am having a<br />
blast and really love it here.” Debbie said her home<br />
(B&B) remains available for anyone interested in<br />
visiting Annapolis.<br />
1976<br />
Angela Barresi Yakovleff<br />
Late last fall, Maryanne Galvin’s 10-minute video<br />
program “Merry in Oz” was among the works of art<br />
selected to be in the juried exhibit “Ozspirations:<br />
New Art Inspired by the Wizard of Oz” at the<br />
New England School of Art & Design at Suffolk<br />
University in Boston. In February and March, her<br />
documentary “What’s Going On Up There?” was<br />
among the video selections shown in the “Wanderlust:<br />
The Art of Travel” exhibit at Montserrat<br />
<strong>College</strong> of Art’s Bear Gallery in Beverly, MA. Sarah<br />
“Sally” Bolton Hoel has moved “once again,” from<br />
north of Atlanta back to New England: She and her<br />
husband and two teenage sons now live in Danvers,<br />
MA. She recently worked for Sylvan Learning<br />
Center as a testing administrator and program manager,<br />
and she home educates her sons, “which has<br />
been a challenging and rewarding adventure and<br />
become a lifestyle all of its own,” she wrote. Last<br />
year she had a “wonderful albeit too short” visit with<br />
Amy Rand MacDonald ’76/’85MS.<br />
“Busier than ever this year,” Kathy Richter-<br />
Sand is still working in professional development<br />
for Albuquerque Public Schools but now as a district<br />
trainer/resource teacher for elementary<br />
curriculum and standards. “I’m thinking of all my<br />
<strong>Wheelock</strong> classmates!” she wrote.<br />
1977<br />
Margaret Smith Lee<br />
Lisa Brookover Moore<br />
Debbie Warren Block is living in Atlanta and<br />
teaching kindergarten at the Davis Academy. She<br />
and husband Mitch have celebrated 23 years of<br />
42 <strong>Spring</strong> <strong>2008</strong><br />
marriage and have one daughter who is a college<br />
junior and one daughter completing her senior<br />
year of high school. Hollis Brooks has “settled in<br />
sunny Boulder, CO,” and is working for a global<br />
event planning company. She substitute teaches “to<br />
keep [her] skills sharp” and is in frequent touch<br />
with Cathy Aliapoulios Kraut ’78. Lynne Jones<br />
Eastman is living in Naples, FL, and has been<br />
married for 32 years, with three grown children,<br />
one of whom has made her a three-time grandmother.<br />
Lynne is teaching second grade, is<br />
National Board Certified, and is a recipient of a<br />
Golden Apple award.<br />
Jeanette Lake has been teaching for 20 years in<br />
the same Boston Public School, currently, kindergarten,<br />
and recently received an administrative certification.<br />
She has also performed at the <strong>Wheelock</strong><br />
Family Theatre in their productions of Inherit the<br />
Wind and To Kill a Mockingbird. Margaret Smith<br />
Lee and husband Gary will soon be “empty nesters”<br />
as their son is now a senior in high school. Margaret<br />
is teaching preschool two days a week and also<br />
teaches art at the Taube Museum in Minot, ND.<br />
Paula McAdams Moloney is a special education<br />
teacher living in Buffalo, NY — third grade in<br />
one building and fifth grade in another. Her<br />
daughter is a high school senior. Paula wrote,<br />
“Visitors are always welcome!” Francesca Wright<br />
lives in Davis, CA, and works as an independent<br />
consultant in program evaluation, collaborative<br />
learning and planning, and process facilitation<br />
(www.DavisConsultants.net). Her clients include<br />
children and family commissions, mental health<br />
agencies, USC leadership programs, and school<br />
districts. In February, she wrote, “I am currently<br />
co-chair of a board working to create a statewide<br />
Alliance for School, Family and Community<br />
Partnerships with a goal of systematically fostering<br />
engaged families to support student success in all of<br />
California’s schools.” She is happily married to Lee<br />
Bartholomew and has two teenage children.<br />
I (Lisa) am one of your new class scribes,<br />
sharing this job with Margaret Smith Lee.<br />
Currently, I am a PADI-certified assistant scuba<br />
instructor at a local dive shop in Crystal Lake,<br />
IL, working with student divers 10 years old<br />
to senior citizens. My son, Tim, is now a senior<br />
at <strong>Wheelock</strong>.<br />
1978<br />
Reunion <strong>2008</strong><br />
May 30-June 1<br />
Pat Mucci Tayco<br />
Karen Nuzzo loves her new job teaching art<br />
at two elementary schools (pre-K to grade 6)<br />
in the Bedford County (VA) Public Schools.<br />
Karen Musser Whitla wrote, “My husband,<br />
C. Stuart Whitla Jr., passed away on May 9,<br />
2007, after battling renal cell carcinoma for<br />
seven months. He died at home, surrounded<br />
by his family.”<br />
1983<br />
Carol Rubin Fishman<br />
Claudia Tillis Weger wrote in January of looking<br />
forward to the 25th with “the gang: Karen, Sarah,<br />
Susie, Debbie, Tina, and Jane.” She gratefully<br />
reported that all is well in her world. Emily was<br />
then in her second year at <strong>Wheelock</strong>, and Ben was<br />
in ninth grade.<br />
1984<br />
Reunion <strong>2008</strong><br />
May 30-June 1<br />
Kathy Welsh Wilcox<br />
What a year it has been! There is lots of news from<br />
the Class of ’84. Get a cup of tea and sit down and<br />
catch up.<br />
Melanie Levesque Madden celebrated her 20th<br />
wedding anniversary with husband Jack last fall.<br />
She has been working at CVS (in the construction<br />
department) for 16 years and says her <strong>Wheelock</strong><br />
education has done her well. It has helped her and<br />
her husband to raise her son, who is in high school,<br />
and her daughter, who is in seventh grade. She has<br />
been running a Girl Scout troop for her daughter<br />
for seven years. She and Jack also bought a diner in<br />
East Providence, RI — Mel’s Diner — and it is doing<br />
very well. If ever there is a <strong>Wheelock</strong> grad in the<br />
area, please come by and have a meal with the crew!<br />
Jackie Johnson Markley wrote that daughter Paige<br />
has begun kindergarten and loves it! Her weeks are<br />
full of Daisies, soccer, and school obligations. “I am<br />
just beginning what most of my classmates have<br />
been doing for years,” she wrote. “Now I know why<br />
people have children when they are young! I am<br />
exhausted all the time! It probably doesn’t help that<br />
I get up at 4:15 a.m. to go to the gym and work<br />
with a trainer who relishes causing me great pain or<br />
discomfort!” Jackie is happy to have her same job<br />
and continues to love working with and identifying<br />
children with special education needs. Cecilia<br />
Tatem Small is in her fifth year as the school counselor/social<br />
worker at Green Meadow Elementary<br />
School in Maynard, MA. She wrote, “I continue<br />
with the Emerson Hospital, Social Work Week-end<br />
On Call and coordinate/supervise the weekend<br />
Social Worker Team.” Her children (11, 13, and<br />
15) are growing and well, and they keep her and<br />
her husband very busy! She participated in the<br />
Advanced Certified Program at BU School of Social<br />
Work for the Treatment of Psychological Trauma,<br />
which ran until April.<br />
As for me (Kathy), I am doing well in Southern<br />
California. My children are the light of my life.<br />
Both of the boys, ages 14 and 17, are busy with<br />
school and surfing the waves in San Diego. Water<br />
polo seems to take up a lot of our time. Our oldest<br />
was accepted into the National Honor Society this<br />
spring! It was very thrilling for him and exciting to<br />
watch. I was feeling my age for sure! As for my
CLASS NOTES<br />
Elyse Blank Smith ’85 (third from left), husband Michael (to her left), Annette Bellino Lifrieri ’85, and husband Glenn at the 2007 gala honoring<br />
Elyse for her many years of service to the Lupus Foundation of New England, where she was president until 2006<br />
career, I love teaching. I am teaching first grade as<br />
well as creating an after-school program at our<br />
school for at-risk students. We have about 450 students<br />
participating in the program. I have paired up<br />
with the local high school and have the seniors<br />
come and volunteer their time teaching our young<br />
students exciting skills like sign language, Spanish,<br />
French, and dance classes. We also have reading fluency<br />
and comprehension classes for those students<br />
who are struggling. It is very exciting!<br />
1985<br />
Linda Edwards Beal<br />
Karen Poisson Enos shared the wonderful news of<br />
her recent trip to China for the adoption of her<br />
happy and healthy 1-year-old daughter, Leah Ling<br />
Enos. Coincidentally, while in Guangzhou, Karen<br />
and her husband ran into Marjorie Bakken, Karen’s<br />
former adviser and former <strong>Wheelock</strong> <strong>College</strong> president.<br />
Marjorie was with her daughter (Martha<br />
Bakken ’99MS), who had also just adopted a baby.<br />
Karen is celebrating motherhood, and after 17 years<br />
of teaching kindergarten, she is now a stay-at-home<br />
mom and loving every minute of it. Maureen<br />
Gillis Myers has two teenage children at home and<br />
is currently the co-president of BAEYC. She just<br />
opened a school in Hyde Park, MA!<br />
After many years at home with her children,<br />
Alison Abbott Quackenbush is working part<br />
time as an aide in a kindergarten classroom at the<br />
elementary school her youngest attends. Alison<br />
has been very involved at the school through the<br />
PTO, but she’s enjoying being involved on the<br />
“inside.” She describes it as “fun without the<br />
homework”! Alison continues to contemplate<br />
whether or not to renew her certification and go<br />
back to teaching full time. Meanwhile, her oldest<br />
daughter is a junior in high school and beginning<br />
the college search.<br />
Our congratulations to Elyse Blank Smith for<br />
receiving the Altruism Award for her years of service<br />
to the Lupus Foundation of New England. Annette<br />
Bellino Lifrieri was in attendance helping celebrate<br />
Elyse’s accomplishments.<br />
1987<br />
Kathleen Hurley DeVarennes<br />
It was great to hear from some <strong>Wheelock</strong> friends. I<br />
(Kathy) think of you all often, yet I am not great at<br />
keeping in touch.<br />
Allison Small Annand teaches in an integrated<br />
preschool program for 3- and 4-year olds in<br />
Hollis, NH. She still keeps in touch with Helene<br />
Dunkerley Bettencourt ’88. Trisha Brown<br />
sounds very busy. She is using her <strong>Wheelock</strong> education<br />
in many ways: She is a licensing inspector<br />
(children’s programs) for the Commonwealth of<br />
Virginia and an adjunct professor in the area of<br />
early childhood education at Tidewater<br />
Community <strong>College</strong>. Trisha also does a lot of private<br />
training seminars. “There is not a day that<br />
passes that I do not use something I learned while<br />
attending <strong>Wheelock</strong>,” she wrote. “What an<br />
incredible life experience!”<br />
Pamela Lackey Cawley wrote about her business,<br />
Perfect Parties by Pam. She does all of the<br />
decorations — and seating arrangements, party<br />
favors, etc. — at function halls for birthdays,<br />
bar/bat mitzvahs, showers, and the like. She also is<br />
still a retail merchandiser for Hallmark. Prior to<br />
taking the Hallmark job, she was home with her<br />
two boys for nine years. Jeanie Norman-Clancy<br />
has taken time off from the classroom to be home<br />
for her children. She is busy helping her husband<br />
remodel their home in Boylston, MA, and also<br />
volunteering in her daughters’ schools. Libby<br />
Hubbard VanDerMaelen enjoyed seeing classmates<br />
at Reunion 2007. She was excited to write<br />
that her niece has been accepted to <strong>Wheelock</strong> for<br />
the Class of 2012. (I can only imagine just beginning<br />
my college experience. I am sure a lot has<br />
changed, but some things will never change.)<br />
As for me, I would love to hear from you. If you<br />
find yourself visiting the Berkshires this summer,<br />
please drop me a line.<br />
1988<br />
Carol-Ann McCusker Petruccelli<br />
Kirsten Pihlaja has returned to the Denver Public<br />
Schools after two years teaching kindergarten in<br />
Guatemala City. Last fall, she wrote, “This year I’m<br />
doing half-day bilingual ECE (4-year-olds) and halfday<br />
kindergarten enrichment — a fun challenge!”<br />
1990<br />
Reunion <strong>2008</strong><br />
May 30-June 1<br />
Melissa Croteau Fitzgerald<br />
Hello, everyone! There are only two more years<br />
until our 20th Reunion (June 4-6, 2010), and we<br />
hope for a big turnout. It is not too early to begin<br />
making plans and getting in touch with old friends.<br />
A great way to connect is through the Class Notes<br />
in the <strong>Wheelock</strong> Magazine. I (Melissa) hope many<br />
people make a sincere effort to attend and take<br />
some time to enjoy the friendships that were started<br />
many years ago and possibly rekindle some of them<br />
that have been lost. I already have my baby-sitter<br />
lined up to make the trip from Virginia! We had a<br />
few people send in news this time around.<br />
Katherine Averill is living in southern New<br />
Hampshire with her husband and two daughters,<br />
ages 8 and 11. She has been homeschooling for five<br />
years and is doing quite well with it. She would<br />
really like to network with other alumni who are<br />
doing that in her region. Katherine has lost touch<br />
with so many people and would like to hear from<br />
them and see how everybody is doing. Gillian<br />
Idoine Budine is still in her position of grant coordinator<br />
for the Community Partnerships for<br />
Children in Massachusetts. She has been holding<br />
this job for the past 10 years, and it has been a<br />
roller-coaster ride! She is busy as a wife and mother<br />
to a teenager, preteen, and 4-year-old.<br />
In May 2007, Karen Flowers Cagan<br />
’88AS/’90BS was one of the recipients of the<br />
<strong>Wheelock</strong> <strong>College</strong> Alumni Endowment Fund<br />
Grant. She developed adoption resource kits for the<br />
elementary and preschools in Westwood, MA. It<br />
was certainly a labor of love. She is still working<br />
part time at the Westwood Public Library in the<br />
children’s room and is very involved with the<br />
<strong>Wheelock</strong> Magazine 43
CLASS NOTES<br />
I hope everyone is doing well and enjoying life<br />
to the fullest. Happy <strong>2008</strong>, and I look forward to<br />
seeing everyone in 2010!<br />
October 2007 bride Kyla McSweeney ’94/’97MS with Susan Mackey ’94 (to her left), her maid of honor, and (from left to right) Liz Malkin ’88,<br />
Martha Bakken ’99MS, and Debra Sullivan ’97MS<br />
Westwood Early Childhood Council. Daughters<br />
Nataniah, 8, and Rita, 4, give her so much joy!<br />
Congratulations to Patricia Foley Elliott and<br />
her husband, who recently adopted son Gabriel<br />
David, born Jan. 3. “I was in the delivery room<br />
and cut the cord,” she wrote. “We are overjoyed<br />
with happiness to have our family grow.” They had<br />
lost two babies at birth in the previous few years.<br />
Patricia said that Jen Dirga has visited her several<br />
times since Gabriel’s arrival with much-needed<br />
hand-me-downs from her children and a lot of<br />
helpful tips. Lori Ann Langlais Hickey is still<br />
working in the Hartford Public School System 17<br />
years strong. She calls it her passion. Lori Ann is<br />
quite busy with three children, 9, 6, and 6. As if<br />
family and work weren’t enough, she and her husband<br />
got two yellow lab puppies last summer!<br />
When Michelle Pine Lemme ’90/’91MS wrote<br />
late last year, she was taking classes toward her<br />
Severe/Profound certification and planned to be finished<br />
by this summer. Best of luck, Michelle! As well<br />
as learning, she is still teaching special education in<br />
Cranston, RI, and takes care of her three children,<br />
Katie, 4; Stephen, 6; and John, 8. Life is very busy<br />
but happy. Alyson Shifres Miller and her 2-year-old<br />
triplets have been greatly enjoying monthly visits<br />
with Pam McInnis Schappler and her five children<br />
up in Bedford, NH. “With eight kids in one room,<br />
I actually get a break because Pam’s kids play so great<br />
with my kids,” Alyson wrote. “I get to sit back and<br />
just watch and relax!” Unfortunately, the visits will<br />
come to an end because Pam has taken a long-term<br />
subbing job in a third grade classroom. “Too bad I<br />
can’t have monthly visits with Melissa Croteau<br />
Fitzgerald and her two beautiful children,” Alyson<br />
added, “but Virginia is just a little too far from<br />
Westwood, MA, for that.”<br />
Well, with that, I (Melissa) will share a little<br />
about my family. My daughter, Hanna, will be<br />
11 and headed into middle school in the fall. She<br />
is turning into a lovely young lady and has grown<br />
so much this last year. She has started borrowing<br />
my shoes and clothes! Ouch — where has the<br />
time gone? She is still a Girl Scout, with me as<br />
her troop leader, and she recently joined a yearround<br />
swim team. She is such a talented swimmer<br />
and shows so much potential. My son, Nick,<br />
will be 7 and will be entering the second grade in<br />
the fall. He has the best teacher ever this year and<br />
is doing fantastic in school. He loves to go every<br />
day and has such fun. He also became a Cub<br />
Scout this year and enjoys being part of a group.<br />
As always, we visited with Pam McInnis<br />
Schappler and Alyson Shifres Miller and their<br />
families last summer. I took my children to the<br />
Boston fireworks, and I believe it may become a<br />
family tradition! They had so much fun and<br />
couldn’t believe the crowds. Fireworks in Virginia<br />
will never be the same, they exclaimed. We have<br />
also enjoyed the phenomenal seasons the Red<br />
Sox and Patriots have had. It’s times like those<br />
that I wish I were still in Riverway House. My<br />
kids are such huge fans that you would think<br />
they have grown up in Boston.<br />
My condolences go out to Phil Craig’s family<br />
for their loss. Phil was a great professor and<br />
always had enlightening stories to share with his<br />
students. I personally appreciate the trip he took<br />
with one of my literature classes to England for<br />
three weeks. He made it not only educational but<br />
also fun, and I will never forget those memories.<br />
He was also a great author, and I will miss his<br />
stories of J.W. Jackson.<br />
1992<br />
Christine Smith Imani<br />
Tim and Lynne Renkun Classey, along with son<br />
Michael, 7, and daughter Erin, 3, would like to<br />
announce the birth of Sean Casimir Classey in<br />
January 2006.<br />
1993<br />
Nina Mortensen LaPlante<br />
Rosa Maria Carreiro Cordua has been teaching<br />
first grade in Maryland for nine years and still loves<br />
that age! Her own two sons — her “joy”— are 5<br />
and 2. Rosa Maria loves the Annapolis area but<br />
misses her family near Boston. “I will always be a<br />
New England Patriots fan,” she wrote, “and will<br />
never forget the education that I received at<br />
<strong>Wheelock</strong> <strong>College</strong>.” Betsy Feeley Johnsen and<br />
husband Rusty were married in September 2006<br />
with many <strong>Wheelock</strong> alums in attendance: Jen<br />
Long Doran, Jeanne Leonard Larivee, Megan<br />
O’Leary, Debbie Vogel Pike, and Maureen<br />
Burke Power. Betsy and Rusty live in Bolton, MA.<br />
1994<br />
Heidi Butterworth Fanion<br />
Reunion <strong>2008</strong><br />
May 30-June 1<br />
Jen Korb Benoit and her husband have relocated<br />
to the warmer climate of Durham, NC, where she<br />
is continuing her master’s in educational leadership<br />
at UNC-Chapel Hill. When she wrote in January,<br />
she was working on a research project with the federal<br />
Department of Education.<br />
In late 2007, Jacquie O’Neil Boutin and husband<br />
Paul were still settling into the new home they<br />
built in Colchester, CT. She has been working at<br />
Madonna Place, a family support center in Norwich,<br />
for five years and keeps busy there part time as director<br />
of fund development and marketing. She wrote:<br />
“Additionally, my husband and I recently started a<br />
new business in memory of our son, Jonah. It is<br />
called Jonah’s Closet [and] is an online boutique that<br />
offers distinctive apparel for children from birth to<br />
size 7.” Plans were to add some educational toys and<br />
gifts this year, and they were also considering opening<br />
a “brick and mortar store” in their hometown<br />
this summer. Jacquie invites anyone interested to visit<br />
www.jonahscloset.com and use the code “wheelock” to<br />
save 10 percent! Amy Goldstein Brin described<br />
daughter Cecelia Claire, born last Sept. 7, as “the<br />
most wonderful addition to [her] family” and “the<br />
love of [their] lives.”<br />
44 <strong>Spring</strong> <strong>2008</strong>
CLASS NOTES<br />
T<br />
Sarah Westmoreland Dehey, husband Peter,<br />
and son Brett, 12, bought a house in Barkhamsted,<br />
CT, in late 2006. She explained that they have been<br />
a family for three years — she adopted Peter’s son<br />
shortly after their wedding — and she loves being a<br />
mom. Sarah was recently promoted to head teacher<br />
of the Elementary 1 classroom at Kolburne School<br />
in New Marlborough, MA, a private residential<br />
school for students with psychiatric disorders. She<br />
has six 8- to 12-year-old students working at the<br />
first- or second-grade level, and she enjoys forming<br />
strong bonds with them and finds her work very<br />
rewarding. Shannon M. Garvey married Kevin P.<br />
Roach on July 28, 2007, in Boston. Following their<br />
honeymoon in Hawaii, the couple moved to<br />
Wrentham, MA, where they currently reside.<br />
Last summer, Carri LaCroix Pan ’94/’98MS<br />
wrote: “This year in response to New York state’s<br />
suggested hospital mergers and closings, I cofounded<br />
the Coalition for the Protection of<br />
Reproductive Health in Schenectady. My group<br />
is keeping a close eye on the suggested closing of<br />
Bellevue Woman’s Hospital (one of two freestanding<br />
women’s hospitals left in the U.S.) and<br />
merger of two others. We are passionately concerned<br />
about how the Catholic Ethical Directives<br />
from one of the three hospitals could eliminate<br />
services currently provided by the other two hospitals.<br />
When I talk to people about this, they<br />
always think about abortion. This issue is a lot<br />
bigger than abortion . . . and it gets into end-oflife<br />
issues. We are also very concerned about<br />
health care access of the underprivileged in our<br />
area.” Carri’s children enjoy gatherings with<br />
“<strong>Wheelock</strong> pals who sing great songs to them —<br />
Jen Korb, Amy Goldstein, Maureen Sullivan,<br />
and Kim Kiess.” Kate McInerney Leighton left<br />
the public school sector in 2006 and started<br />
working as an independent educational behavior<br />
consultant. “I am working with families around<br />
behavior issues, children with autism, and basic<br />
parenting skills,” she wrote, “and I love the<br />
change.” She especially likes being able to make<br />
her own hours and to stay home with her son<br />
and new daughter, Amelia, born last Sept. 5. “It<br />
was another very tough pregnancy — surgery, bed<br />
rest, and premature labor!” Kate wrote. “But she<br />
is our second angel! I love being a mom!”<br />
Hey, <strong>Wheelock</strong> Young Alumni,<br />
are you on MySpace?<br />
here are now 51 young <strong>Wheelock</strong> alumni with our<br />
own Young Alumni page on MySpace, and we<br />
would love to connect with you! Send us a message at<br />
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.<br />
viewprofile&friendID=42087088 !<br />
Kyla McSweeney ’94/’97MS married James<br />
Burton last Oct. 13 at the Exchange Conference<br />
Center on the Boston waterfront. “It was a beautiful<br />
day and so nice to be surrounded by so many<br />
friends,” Kyla wrote. <strong>Wheelock</strong> alums in attendance<br />
at the wedding were Martha Bakken ’99MS,<br />
Debra Sullivan ’97MS, Liz Malkin ’88, and Susan<br />
Mackey (maid of honor). Kim Haws Moxin had<br />
an exciting 2007, with a celebration of her and husband<br />
Ed’s fifth anniversary in Daytona Beach with<br />
daughter Eve in June and then the birth of daughter<br />
Catherine Marie on Oct. 17. Congratulations, Kim.<br />
Rachael LeBlanc Tyler, clinical supervisor at<br />
KidsPeace New England (Graham Lake Campus),<br />
wrote in December to say things were going well in<br />
Maine and her family was happy to have started<br />
another ski season (that’s their favorite family activity).<br />
She and husband Darrell celebrated their 11th<br />
wedding anniversary last October. Her preschooler<br />
and two school-age children are doing well. Rachael<br />
mentioned having seen Beth Topham O’Keefe<br />
’94/’97MS and Lynne Harmon Aloisi ’94/’97MS<br />
in Boston during a conference for work and wrote,<br />
“It is always so wonderful to see friends from<br />
<strong>Wheelock</strong> — they are truly friends for life. There<br />
really isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t think about<br />
what a wonderful experience <strong>Wheelock</strong> was and is.”<br />
1995<br />
Katelyn Guiney Wojnarowicz<br />
Congratulations to Nichole Quintin Brody<br />
’95/’96MS and husband Ivan on the birth of their<br />
second son, Rylan Blaine Brody, on April 5, 2006.<br />
Rylan joined his older brother, Hayden, and is<br />
doing just great! Nichole is still teaching fourth<br />
grade in New Bedford and absolutely<br />
loves it. She wrote that she would “love to hear<br />
from old friends if they feel like chatting!” She can<br />
be reached via e-mail, ibnb77@verizon.net.<br />
Kathleen McEneaney Curry is working at Little<br />
Sprouts Child Enrichment Centers as a pathfinder,<br />
supporting the educators in the company. Likewise,<br />
she and her husband are investors in IMAJINEthat,<br />
an interactive children’s playspace in Lawrence,<br />
MA. In June 2007, third child Colin was welcomed<br />
by big sisters Emily (6) and Elizabeth (3). Beth<br />
Traichel Falzone works for the Department of<br />
Children and Families in Manchester, CT, as a<br />
supervisor within the field of social work.<br />
Ayanna Kilpatrick, a 2001 graduate of<br />
Simmons <strong>College</strong> School of Social Work with a<br />
certificate of Urban Leadership, has worked in<br />
both charter and private schools. She is currently<br />
at Brookline (MA) High School. Carolyn Fahie<br />
Ouellette wrote that she still loves being at home<br />
with her children, Meg, Kate, and the newly<br />
welcomed Jack. Jennifer Howarth Spencer is a<br />
kindergarten teacher at the John A. Bishop<br />
Elementary School in Arlington, MA.<br />
Congratulations to Kris Nydam White and<br />
husband Ken on the birth of their second child,<br />
Rebekah Danielle, on Feb. 21, 2006. She was welcomed<br />
home by big sister Elizabeth (6). Kris wrote,<br />
“I am enjoying being a stay-at-home mom and<br />
homeschooling my girls!”<br />
And as for me, I (Katelyn) am happily at home<br />
with my two children, Brendan (5), who (hard to<br />
believe!) will be going to kindergarten in the fall,<br />
and Delaney (2), who is just as fiery as the RED<br />
hair upon her head. I do continue to work part<br />
time as an adjunct faculty member with Becker<br />
<strong>College</strong> in Worcester, MA, within the Early<br />
Childhood Education department. Likewise, I continue<br />
to hold the role as the administrator of The<br />
Safe Place programs, a before- and after-school<br />
program, currently licensed through the<br />
Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Department of<br />
Early Education and Care.<br />
It was wonderful to hear from those of you<br />
who wrote for this issue, and I would LOVE to<br />
hear from more of you (you know who you are).<br />
I wish you all good health and much happiness in<br />
the year of <strong>2008</strong>!<br />
1996<br />
Kerrie Ryan Gerety<br />
JoAnne Leitner Sushko and husband Bill<br />
welcomed a son, Liam, last Oct. 20. Daughter<br />
Jacqueline, 5, loves being a big sister.<br />
1997<br />
Heather Gelmini<br />
Cindy Aquan is working at Selfhelp Family<br />
Homecare Service (CHHA) as the social work program<br />
manager. Victoria Gilman, previously<br />
Victoria Ryder, got married to Matthew Gilman<br />
on July 1, 2007, in Bedford, NH. She is currently<br />
working as a kindergarten teacher in Manchester,<br />
where she also lives. Donna Gorman ’97/’98MS is<br />
teaching Itsy Bitsy Yoga and Child Development<br />
classes at Isis Maternity (based in Needham, MA)<br />
as well as working as a developmental educator for<br />
Early Intervention in Lowell. Donna has a son,<br />
<strong>Wheelock</strong> Magazine 45
CLASS NOTES<br />
Donna Gorman ’97/’98MS and son Shane enjoying Shane’s “first snow<br />
experience” early last winter. “He has been loving the snow ever<br />
since!” Donna wrote.<br />
Shane, who turned 1 in January —“the love of<br />
[her] life” — and they live in Billerica. Micaela<br />
Hall has been working at Hasbro Children’s<br />
Hospital in the Early Intervention program for<br />
four years. She is engaged to her fiance, Tom, and<br />
will be getting married in June on Block Island.<br />
Micaela says she had a great time serving on<br />
<strong>Wheelock</strong>’s Alumni Board and enjoys staying in<br />
touch with the <strong>College</strong>. Astrid Garcia Mazariegos<br />
’97/’99MS and her husband are enjoying their<br />
days with son Diego, 5. Astrid works in a multigrade<br />
classroom in Wellesley, MA, and loves it.<br />
Amy Jones O’Brien has been married for over<br />
four years to husband Cecil. They have a 3-year-old<br />
daughter, Olivia Mai, and a 1-year-old son, Shane<br />
William. Amy is happily living in Walpole, MA, as<br />
a stay-at-home mom. She sees Shannan O’Brien<br />
’96, Olivia’s godmother. Brandy Roper Page is living<br />
in Catawba, SC, with husband Randy and two<br />
daughters, Olivia, 6, and Kiley, 4. She is pursuing<br />
her dream of opening an in-home child care center.<br />
Michelle Ruxton Taylor is still working in<br />
Cambridge, MA, as director of Oxford Street<br />
Daycare Cooperative, a parent and staff cooperative<br />
program serving children ages 3 months to 5 years<br />
and their families. “The best part of my job is that<br />
my daughter, Haley, has attended the program since<br />
she was an infant,” she wrote. “In the fall, she’ll<br />
start kindergarten, and I’ll be the sappy mom crying<br />
my eyes out because my little girl is growing up<br />
too fast!” Michelle and her family recently moved<br />
to South Easton, MA.<br />
1998<br />
Reunion <strong>2008</strong><br />
May 30-June 1<br />
Christine Barry Beaulieu<br />
Jillian Kaufman<br />
“We had a wonderful ceremony at our church<br />
and were surrounded by close family and<br />
friends,” Amy Curry Bassett wrote of her and<br />
husband Bill’s wedding last August. They are<br />
enjoying life with their two dogs and continue to<br />
renovate their home in Lakeville, MA. Their<br />
favorite vacation spot is Portland, OR. Mary<br />
Falcone-Farrell thoroughly enjoys her full-time<br />
job as the supervisor of a safe home for children<br />
age birth to 13. She is also a part-time graduate<br />
student, working on a master’s in Clinical<br />
Psychology. Mary and her husband continue to<br />
enjoy daughter Annabelle, now 4. Diep Nguyen<br />
’98/’02MS and wife Loan sent the Alumni<br />
Relations Office a holiday greeting (picturing<br />
both made up to look like Santa Claus) from<br />
Georgia late last year. They miss their Bostonarea<br />
friends, and Diep was missing snow, but<br />
Loan is enjoying the year-round warm weather.<br />
1999<br />
Aimee Farrell Dos Santos<br />
Sara Guerrette Caron is one of several private<br />
practice therapists who make up Lifework<br />
Associates in Lewiston, ME. She works with children,<br />
adolescents, adults, families, and couples.<br />
She also is still working part time as a maternal<br />
child health social worker at Central Maine<br />
Medical Center. She has two young girls, Olivia<br />
and Sophie. Jackie Klein loves living in New<br />
York City and is enjoying working full time for<br />
her dad in the window treatments business in<br />
Union Square. She also loves working part time<br />
as an assistant kindergarten teacher in the religious<br />
school at Central Synagogue in NYC.<br />
2000<br />
Sara McGarry<br />
Congratulations to Leah Champ Burdick, whose<br />
daughter, Natalie Jane, was born Jan. 2.<br />
Marcie Morrocco married Jon Kaczmarczyk on<br />
Aug. 4, 2007. Ingrid Rogers Abrams and Amy<br />
Rodger Dubow were her attendants. Kristie<br />
Hotaling has accepted a new position as investigator<br />
with the Department of Social Services in<br />
Chelsea, MA. She is still in contact with Melissa<br />
Muise Serra ’01/’02MS, Kallie Casey Gawel, and<br />
Allison Carlson Paquette.<br />
Sara Levesh Prior and her husband welcomed<br />
their first child, a new daughter named<br />
Molly Ann Prior, on Aug. 18, 2007. Ashley<br />
Rogers Kevorkian had her third child, a daughter<br />
named Elena, in May 2007. She is currently<br />
working with a Reggio Emilia-inspired preschool<br />
in her area (south of Nashville, TN). “My experience<br />
at <strong>Wheelock</strong> was crucial in leading me to<br />
this school,” Ashley wrote. “It gave me exposure<br />
to this awesome educational philosophy, and my<br />
children have benefited as well!” Jaime Carey<br />
Kendra Dome Frederick ’05/’07MS with new husband Kosea<br />
’00/’05MS wrote last fall of plans to get married<br />
on May 30, <strong>2008</strong>, and was planning a Las<br />
Vegas/San Francisco honeymoon. She and her<br />
fiance planned on buying a house before the<br />
wedding. She works full time as a developmental<br />
specialist at the Taunton, MA, Early Intervention<br />
Program and part time as a personal trainer at a<br />
nearby gym.<br />
2001<br />
Carrie Watson<br />
Jillian Warner and Hernan Edzon Perez were<br />
married in September 2006 in Cochabamba,<br />
Bolivia. This past September they had a stateside<br />
reception on Cape Cod which Meghan<br />
Cummings Fleck attended. Jillian and Hernan<br />
live in Portland, OR.<br />
2003<br />
Reunion <strong>2008</strong><br />
May 30-June 1<br />
Early this year, Stephany Melton left<br />
Massachusetts Advocates for Children to take a job<br />
as training and communications coordinator at<br />
Parent/Professional Advocacy League (PAL), also in<br />
Boston. Before the switch, she wrote of being very<br />
excited about working back in the mental health<br />
field again. She wrote: “PAL is an organization of<br />
more than 4,000 Massachusetts families and professionals<br />
who advocate on behalf of children with<br />
emotional, behavioral, and mental health needs and<br />
their families. I will be providing the large network<br />
of parent support specialists with supports, training,<br />
and technical assistance. They, in turn, provide support,<br />
information, and advocacy resources to thousands<br />
of families across Massachusetts.” Tricia<br />
Patenaude Sabine wrote to announce the birth of<br />
Lily Louise Sabine last Aug. 31.<br />
46 <strong>Spring</strong> <strong>2008</strong>
CLASS NOTES<br />
2004<br />
Karyn Beaudry and Richard Denningham III were<br />
married on June 30, 2007. Jennifer Thurston<br />
’04/’05MS also wrote of her marriage, to David<br />
Carey in Scituate, MA, last Oct. 20. “It was truly<br />
the best day of our lives!” she wrote.<br />
“It has been a busy year for me,” Kelly<br />
McLoud Duda wrote last December. “I got<br />
engaged in March and married my high school<br />
sweetheart, Ryan Duda, on Sept. 1 in New<br />
Hampshire. Jamie-Leigh Morton ’04/’07MS, my<br />
college roommate, was one of my bridesmaids.<br />
Other <strong>Wheelock</strong> grads in attendance were Melissa<br />
Hathaway Stutz, Vikki Sawyer, Brenda Noel<br />
’93, and Sue Mackey ’94. The flower girls were<br />
Martie and Ella Fairchild, Brenda’s daughters. It<br />
was a gorgeous day for an outside wedding!”<br />
Melissa was in touch with <strong>Wheelock</strong> separately<br />
and shared that she and husband Austin live in<br />
Queen Creek, AZ, and she is working as a case<br />
manager for at-risk boys and girls. “It’s challenging<br />
but very rewarding all at once,” she wrote. Andrea<br />
Nicoli Pappaconstantinou ’04/’06MS and husband<br />
Kenneth were married July 14, 2007. “We<br />
were high school sweethearts and are now very<br />
happily married!” she wrote.<br />
Congratulations to Emily Pateris and Darin<br />
Costantine, who were married last Dec. 29 in<br />
Ocean City, MD. Emily teaches fourth grade in the<br />
Baltimore County Public Schools.<br />
(L to R) Amy Rodger Dubow ’00, Lynn Durocher ’06, Marcie Morrocco<br />
’00, and Ingrid Rogers Abrams ’00 at Marcie and Jon’s August 2007<br />
wedding<br />
2006<br />
Allegra Pelliccione wrote to announce her<br />
engagement in September 2007 to Daniel<br />
Marrone. They plan to get married in New<br />
York in 2009. Allegra is at Boston <strong>College</strong> pursuing<br />
a dual master’s in Elementary Education and<br />
Moderate Disabilities, and Daniel is at Cambridge<br />
<strong>College</strong> working on a master’s in Education<br />
with a focus in psychology and plans to get his<br />
Ph.D. for school psychology. Both will graduate<br />
this August.<br />
2007<br />
Alicia Davis joined the Americorps Victims<br />
Assistance Program upon graduation and started<br />
working at A Safe Place in Portsmouth, NH, as a<br />
direct service advocate last September. Later last fall,<br />
she wrote: “As part of my Americorps position, I<br />
coordinate the Clothesline Project in my town and<br />
county. [It] will be on the lawns of the Statehouse<br />
in Concord, NH, in April <strong>2008</strong>! I am very thankful<br />
for my Certificate in Community Based Human<br />
Services because it has proved useful at my new line<br />
of work. Although I am volunteering and not making<br />
money, I love what I do as I am helping victims<br />
of domestic violence! I use my knowledge from<br />
<strong>Wheelock</strong> every day!”<br />
“All in all, life is going well,” Ryan Kellarson<br />
wrote. He has become the lead teacher of the before<br />
and after kindergarten classroom and the assistant<br />
director at Bright Start Child Care in Foxboro, MA.<br />
“I’ve been very happy there, and they have treated<br />
me very well, offering many opportunities,” he<br />
wrote. Last year he also bought a new car and<br />
adopted a Boston terrier puppy named Daisy.<br />
2005<br />
Michelle Amaro wrote, “After completing my<br />
M.S.W. from Southern Connecticut State<br />
University in 2006 and receiving my LCSW this<br />
past March, I have been practicing as a clinical<br />
therapist at United Community and Family<br />
Services, a community outpatient clinic. I provide<br />
individual and group therapy to adults and<br />
families with mental illness and/or substance<br />
abuse disorders. In addition, I have been spending<br />
time developing a private practice with my<br />
current colleagues in Mystic, CT.” Megan<br />
Johnson has an “incredibly rewarding job” as a<br />
child care counselor working with 5- to 13-yearold<br />
boys at St. Ann’s Home in Methuen, MA.<br />
She’s been there since August 2007.<br />
A hearty “Congratulations!” is in order for<br />
several classmates: Kendra Dome ’05/’07MS and<br />
Kosea Frederick were married last Dec. 22.<br />
Aimee Glassick married Christopher Dill at<br />
Water’s Edge in Westbrook, CT, last Aug. 18,<br />
and they now live in Guilford, CT. Allison<br />
Marini married Jimmy Antonowicz on Dec. 22,<br />
2007 (the same day as Kendra’s!). Lauren<br />
Willette ’05/’06MS gave birth to her first child<br />
in April 2007 — Boston Jeffrey Willette.<br />
Christopher and Aimee Glassick Dill ’05 (back row, left and center) with Kendra Dome ’05/’07MS (back row, right) and (front row, L to R) Katie<br />
Denissoff ’06, Shannon Tower ’05, and Meghan Parisi ’05<br />
<strong>Wheelock</strong> Magazine 47
CLASS NOTES<br />
Associate Degrees<br />
Karen Flowers Cagan ’88AS/’90BS (See Class of<br />
’90BS.)<br />
Master’s Degrees<br />
Sachiko “Faith” Yamada Yamamoto ’56/’57MS<br />
(See Class of ’57.) Ai-Ling Louie ’76MS wrote<br />
that her second children’s book has been published:<br />
“It’s an elementary school biography of<br />
my classmate Vera Wang called ‘Vera Wang:<br />
Queen of Fashion’ (Dragoneagle Press).” Her<br />
first book was “Yeh-Shen: A Cinderella Story<br />
from China” (Philomel/Putnam). Jackie Mast<br />
’78MS hopes she might see other <strong>Wheelock</strong><br />
alums at this October’s Healing the Healers<br />
conference in Iceland. The theme is Water:<br />
Motion and Emotion. Go to http://www.linkedin.<br />
com/in/jacquelinemast for more information.<br />
Deborah Karmozyn ’79MS began a new job as<br />
the junior school principal (K-4) at the United<br />
Nations International School in New York City<br />
in August 2007. She’d been the K-12 curriculum<br />
director there for five years before being appointed<br />
principal. Most of Deborah’s career has been in<br />
the world of international schools, including<br />
schools in Italy, Denmark, China, and Qatar.<br />
Diane Rothauser ’74/’81MS (See Class of ’74.)<br />
Joan Anderson Watts ’65/’83MS (See Class of<br />
’65.) Jill Schunick Putnam ’74/’84MS (See<br />
Class of ’74.)<br />
Congratulations to David Siedlar ’91MS, a<br />
teacher at the Huaiyin Institute of Technology in<br />
the People’s Republic of China, who wrote early<br />
last fall to let <strong>Wheelock</strong> know that he’d married<br />
Xiao Gui Fang, of Huaian, in Nanjing in August.<br />
The wedding ceremony was performed in the<br />
Jiangsu Province Marriage and Orphans Bureau.<br />
Dianne Chase ’92MS became director of community<br />
education at the Eanes Independent School<br />
District in Austin, TX, in 2007. Prior to that, she’d<br />
been vice president for training/technical assistance<br />
director at Learning Links, also in Austin, for five<br />
years. During that span, she also served in leadership<br />
capacities with the National Afterschool<br />
Association and the Texas Afterschool Association.<br />
She can be reached at dchase@eanes.k12.tx.us.<br />
Jessi Ruth MacLeod ’64/’92MS (See Class of<br />
’64.) Nichole Quintin Brody ’95/’96MS (See<br />
Class of ’95.) Kyla McSweeney ’94/’97MS (See<br />
Class of ’94.) Donna Gorman ’97/’98MS (See<br />
Class of ’97.) Tina Morris Helm ’64/’98MS (See<br />
Class of ’64.) Carri LaCroix Pan ’94/’98MS<br />
(See Class of ’94.) Astrid Garcia Mazariegos<br />
’97/’99MS (See Class of ’97.) Melissa Johnson<br />
’01MS shared some information about the San<br />
Diego agency where she is program manager:<br />
“United Through Reading is a nonprofit agency<br />
that helps to maintain connections between parents<br />
who are physically separated from their children<br />
through the medium of reading on DVD. The<br />
agency works with deployed military personnel as<br />
well as parents who are incarcerated in San Diego<br />
County. As this program truly embraces<br />
<strong>Wheelock</strong>’s values of promoting literacy in the<br />
family, I thought it important to share.”<br />
In April 2007, Sharon McRae ’02MS, a<br />
kindergarten 2 teacher at Orchard Gardens Pilot<br />
School (a part of Boston Public Schools) in<br />
Roxbury, MA, was honored with a Physical<br />
Environment Award by the Innercity Network of<br />
Early Education Professionals and the Boston<br />
Association for the Education of Young Children.<br />
She was praised for understanding the needs of<br />
her students and modifying her classroom as<br />
necessary to meet their needs as they change, and<br />
for contributing her time and resources to the<br />
betterment of the services provided to families.<br />
Not only are her classroom spaces warm, inviting,<br />
and comfortable for the children, but she also has<br />
a personalized welcome area for parents “with an<br />
eye for aesthetics and respect for natural materials,”<br />
the awards gala program said. Diep Nguyen<br />
’98/’02MS (See Class of ’98.) Jennifer Crocker<br />
’03MS wrote earlier this year of her plans to marry<br />
Jamie Folker in Maine this June 21. She teaches<br />
fifth grade at Fairview School in Auburn, ME.<br />
Jaime Carey ’00/’05MS (See Class of ’00.)<br />
Jennifer Thurston ’04/’05MS (See Class of ’04.)<br />
Fumiko Mato ’06MS is working as a child life<br />
specialist at Osaka University Hospital in Japan.<br />
Andrea Nicoli Pappaconstantinou ’04/’06MS<br />
(See Class of ’04.) Lauren Willette ’05/’06MS (See<br />
Class of ’05.) Kendra Dome ’05/’07MS (See Class<br />
of ’05.) Marcus Humphrey ’07MS checked in<br />
with <strong>Wheelock</strong> last December, when he was<br />
completing his first-semester exams at the middle<br />
school he’d been working at since graduating.<br />
Arrivals<br />
85 Karen Poisson Enos, a daughter,<br />
Leah Ling Enos<br />
90 Patricia Foley Elliott, a son, Gabriel David<br />
94 Amy Goldstein Brin, a daughter,<br />
Cecelia Claire<br />
94 Kate McInerney Leighton, a daughter,<br />
Amelia<br />
94 Kim Haws Moxin, a daughter,<br />
Catherine Marie<br />
95 Kathleen McEneaney Curry, a son, Colin<br />
95 Carolyn Fahie Ouellette, a son, Jack<br />
96 JoAnne Leitner Sushko, a son, Liam<br />
00 Leah Champ Burdick, a daughter,<br />
Natalie Jane<br />
00 Ashley Rogers Kevorkian, a daughter,<br />
Elena<br />
00 Sara Levesh Prior, a daughter, Molly Ann<br />
03 Tricia Patenaude Sabine, a daughter,<br />
Lily Louise<br />
05/06 Lauren Willette, a son,<br />
Boston Jeffrey Willette<br />
Unions<br />
91MS David Siedlar to Xiao Gui Fang<br />
94 Shannon M. Garvey to Kevin P. Roach<br />
94/97 Kyla McSweeney to James Burton<br />
97 Kerrie Colantonio to Jansen McNay<br />
97 Victoria Ryder to Matthew Gilman<br />
00 Marcie Morrocco to Jon Kaczmarczyk<br />
01 Jillian Warner to Hernan Edzon Perez<br />
03/07 Jennifer Finn to Robert Deardorff<br />
04 Kelly McLoud to Ryan Duda<br />
04 Emily Pateris to Darin Costantine<br />
04/05 Jennifer Thurston to David Carey<br />
05/07 Kendra Dome to Kosea Frederick<br />
05 Aimee Glassick to Christopher Dill<br />
05 Allison Marini to James “Jimmy”<br />
Antonowicz<br />
07MS Kimberly Conlan to James LoCicero<br />
Deaths<br />
28 Marjorie Whitehead Shepherd<br />
30 Eugenie Callahan<br />
31 Marjorie Little Rourke<br />
32 Margery Hart Cory<br />
32 Marian Branch Haughton<br />
33 Isabel Ward Knowlton<br />
35 Elsie Medlicott Jacob<br />
38 Mildred Wheeler Flanders<br />
38 Bettina Dvlinsky Werman<br />
42 Janet Moody Strickler<br />
41 Virginia Dole Ladd<br />
41 Mary Ames Poor<br />
42/43 Janet Moody Strickler<br />
43/44 Alma Mathewson Hinman<br />
44 Margaret Zabriskie Christison<br />
58 Barbara Stumpf Moses<br />
70 Brenda Gladding Alexander<br />
73 Barbara Steele Cole<br />
76 Martha Gormley<br />
77 Jackie Lampert<br />
96MS Lindsay Davis<br />
48 <strong>Spring</strong> <strong>2008</strong>
Dreams really do<br />
come true!<br />
Couldn’t do it<br />
without you!<br />
Thumbs up!<br />
WELCOME,<br />
Fabulous New<br />
<strong>Wheelock</strong> Alumni!<br />
The great thing about graduating<br />
from <strong>Wheelock</strong> is that you can always<br />
come home again — often! Here’s how:<br />
❖ Come to our on-campus events<br />
and conferences.<br />
❖ Join your local <strong>Wheelock</strong> Alumni<br />
Club and attend our special offcampus<br />
gatherings.<br />
❖ Start a <strong>Wheelock</strong> Book Club<br />
chapter.<br />
❖ Stay in touch with the Alumni<br />
Relations Office at alumnirelations@<br />
wheelock.edu or (617) 879-2261.<br />
❖Read <strong>Wheelock</strong> Magazine, and<br />
let everyone know what you’re up<br />
to by sending in news for the Class<br />
Notes section. Lori Ann Saslav is<br />
waiting to hear from you at lsaslav@<br />
wheelock.edu or (617) 879-2123.<br />
❖Sign up to read the monthly<br />
Alumni E-newsletter by e-mailing<br />
Lori Ann at lsaslav@wheelock.edu<br />
with your e-mail address.<br />
Congratulations<br />
all around!<br />
Oh,<br />
happy day!
Calendar<br />
of Events<br />
June 2 – 4<br />
Leadership and Management<br />
in the Social Sector Seminars<br />
Innovative Leadership at Work:<br />
Preparing Social Entrepreneurs<br />
of Today<br />
43 Hawes Street<br />
Brookline Campus<br />
June 5 & 6<br />
Environmental Education<br />
for Children:<br />
Going Beyond the Hype<br />
43 Hawes Street<br />
Brookline Campus<br />
July 9 – 11<br />
International Froebel Society<br />
Conference<br />
Learning to Play—<br />
Playing to Learn<br />
Center for Scholarship and Research<br />
43 Hawes Street<br />
Brookline Campus<br />
July 17<br />
Cape Cod Club Annual Picnic<br />
Stay tuned for more details!<br />
August 14 • 12 p.m.<br />
Alumni Association Board<br />
Past Presidents Luncheon<br />
Hosted by President Jenkins-Scott<br />
43 Hawes Street<br />
Brookline Campus<br />
August 30 • 9:30-11:30 a.m.<br />
Alumni Association<br />
Annual Plant Giveaway!<br />
<strong>Wheelock</strong> Family Theatre<br />
Join us in welcoming the<br />
Class of 2012!<br />
October 3 & 4<br />
Alumni of Color Reunion<br />
For more information,<br />
call the<br />
Alumni Relations Office at<br />
(617) 879-2261.<br />
For more information and event updates, watch your monthly<br />
E-Newsletter, check the <strong>College</strong> website at www.wheelock.edu, or e-mail alumnirelations@wheelock.edu.<br />
To improve the lives of children and families<br />
200 The Riverway<br />
Boston, MA<br />
02215-4176<br />
(617) 879-2123<br />
Non-Profit Org.<br />
U.S. Postage<br />
PAID<br />
N. ATTLEBORO, MA<br />
PERMIT NO. 216