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Wheelock Magazine - Spring 2010 - Wheelock College

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<strong>Spring</strong> <strong>2010</strong><br />

Sh i he<br />

Learning n<br />

Curve<br />

• New Funds for<br />

Teacher Education<br />

• Alumni Service<br />

Learning in Guatemala<br />

• Programs, Policy Talks &<br />

Community Dialogues


<strong>Wheelock</strong> Students<br />

Score High on<br />

Sense of Well-Being,<br />

Civic Mindedness,<br />

and Engagement<br />

<strong>Wheelock</strong> has always strived<br />

to provide a learning experience<br />

that transforms students,<br />

and alumni often tell<br />

us that their experience as<br />

undergraduates laid the foundation for much<br />

of what they accomplish in their personal as<br />

well as professional lives. Now the Wabash<br />

National Study of Liberal Arts Education, in<br />

which <strong>Wheelock</strong> is participating along with<br />

41 institutions nationally, is showing that the<br />

transformation process begins early at <strong>Wheelock</strong>,<br />

with the <strong>College</strong> making a significant<br />

difference in students’ sense of well-being and<br />

their civic mindedness and engagement during<br />

their very first year on campus.<br />

The Wabash study is a large-scale, longitudinal<br />

study investigating critical factors that<br />

affect the outcomes of liberal arts education.<br />

The first outcome measures of the study, in<br />

the area of psychological well-being, show that<br />

among students at 31 small institutions in the<br />

study, <strong>Wheelock</strong> students grew over their first<br />

year in college more than any others in their<br />

“Self-Acceptance” score and in their “Purpose<br />

in Life” score, and they score exceptionally<br />

high on growth in “Consciousness of Self”<br />

and “Commitment.” Similarly, they ranked<br />

near the top in growth in “Positive Relations<br />

with Others” and sense of “Environmental<br />

Mastery.” They rank first out of 47 institutions,<br />

small and large, in positive change on<br />

the scores of “Citizenship” and “Collaboration,”<br />

and they ranked very high in growth on<br />

the Socially Responsible Leadership scale.<br />

Dr. Julie Wollman, vice president for<br />

academic affairs, who led the <strong>Wheelock</strong><br />

team that won <strong>Wheelock</strong> a place in the<br />

study, attributes the high scores of its students<br />

to the <strong>College</strong>’s mission. “Because of<br />

<strong>Wheelock</strong>’s unique mission and focus on<br />

preparing students for careers in which civic<br />

engagement is at the core of their personal<br />

and professional identities, the <strong>College</strong> has<br />

never made a distinction between its responsibility<br />

to foster students’ intellectual growth<br />

and their full development as individuals,<br />

including their psychosocial well-being and<br />

sense of civic purpose,” she says. “As experts<br />

in the field of human development, we<br />

understand that the whole student grows<br />

through the integration of cognitive, emotional,<br />

behavioral, and civic development.”<br />

Reading at <strong>Wheelock</strong><br />

and Across America<br />

The National Education<br />

Association’s (NEA) Read<br />

Across America is an annual<br />

reading motivation and<br />

awareness program that<br />

calls for every child in every community to<br />

celebrate reading on March 2, the birthday<br />

of beloved children’s author Dr. Seuss.<br />

The program also provides NEA members,<br />

parents, and caregivers, with the resources<br />

and activities they need to keep reading<br />

with children throughout the year. At<br />

<strong>Wheelock</strong>, staff and students gathered<br />

children in the CCSR for Seuss readings<br />

on the big day. Oh, the things that they<br />

know and the places they’ll go!<br />

“The more that t you read,<br />

the more things you will l<br />

know. The more that<br />

t<br />

you learn, the more places you’ll go.”<br />

— Dr. Seuss


<strong>Spring</strong> <strong>2010</strong><br />

TABLE<br />

OF<br />

CONTENTS<br />

2 News Nuggets<br />

4 On Campus<br />

12 Alumni<br />

18 Class Notes<br />

Editor<br />

Christine Dall<br />

Production Editor<br />

Lori Ann Saslav<br />

Design<br />

Leslie Hartwell<br />

Photography<br />

Christine Dall<br />

Kin Lloyd<br />

Len Rubenstein<br />

Don West<br />

<strong>Wheelock</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong><br />

<strong>Spring</strong> <strong>2010</strong><br />

Volume XXX, Issue 2<br />

<strong>Wheelock</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong> invites manuscripts<br />

and photographs from our readers,<br />

although we do not guarantee their<br />

publication, and we reserve the right<br />

to edit them as needed.<br />

For Class Notes information, contact<br />

Lori Ann Saslav at (617) 879-2123 or<br />

lsaslav@wheelock.edu.<br />

Send letters to the editor to:<br />

<strong>Wheelock</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong>, Office for Institutional<br />

Advancement, <strong>Wheelock</strong> <strong>College</strong>,<br />

200 The Riverway, Boston, MA 02215-4176,<br />

or e-mail them to cdall@wheelock.edu.<br />

Dear Alumni and Friends,<br />

Iam delighted to announce that new<br />

federal funding totaling $2.5 million has<br />

been awarded to <strong>Wheelock</strong> teacher preparation<br />

programs, a very welcome investment<br />

that affirms our national reputation<br />

for leadership in teacher education and supports<br />

our ongoing initiatives to improve the quality of<br />

teaching and learning in our schools.<br />

In remarking on the most recent of these<br />

awards, a $1.6 million Teacher Quality Grant,<br />

Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry stated, “When<br />

you invest in teachers, you are investing in students,<br />

and every educator I meet with stresses<br />

the importance of preparation. That’s why these<br />

federal dollars go a long way.” I couldn’t agree<br />

more! These awards to <strong>Wheelock</strong> recognize the<br />

quality of our faculty and our graduates, who<br />

work so hard and are passionate about making<br />

our schools work for all children, despite the<br />

enormous challenges of the profession. Congratulations<br />

and thank you to all of our alumni who<br />

are devoted to education and have contributed<br />

mightily to <strong>Wheelock</strong>’s reputation as a leader in<br />

teacher preparation.<br />

The Winter Olympics this year were inspirational<br />

and exciting, providing us all with a wonderful<br />

opportunity to witness the power of hard<br />

work and commitment and prompting me to<br />

think about the values <strong>Wheelock</strong> shares with these<br />

historic games. The Olympic ideals that encourage<br />

individuals to develop their physical, moral,<br />

intellectual, cultural, and artistic qualities in<br />

harmony are incorporated into all aspects of the<br />

<strong>College</strong>’s Athletics Department programs — an<br />

initiative reported on in this issue of <strong>Wheelock</strong><br />

<strong>Magazine</strong>. This philosophy of Olympism also very<br />

closely matches what <strong>Wheelock</strong> seeks to accomplish<br />

as a higher education institution dedicated<br />

to the full development of individual students<br />

— intellectually, emotionally, and socially. <strong>Wheelock</strong>’s<br />

commitment to the whole student is one of<br />

its core strengths and contributes enormous value<br />

to the educations our students receive and to the<br />

accomplishments they achieve as graduates.<br />

I believe it is because of <strong>Wheelock</strong>’s attention<br />

to developing students as whole people that<br />

the earliest results from the Wabash National<br />

Study of Liberal Arts Education at small colleges<br />

show our students scoring very high — first — in<br />

several indicators that contribute to successful<br />

student outcomes. Compared with students at<br />

other colleges in the study, <strong>Wheelock</strong> students<br />

in their critical first year of college scored exceptionally<br />

high in growth in consciousness of self,<br />

positive relations with others, collaboration,<br />

citizenship, self-acceptance, purpose in life, and<br />

commitment. These are especially welcome signs<br />

of healthy development in a time of high stress<br />

for students generally. It is more evidence of the<br />

value of <strong>Wheelock</strong>’s fundamental emphasis on<br />

understanding and promoting individual growth<br />

and development in our students.<br />

On May 21, <strong>Wheelock</strong>’s 122nd Commencement<br />

exercises will honor and celebrate Call to<br />

Service. Service is another one of <strong>Wheelock</strong>’s<br />

core values established by Lucy <strong>Wheelock</strong> and<br />

uniquely reflected in the lives and meaningful<br />

work of our alumni. Whether our graduates<br />

become teachers, social workers, and child life<br />

specialists, or develop their liberal arts educations<br />

into careers as lawyers, artists, and business<br />

entrepreneurs, they are imprinted with the<br />

desire to give back and serve a purpose larger<br />

than themselves — to “do amazing things,” as<br />

one 2009 graduate put it: “<strong>Wheelock</strong> has given<br />

me so much more than an education. It has<br />

helped me to define myself as a person and<br />

to strengthen the goals I would like to accomplish<br />

in my lifetime. With the education I have<br />

received, I feel ready to enter the ‘real world’<br />

and do amazing things.”<br />

With this theme in mind, I send a special<br />

thank-you to those alumni who participated<br />

in <strong>Wheelock</strong> World Service Day on April 17,<br />

and I invite all alumni to take advantage of a<br />

new service learning opportunity we will offer<br />

early next year through Safe Passage, the lifesaving<br />

program for children in Guatemala City<br />

established by Hanley Denning ’96MS. Look<br />

for information about this opportunity in the<br />

magazine and join us!<br />

I wish you all a wonderful summer “doing<br />

amazing things.”<br />

JACKIE JENKINS-SCOTT<br />

President<br />

<strong>Wheelock</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong> 1


NEWS NU<br />

GETS<br />

2 <strong>Spring</strong> <strong>2010</strong><br />

Fifth Annual Dialogue on<br />

Ear —<br />

Ma<br />

5<br />

W<br />

We’re very excited to have worked with<br />

multiple partners for five years sponsoring<br />

annual dialogues on early education<br />

and care, each one a unique opportunity<br />

for legislators, policymakers, advocates,<br />

funders, interdisciplinary practitioners, and diverse community<br />

leaders to discuss important early childhood policy and<br />

current issues and research in the field. More than 150 participants<br />

attend the Community Dialogues each year and report<br />

back that it is one of the very best statewide forums where<br />

they can meet and work with others across disciplines and<br />

domains of the field, gain new information, and collaborate<br />

to take action on early childhood policies in Massachusetts<br />

and beyond. Planning Committee co-chairs, <strong>Wheelock</strong>’s Professor<br />

in Early Childhood Dr. David Fernie and Executive<br />

Vice President of ABCD Ms. Sharon Scott-Chandler, have<br />

the Fifth Annual Dialogue on Early Education and Care on<br />

<strong>Wheelock</strong>’s calendar for May 25, from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.<br />

Come, contribute, and learn.<br />

President Jenkins-Scott<br />

Co-Chairs Massachusetts<br />

Women’s Conference<br />

Women from all over the world gathered at the<br />

United Nations Headquarters in New York City<br />

in March for the 54th annual Commission on<br />

the Status of Women conference, which evaluates<br />

progress on gender equity and promotes women’s<br />

rights in political, economic, civil, social, and educational fields. A<br />

month later, on April 17, President Jenkins-Scott co-chaired the Massachusetts<br />

Women’s Summit at Pine Manor <strong>College</strong> in Chestnut Hill,<br />

bringing together women and girls of all backgrounds to continue the<br />

dialogue around issues relevant to gender equity in the Massachusetts<br />

economy and government.<br />

Accelerated Program for<br />

Mental Health Counseling<br />

Mental health counseling is a growing professional field<br />

and one of increasing interest to students attracted<br />

to <strong>Wheelock</strong>’s mission. That’s why the <strong>College</strong> has<br />

begun a new educational partnership with the Massachusetts<br />

School of Professional Psychology (MSPP)<br />

that will fast-track students who want to prepare to enter the field.<br />

<strong>Wheelock</strong> students may now complete their undergraduate educations<br />

at the <strong>College</strong> in an accelerated format, within three years and two<br />

summers, and then earn a two-year master’s degree from MSPP.<br />

G<br />

M<br />

M<strong>Wheelock</strong><br />

W<br />

encourages the aspirations of urban<br />

children and families — the fastest-growing<br />

segment of the population — in a variety of<br />

ways, including through our strengthened<br />

partnerships with the public schools and<br />

community organizations, our successful Juvenile Justice and Youth<br />

Advocacy program, and our new Teacher Bound and Aspire programs.<br />

Last fall, <strong>Wheelock</strong> partnered with the Boston Public Schools (BPS)<br />

and the Gates Foundation to promote the Gates Millennium Scholars<br />

Program (GMS) in Boston. The goal of the collaboration is to increase<br />

the number of BPS students receiving the prestigious and, potentially,<br />

life-changing GMS scholarships, which provide up to 10 years of<br />

funding for undergraduate through Ph.D. studies.<br />

One hundred sixty-two Senior Scholars (who had the required<br />

minimum 3.3 GPA) from 19 Boston schools attended the <strong>Wheelock</strong>-hosted<br />

event at which they learned how to apply to the program.GMS’s<br />

Russell Peek called <strong>Wheelock</strong>’s Boston launch of the<br />

program “outstanding.”


NEWS NUGGETS<br />

DOE Funds $400,000 for<br />

Energy Efficiency at <strong>Wheelock</strong><br />

As everyone has become acutely aware, being<br />

more efficient with energy can make a big difference<br />

in conserving financial as well as natural<br />

resources. When <strong>Wheelock</strong> designed the master<br />

plan for the construction and renovation projects<br />

that are currently transforming our campus, we<br />

made sure to include the most up-to-date LEED-certified technologies<br />

in the plan. LEED stands for the Leadership in Energy and<br />

Environmental Design rating systems created by the U.S. Green<br />

Building Council and accepted internationally as benchmarks for<br />

the design, construction, and operation of high-performance green<br />

buildings. In January, <strong>Wheelock</strong> received $400,000 in funding from<br />

the U.S. Department of Energy to incorporate new LEED systems<br />

and technologies that will make campus life more energy efficient.<br />

Being a good citizen of the world has its benefits — <strong>Wheelock</strong> will<br />

save on energy costs while conserving natural resources and helping<br />

the environment.<br />

$800,000 NASA Funds for Better<br />

Math and Science Teaching<br />

Three years ago, with support from the Massachusetts<br />

Technology Collaborative, <strong>Wheelock</strong>’s Math and Science<br />

Education Initiative (MSEI) opened the Math and Science<br />

Education Center at <strong>Wheelock</strong> to improve math and science education<br />

teaching and learning at the <strong>College</strong> and to work with other<br />

local colleges specifically in the area of developing strong science<br />

education through environmental studies. Since then, MSEI has provided<br />

math and science in-service preparation for preschool to grade<br />

6 teachers as well as better education of pre-service teachers in math<br />

and science instruction. Now <strong>Wheelock</strong> has received $800,000 in<br />

funds from NASA to develop a Math and Science Learning Community<br />

that will allow the <strong>College</strong> to expand this work, more deeply<br />

engaging community-based preschools and out-of-school-time providers<br />

in addition to the Boston-area schools in the program.<br />

Childhood Higher Education Access<br />

at <strong>Wheelock</strong> Receives $100,000<br />

The current federal and state emphasis on moving early childhood<br />

educators to degree attainment demonstrates a welcome<br />

awakening to the importance of higher education for providers<br />

of early education and care. <strong>Wheelock</strong> is well-known for its leadership<br />

in this area, and now its Childhood Higher Education Access<br />

project, a partnership with other institutions and organizations in<br />

Boston to create a pipeline for early childhood educators to access<br />

bachelor’s degree completion programs, has received $100,000 from<br />

the federal government through its Fund for the Improvement of<br />

Postsecondary Education. <strong>Wheelock</strong> plans to use the funds to develop<br />

a pilot project with community colleges in Boston.<br />

$1.6 Million to <strong>Wheelock</strong> for<br />

Partnership in Boston Teacher<br />

Residency Master’s Program<br />

A$1.6 million Teacher Quality Grant from the U.S. Department of<br />

Education will fund <strong>Wheelock</strong>’s participation in Boston Teacher<br />

Residency (BTR), a master’s program in education that recruits<br />

talented college graduates, career changers, and community members and<br />

prepares them to make an immediate positive impact in Boston Public<br />

Schools (BPS) classrooms. The grant originates in Recovery Act funding<br />

aimed at raising student achievement in Massachusetts by improving<br />

instruction in the schools. The BTR Partnership with <strong>Wheelock</strong> and<br />

the University of Massachusetts will meet a significant portion of BPS<br />

needs for teachers of special education, English language learners, and<br />

math and science, in addition to early childhood teachers and teachers of<br />

color. Teacher Residents in the program will spend a full academic year<br />

in a BPS classroom teaching alongside an experienced mentor and applying<br />

theory to practice through rigorous coursework. Their commitment<br />

earns them a master’s degree in education, a Massachusetts Initial Teacher<br />

License, and credit toward a dual license in Special Education or ESL.<br />

Boston Globe Editorial Lauds<br />

<strong>Wheelock</strong>’s Diversity and Preparation<br />

of Leaders for the 21st Century<br />

In a recent survey investigating the diversity of tenured and tenuretrack<br />

faculty at Boston-area colleges and universities, The Boston<br />

Globe found that <strong>Wheelock</strong>, by far, had the most diverse faculty when<br />

compared with all other institutions. An editorial in the Globe titled One<br />

<strong>College</strong> Gains True Diversity lauded the <strong>College</strong>, “renowned for producing<br />

teachers and professional child and family advocates,” for being without<br />

peer in diversity of faculty and said that it “proves that neither rocket science<br />

nor an undiscovered Dead Sea scroll is necessary to find the formula<br />

to achieve diversity.”<br />

The Globe also pointed out increasing student diversity at the <strong>College</strong><br />

and urged other colleges to follow <strong>Wheelock</strong>’s lead, saying the issue of<br />

diversity in higher education is “essential for any school pretending to<br />

prepare leaders for a multi-cultural and global 21st century.”<br />

<strong>Wheelock</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong> 3


ON CAMPUS<br />

The Dance<br />

We!<br />

BAKALAR ART ON CAMPUS<br />

Making Art Present in Everyday Life<br />

Teachers value art classes because they’re one of the few<br />

places where children have the opportunity to manipulate<br />

materials, to experiment with expressing ideas visually, and<br />

to solve problems with multiple potential solutions — in<br />

other words, to think creatively. If art isn’t often a part of<br />

our everyday lives as adults, it is a loss.<br />

That’s one big reason why we are so excited about the latest change that’s<br />

come to <strong>Wheelock</strong>’s campus, this time in the form of three abstract outdoor<br />

sculptures generously donated by David Bakalar, a Brookline resident and<br />

nationally known sculpture artist. Bakalar’s work has been displayed across<br />

the country, including on the campuses of Columbia University, Brandeis<br />

University, Mount Ida <strong>College</strong>, and the Longy School of Music.<br />

The <strong>Wheelock</strong> sculptures are all abstract but created from a variety of<br />

materials and quite different. The Dance is a giant standing figure with<br />

flat black and gray steel surfaces, some of which mirror passers-by, and is<br />

installed next to the <strong>Wheelock</strong> Family Theatre. We! is a trio of aluminum<br />

figures in front of the new Campus Center and Student Residence that<br />

changes shape and color depending upon your viewpoint. From one vantage,<br />

the group appears to be strolling down the Riverway. Life Force IV is<br />

an abstract figure with round surfaces sculpted from granite, a more traditional<br />

material, and is located near the rear entrance to 43 Hawes Street<br />

on the Brookline campus.<br />

“<strong>Wheelock</strong> is fortunate to have the Towne Art Gallery with its rotating<br />

exhibits and some artwork exhibited inside of our buildings, but<br />

we never have had permanent exterior art as part of our environment,”<br />

says Associate Professor of Art History Marjorie Hall. “These sculptures<br />

enhance the campus and make a statement about the importance of art to<br />

the <strong>College</strong>, to education, and to our lives. We are hoping this is the first<br />

step in establishing more permanent art on campus.”<br />

Next time you’re in Boston (Reunion, perhaps?), make sure to seek out<br />

these wonderful gifts and make them a part of your <strong>Wheelock</strong> experience.<br />

OF INTEREST<br />

Theater Arts Foster Empathy<br />

Life Force IV<br />

Last year, Thalia Goldstein, a Ph.D. candidate at Boston <strong>College</strong>,<br />

completed a study of 8- to 10-year-olds taking 10 months<br />

of theater arts classes at <strong>Wheelock</strong> Family Theatre and came<br />

up with some interesting results. The process of role-playing<br />

and acting reduced children’s suppression of emotion while it<br />

also increased their ability to express and regulate emotion. While empathy<br />

was not specifically taught as part of the classes, the process of assuming<br />

a character and thinking about other characters’ thinking, feelings, and<br />

motivations also increased levels of empathy, defined in this case as “the<br />

ability to match another person’s emotions.” Goldstein compared these<br />

students with other children taking music and visual arts classes but found<br />

the changes in emotional regulation and empathic abilities only in those<br />

participating in theater arts.


ON CAMPPUS<br />

P<br />

POLICY TALK<br />

Community Dialogue Launches<br />

Early Childhood Policy Coalition<br />

One of the expectations underlying <strong>Wheelock</strong>’s annual Community<br />

Dialogues is that when people come together to<br />

focus their collective experience and knowledge on an issue<br />

of common concern, they can generate great ideas and the<br />

momentum needed to put them into action. Marta Rosa,<br />

<strong>Wheelock</strong>’s senior director of government relations and civic engagement,<br />

proved the point last fall when she announced the launch of a new initiative<br />

that emerged from the 2008 Annual Community Dialogue on Early Education<br />

and Care in Massachusetts.<br />

Out of that dialogue, the<br />

Early Childhood Policy Coalition<br />

(ECPC) has formed to<br />

address the lack of diverse and<br />

representative leadership in<br />

Massachusetts early childhood<br />

policy arenas. “At a time when<br />

financial resources that support<br />

those most in need in our society<br />

are diminishing, it is important<br />

to ensure that racially, ethnically,<br />

and linguistically diverse communities,<br />

as well as geographically isolated and economically disadvantaged<br />

groups, are actively engaged in shaping policy and allocating resources,”<br />

Rosa says. While young children from highly diverse backgrounds attend<br />

early childhood programs where multiple languages, traditions, and cultures<br />

converge, this diversity is rarely visible at the leadership level, she<br />

notes. More often than not, communities of color, linguistically diverse<br />

groups, immigrants, and regions of the state farthest from Boston are absent<br />

from policy discussions and decision-making tables.<br />

<strong>Wheelock</strong> is a partner in the Coalition with Hampshire Educational<br />

Collaborative (HEC), located in Western Massachusetts, and Community<br />

Advocates for Young Learners (the CAYL Institute), an organization whose<br />

goal is to develop leadership in the early childhood field. HEC provides educational<br />

services for at-risk learners at all age levels through its early childhood,<br />

out-of-school-time, special education, professional development, and<br />

adult education programs. The CAYL Institute’s mission is to create positive<br />

change for all children in the Commonwealth through policy change and<br />

leadership development.<br />

The Coalition partners have begun work in neighborhoods across<br />

Western Massachusetts and the city of Worcester, building connections and<br />

developing leadership skills among those in the early education and care<br />

community and change agents who have been effective within the communities<br />

at large. In January, <strong>Wheelock</strong> Instructor in Early Childhood Patty<br />

Hnatiuk ’93MS taught a leadership in policy course in <strong>Spring</strong>field, and this<br />

spring an organizing effort is under way in Worcester to increase the area’s<br />

capacity for influencing policy.<br />

Thanks to funding from the Schott Foundation and the Nellie Mae<br />

Foundation, the Coalition is already walking the talk, putting dialogue into<br />

action. Alumni interested in getting involved with the work of the Coalition<br />

should contact Marta Rosa at mrosa@wheelock.edu.<br />

Third Annual Youth<br />

Community Leadership Summit<br />

SPARK the Truth Keeps on Growing<br />

<strong>Wheelock</strong> has always been a good-citizen institution,<br />

collaborating with neighboring colleges and<br />

universities, engaging in issues affecting the city,<br />

and benefiting Boston’s schools and community organizations<br />

through student practica placements that have numbered in the<br />

thousands over the years since Lucy <strong>Wheelock</strong> initiated them.<br />

<strong>Wheelock</strong>’s Annual Youth Community Leadership Summit,<br />

which offers academic and leadership skill-building opportunities<br />

for Boston-area college and pre-college student leaders —<br />

in addition to <strong>Wheelock</strong> students — continues this tradition.<br />

<strong>Wheelock</strong> convened the first Summit in 2007 as a follow-up<br />

to the Bridges to Hope and Understanding: Exploring Truth<br />

and Reconciliation Youth Symposium with Archbishop Desmond<br />

Tutu. SPARK the Truth, a youth-led social justice and<br />

community action initiative that engages students from local<br />

colleges and Boston Public Schools in fostering positive change<br />

in school and community environments, was founded by<br />

<strong>Wheelock</strong> as a direct result of that symposium’s success. Since<br />

then, Boston <strong>College</strong>, Harvard University, and Emmanuel <strong>College</strong><br />

have joined <strong>Wheelock</strong> — organizing chapters of SPARK<br />

the Truth on their campuses, collaborating to work on oncampus<br />

issues as well as off-campus community problems, and<br />

participating in the Summits.<br />

The Third Annual Summit, for which SPARK the Truth<br />

collaborated with <strong>Wheelock</strong>’s Office of Pre-Collegiate and<br />

<strong>College</strong> Access Programs and its Juvenile Justice and Youth<br />

Advocacy program, brought together more than 100 students<br />

from colleges, schools, and youth organizations to talk about<br />

issues currently affecting their communities and to work<br />

toward solutions.<br />

The Boston Public Schools that are now involved are Boston<br />

Arts Academy, Boston Community Leadership Academy,<br />

Boston Latin Academy, Kennedy Academy for Health Careers,<br />

Madison Park Technical Vocational School, New Mission High<br />

School, and Muriel S. Snowden International High School.<br />

Participating community organizations are <strong>College</strong> Bound<br />

Dorchester, <strong>College</strong> For Every Student, Sociedad Latina, St.<br />

Stephen’s Place of Opportunity for Teens, and Upward Bound<br />

Teacher Bound at <strong>Wheelock</strong> <strong>College</strong>.<br />

<strong>Wheelock</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong> 5


ON CAMPUS<br />

Students<br />

t<br />

SPORTS WRAP-UP<br />

Women’s Basketball Highlights<br />

Wins over Southern Vermont <strong>College</strong> and Bay Path led the memorable<br />

moments in this year’s women’s basketball. Senior Sarah Brown<br />

became the fourth women’s basketball player to hit the 1,000-point<br />

mark, doing so in a game against Becker <strong>College</strong> in January. Brown<br />

also received All-Conference Honorable Mention.<br />

Men’s Basketball Posts Winning Season<br />

The men’s basketball team posted a winning record of 16-11 in<br />

only their third season of play under Head Coach John Preziosa.<br />

The highlight of regular season conference play was a dramatic overtime<br />

win against Elms <strong>College</strong>, whose team is nationally ranked<br />

in Division III. The Wildcats advanced to the New England Collegiate<br />

Conference (NECC) Final Four, where they fell to Elms, the<br />

eventual champions, 66-62. Sherard Robbins ’10 became the first<br />

men’s player to reach the 1,000-point plateau, doing so in front of a<br />

packed home crowd against Southern Vermont <strong>College</strong>. Robbins was<br />

also named First Team All-Conference, while Dan Main ’11 and<br />

Max Kaim ’12 both received All-Conference Honorable Mention.<br />

Softball Team Looks to Build on<br />

Last Year’s Success<br />

Having lost only one starter from the 2009 squad, the <strong>Wheelock</strong><br />

softball team is looking to build on last year’s success and make a<br />

run at the <strong>2010</strong> New England Collegiate Conference title. In early<br />

March the Wildcats had a successful trip to Florida, where they<br />

competed in the Gene Cusic Softball Classic, and they began conference<br />

action on March 29, when they hosted Lesley University.<br />

Top Tennis Singles<br />

The New England Collegiate Conference tennis season was scheduled<br />

at press time to start for <strong>Wheelock</strong> on March 27 with a home match<br />

vs. Lesley University. “We really worked hard in the pre-season,” says<br />

first-year head coach of men’s tennis Sean Duke-Crocker. “I love the<br />

way the team has come together.” Co-captain and #1 singles player<br />

Wilson Chang ’11 leads the men’s team. Senior co-captain Kate<br />

Needham and sophomore Bobby Venning round out the top three<br />

singles players for the <strong>College</strong>.<br />

<strong>Wheelock</strong> Scoops Awards at 2009<br />

NECC Field Hockey Championship<br />

Coach Kyoungho Koh, who<br />

led the Wildcats to a 7-1 overall<br />

record and second-place<br />

finish in the New England<br />

Collegiate Conference (NECC)<br />

championship — the Wildcats’<br />

first-ever trip to the title match<br />

— was named the 2009 NECC<br />

Field Hockey Coach of the<br />

Year. Four <strong>Wheelock</strong> players<br />

were named to the All-NECC<br />

First Team: forward Milbrey<br />

Hendrix ’11, midfielders<br />

Chelsey Ballard ’13 and Julie<br />

Kilcoyne ’11, and defender<br />

Coach Kyoungho Koh named<br />

2009 NECC Field Hockey<br />

Michaela Ross ’11. Goalkeeper<br />

Meredith Race ’11 received<br />

Coach of the Year<br />

an honorable mention.<br />

Additionally, men’s soccer was honored with the 2009 NECC Team<br />

Sportsmanship Award in their inaugural season. Goalkeeper Victor<br />

Kashouh ’12 received an All-Conference honorable mention for his performance<br />

leading the conference in saves with 164 in 11 games in what<br />

was his first season playing the sport.<br />

Get Current . . .<br />

Wildcats on the Web<br />

Keep tabs on how your favorite <strong>Wheelock</strong><br />

teams and players are doing on the <strong>College</strong>’s<br />

website. You’ll find the scoreboards of games played,<br />

schedules of upcoming games to go to, statistics on the teams and<br />

players, and a gallery of photos from this year’s games.<br />

6 <strong>Spring</strong> <strong>2010</strong>


Diana Cutaia,<br />

Director of Athletics<br />

and Sport-Based<br />

Initiatives<br />

at <strong>Wheelock</strong><br />

e<br />

O<br />

es<br />

Overzealous parents losing<br />

tempers, shouting violently at<br />

their kids to “kill” the opponent,<br />

or getting into a physical<br />

fight with umpires over<br />

a call gone wrong are all too common experiences<br />

on today’s athletic fields, even where<br />

the youngest of children are playing. It was<br />

watching such an event 10 years ago that made<br />

Diana Cutaia, <strong>Wheelock</strong>’s director of athletics<br />

and sport-based initiatives, start to think about<br />

what is missing from the hypercompetitive world of sports that is causing 12-year-olds<br />

to burn out and quit. Words like “empathy” and “collaboration” came to mind.<br />

Empathy? Yes, if you are Cutaia or among a like-minded group of coaches who are<br />

out to put the original Olympic orientation to athletics back in the game — a mindset<br />

that, among other benefits, allows you to feel for your opponent if they lose the game<br />

because you know what it is like to be a worthy competitor and not win.<br />

Wa<br />

lympia<br />

Cutaia notes that the war themes and violent vernacular in sports today are outdated<br />

remnants from ancient times when athletic games were used to train warriors. “They<br />

are still so pervasive that today’s players and watchers have become desensitized to the<br />

violence involved and are missing the opportunity to gain more from sports,” she says.<br />

The “more” is embedded in the equally ancient Olympian ideals that focused on<br />

preparing individual athletes for life by developing them to be the best human beings<br />

they could possibly be, says Cutaia, as defined in the Olympic charter: Olympism is<br />

a philosophy of life, exalting and combining in a balanced whole the qualities of body,<br />

will, and mind. Blending sport with culture and education, Olympism seeks to create<br />

a way of life based on the joy of effort, the educational value of a good example, and<br />

respect for universal fundamental ethical principles.<br />

The approach involves mentally reframing the competitiveness in sports to be at<br />

once more internal and more collaborative. “Instead of working to brutally crush your<br />

opponent, you set personal goals to be the best you can be as an individual competitor;<br />

you work to meet these goals and set new ones,” Cutaia explains. “This leads to genuine<br />

growth and self-confidence and becoming an even better athlete.”<br />

Learning to think collaboratively, she says, goes beyond developing teamwork skills:<br />

“You want your opponent to be good, to be a strong competitor, because it makes you<br />

stretch to be the best you can be. You are in the game together; you don’t have to hurt<br />

each other to succeed. This is a kind of sportsmanship we take seriously at <strong>Wheelock</strong>.<br />

<strong>Wheelock</strong> coaches are evaluated on whether or not student athletes learn and have a<br />

positive experience. Even losing a game has its positive side. “If you have an undefeated<br />

season, you never learn anything,” says Cutaia. “I don’t remember the scores or very many<br />

of the wins or losses in games I played as a student, but I remember the lessons learned<br />

from coaches, the relationships built with teammates, and the feelings of accomplishment.<br />

That’s what’s meaningful.” You might say it’s the Wildcat way of going for the gold.<br />

Resource: Cutaia recommends Season of Life: a football star, a boy, a journey to<br />

manhood by Pulitzer Prize winner Jeffrey Marx, the story of a retired football pro who<br />

changes lives by teaching boys to become men of substance and impact through focusing<br />

on a cause beyond themselves. Olympic champion Carl Lewis says it “should be<br />

required reading for every high school student in America and every parent as well.”<br />

NFL Hall of Famer Ronnie Lott promises that “by sharing Season of Life with others, you<br />

will be helping to make this a better world.”<br />

Social Entrepreneurship Update<br />

Our students make the complex process<br />

of grant-getting look so easy!<br />

Two more M.S.W. students have<br />

succeeded marvelously in their first attempt<br />

at applying what they learned in Dr. Hope<br />

Haslam Straughan’s organizational leadership<br />

class. Courtney Gomez and Sarah<br />

Thoensen won a $5,000 grant for therapeutic<br />

supplies to be used at the Italian<br />

Home for Children (IHC), where they are<br />

interning. The IHC congratulated Courtney<br />

and Sarah, saying, “Their hard work is<br />

going to benefit the agency tremendously.<br />

We appreciate it SO MUCH.”<br />

StudentSnapshot<br />

Name: Jessica Reyes, Policy Fellow<br />

Year of Graduation: <strong>2010</strong><br />

Major: American Studies, Human Development Focus<br />

in Psychology, Juvenile Justice and Youth Advocacy<br />

Some interests & hobbies: Love reading, salsa<br />

dancing, going out to eat, and spending quality time<br />

with those important people in my life.<br />

What got you interested in the area of policy:<br />

I understand that policy influences much of our lives and,<br />

very importantly, those same people I hope to advocate<br />

for, whether in education, health care, or juvenile justice.<br />

All is interconnected. If I do not become more aware,<br />

informed, and involved in the public policy arena, I will<br />

not be able to efficiently advocate for those who need a<br />

voice in government.<br />

What have you gained from this year as a<br />

Policy Fellow: Learning and understanding more of the<br />

process of public policy so that I can better navigate the<br />

system to become a better advocate and a more involved<br />

citizen of our Commonwealth.<br />

<strong>Wheelock</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong> 7


ON CAMPUS<br />

Faculty<br />

Social Work Department Honors —<br />

Kathleen Kirk Bishop<br />

<strong>Wheelock</strong> celebrates Social Work Month in March<br />

every year with a dinner that recognizes the vital<br />

work that the <strong>College</strong> prepares its students to do.<br />

This year, the event was special because it was the<br />

perfect occasion to honor the contributions of<br />

Dr. Kathleen Kirk Bishop, who is retiring after a decade of leadership<br />

at <strong>Wheelock</strong>. Dr. Bishop served as dean of the School of Social<br />

Work and Family Studies from 1999 until 2009, directing <strong>Wheelock</strong>’s<br />

B.S.W. program, spearheading the development of its M.S.W. program,<br />

and supporting the <strong>College</strong>’s development of several new programs,<br />

including the Sport-Based Youth Development and Juvenile Justice<br />

and Youth Advocacy programs.<br />

Dr. Bishop’s exceptional career beyond the <strong>Wheelock</strong> campus has<br />

included leadership appointments on several other university faculties,<br />

at schools of medicine and hospitals, and at federal agencies. Her contributions<br />

as a social work educator, scholar, researcher, consultant, agency<br />

adviser, advocate, coalition builder, program developer, and direct service<br />

provider were described by more than one celebrant at the event as<br />

quite simply “amazing.”<br />

Students at the gathering expressed their personal thanks for her<br />

inspired teaching and mentoring.<br />

Michelle McWilliams ’08MSW, coordinator of social work for<br />

the Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at Boston Medical Center,<br />

said that it was under Dr. Bishop that she became a believer in social<br />

justice, change, and the practice of social work. “Dr. Bishop — or<br />

Kathleen, as her students call her — personifies the ideals, mores, and<br />

definition of social work,” she said. “She practiced what she preached.”<br />

She noted Kathleen’s outstanding ability to make students feel empowered;<br />

her sophisticated understanding of the intersection and dynamics<br />

of individual, familial, and community forces that influence the goals,<br />

practices, values, and ethics of social service practice; and her ethic<br />

of practicing what she preached. “There are far too few practitioners<br />

working with underserved communities who possess such an understanding,”<br />

she said. “I am lucky to have been trained by one.”<br />

LaTanya Steele ’05BSW, social work supervisor at the Needham<br />

Council on Aging, attended <strong>Wheelock</strong> as a full-time student<br />

and working single parent raising two teenage daughters. Addressing<br />

Dr. Bishop, she said, “Challenges were set before me, but they<br />

were diminished by the support that you provided. Mae West said,<br />

‘You only live once — but if you do it correctly, once is more than<br />

enough.’ You do only live once, and your profession is no exception.<br />

And if you do it right, one working life is more than enough. Dr.<br />

Bishop, you did it correctly. Thank you.”<br />

Kathleen appreciated the many heartfelt accolades but preferred<br />

to focus attention on <strong>Wheelock</strong>, her students and colleagues, and, of<br />

course, social work.<br />

“I am pleased to report that social work B.S.W. and M.S.W.<br />

programs are alive and well and thriving at <strong>Wheelock</strong>,” she informed<br />

everyone. “This year, in May <strong>2010</strong>, we will graduate the largest class<br />

of M.S.W. students — 48 — and a large B.S.W. class of 31.” If we<br />

add all of the students we have graduated from both programs, it is<br />

roughly 500 students.<br />

“This night is about family — yours, mine, and all of our collective<br />

dedication to improving the lives of children and families — not just<br />

in our own families, our neighborhood, city, state, and country, but in<br />

the whole world,” Dr. Bishop continued. “I think that the most recent<br />

event in Haiti has made it abundantly clear that we are all family.”<br />

In her talk, Dr. Bishop demonstrated what Assistant Professor<br />

of Social Work Deborah Beck compared to pioneer social worker<br />

Jane Addams’ “unswerving faith in the potential of all human beings.”<br />

Beck said, “I think we can all see that there are direct similarities<br />

here. A giant in the social work profession. An advocate of human<br />

rights and social justice for all. A woman who believes in the immutable,<br />

universal existence and power of human strength. And a person<br />

who ends all of her e-mails with the simple word ‘peace.’ This is also<br />

you, Kathleen. And for all of us, I say the simple word — THANKS.”<br />

I i<br />

l<br />

Vi i<br />

i<br />

p<br />

<strong>Wheelock</strong>’s<br />

W<br />

Center for<br />

International Education,<br />

Leadership, and Innovation<br />

hosted three Presidential International<br />

Visiting Scholars from Germany, Ghana,<br />

and Israel during the spring semester.<br />

Dr. Joachim Broecher, professor of children’s development,<br />

education, and socialization at the University<br />

of Applied Sciences in Magdeburg-Stendal, Germany,<br />

directs the Applied Childhood Studies program at<br />

Magdeburg-Stendal, from which <strong>Wheelock</strong> <strong>College</strong> welcomed<br />

two exchange students this semester. Dr. Broecher<br />

lectured on the ways in which art can help children<br />

to heal and was hosted at <strong>Wheelock</strong> by Dr. Petra Hesse,<br />

associate professor of human development.<br />

Dr. Martin Okyere Owusu of the University of<br />

Ghana’s Legon School of Performing Arts is a professor,<br />

filmmaker, playwright, and director who is a<br />

powerful presence in West African theater. Lecturing<br />

on “Ananse, The Spider Revisited: The Educational and<br />

Spiritual Significance of Storytelling in West African<br />

Tradition,” Dr. Owusu was hosted by Dr. Joyce Hope<br />

Scott, associate professor of American studies.<br />

Dr. Rachel Tal, head of English Studies and Educational<br />

Projects at the Amal Network of secondary<br />

schools in Israel, presented a forum on “The English<br />

Classroom as a Platform for Peace-Building with<br />

Jewish and Arab Students in Israel.” Dr. Tal was<br />

hosted by Dr. Suzanne Pasch, director of the Center<br />

for Scholarship and Research.<br />

8 <strong>Spring</strong> <strong>2010</strong>


IN CLASS<br />

OMG! Texting Is Science! LOL!<br />

The cell phone — that tiny, plastic flip box almost all of us<br />

rely on for instant communication — has come a long way<br />

since Martin Cooper invented its amazing technology in 1973.<br />

Eighty-nine percent of U.S. residents use cell phones, and<br />

texting is now mainstream technology, with more than 75<br />

billion messages sent every month. How can we possibly punch a few buttons<br />

and zap our voices or written text anywhere in the world in just seconds? How<br />

does it work? Assistant Professor of Physical Science Dr. “Chuck” Fidler<br />

had the answers to these questions and more at a recent evening drop-in class<br />

on the science of cell texting.<br />

In brief, it’s all about energy and speed. Your cell phone draws electrical<br />

energy when you plug it into your wall outlet to charge its battery, and it can<br />

transform that energy into invisible low-energy radio waves, which it emits<br />

into the air. These radio waves carry descriptive code identifying your particular<br />

phone and its current location wherever you happen to be with it.<br />

Cell towers all around the world are connected to<br />

power grids from which they also take electrical<br />

energy and transform it into radio<br />

waves. The waves emanate in spheres<br />

within a wireless cell specific to each<br />

tower, which are all connected to<br />

each other. When you make a call,<br />

the tower nearest your phone picks<br />

up the code it is sending in its radio<br />

waves, searches through millions<br />

of other descriptive codes to locate<br />

the exact destination of the phone you<br />

are calling to, and zaps a call connection<br />

across myriad other cell towers, all linked by cells<br />

of radio waves at — here’s the amazing part — roughly the speed of light. That’s<br />

around the globe eight times in one second! We won’t go into how radio waves<br />

turn into actual letters on a screen, but there’s a clue in the word “photon.”<br />

Dr. Fidler’s class offered a sampling of other interesting texting information<br />

to contemplate. The typical text service can handle only 160 characters of<br />

text; thus a shorthand language of acronyms was invented by users (OMG!).<br />

Every text message is saved somewhere and can be retrieved. And if you are<br />

tempted to text while driving? In 2008, almost 6,000 people were killed and<br />

more than 500,000 were injured in distracted driving crashes. Text wisely.<br />

ADDENDUM: Dr. Fidler’s article “Visualizing the Earth and Moon Relationship<br />

via Scaled Drawings” appeared in the December 2009 issue of Science<br />

Scope, a National Science Teachers Association journal for middle school science<br />

education.<br />

Dr. William H. Smith<br />

W.K. Kellogg Foundation<br />

Funds National Center for<br />

Race Amity at <strong>Wheelock</strong><br />

The Association of American <strong>College</strong>s and Universities’<br />

2008 research report “Making Diversity<br />

Work on Campus” recommends that students can<br />

best prepare for their increasing engagement in a<br />

diverse society and world by studying four topics<br />

within the context of race and ethnicity: experience, identity,<br />

aspiration, and United States pluralism and the pursuit of justice.<br />

The report also recommends that colleges encourage crossracial<br />

dialogue among students by providing a structured format<br />

in which they can regularly participate and learn how to engage<br />

positively in such conversations.<br />

Last semester, <strong>Wheelock</strong> introduced a new initiative led by<br />

Dr. William H. Smith “Smitty” that is designed to follow these<br />

recommendations. Dr. Smith joined the <strong>College</strong> through support<br />

from a $400,000 W.K. Kellogg Foundation grant to establish the<br />

National Center for Race Amity (NCRA) at <strong>Wheelock</strong> <strong>College</strong>,<br />

which will build on his previous work of the last 10 years. Initially<br />

as a senior fellow and later as a trustee of the Phelps Stokes Fund,<br />

Dr. Smith developed a case study- and dialogue-based approach to<br />

racial understanding and amity which is being used by a growing<br />

number of educational institutions that are part of the Campus<br />

Conversations on Race <strong>College</strong> Network (CCORCN).<br />

The CCORCN offers a structured program intended to educate<br />

students so they can have positive relationships with diverse<br />

people throughout their life experiences and includes Harvard<br />

University, Skidmore <strong>College</strong>, Emerson <strong>College</strong>, Pace University,<br />

Tufts University, Boston <strong>College</strong>, Florida International University,<br />

the University of Rochester, Berklee <strong>College</strong> of Music,<br />

Colby <strong>College</strong>, Massachusetts <strong>College</strong> of Art, and Westchester<br />

Community <strong>College</strong>.<br />

One of the goals of the new center at <strong>Wheelock</strong> is to expand<br />

the network of participating colleges, increasing the number to<br />

65 in the first two years and to 135 in three years. The NCRA<br />

will also collaborate with the Department of Education to<br />

develop a new curriculum on The Human Being. A third area of<br />

center activity will involve collaborating with <strong>Wheelock</strong> Family<br />

Theatre and the Department of Education to create theater-based<br />

race amity and education programs for middle school students.<br />

<strong>Wheelock</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong> 9


ALUMNI<br />

Join an<br />

Online Social<br />

Networking<br />

Group!<br />

Ayear ago, 540 alumni<br />

were members of<br />

a <strong>Wheelock</strong> alumni<br />

social networking group on<br />

Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter.<br />

Since then, the number has<br />

tripled! To locate a <strong>Wheelock</strong><br />

group and join the fun, just<br />

type “<strong>Wheelock</strong> Alumni” in<br />

each site’s search bar.<br />

Calling All<br />

Bermuda Alumni<br />

Did you graduate from a<br />

<strong>Wheelock</strong> <strong>College</strong> program<br />

in Bermuda? Are you<br />

currently living in Bermuda<br />

and looking to further<br />

your education? The <strong>Wheelock</strong> <strong>College</strong><br />

Center for International Education,<br />

Leadership, and Innovation is launching<br />

a new Master of Science degree program<br />

on the island with courses focused on<br />

Elementary Education and Literacy.<br />

<strong>Wheelock</strong> delivered Bachelor of Science,<br />

Master of Science, and Professional<br />

Development Programs in Bermuda from<br />

1996 to 2006, and now there is a strong<br />

call for the <strong>College</strong> to again offer its<br />

tailored, culturally relevant, and state-ofthe-art<br />

programs there for primary school<br />

teachers looking to upgrade their skills.<br />

If you or someone you know is interested<br />

and would like more information,<br />

contact the Center by phone at (617)<br />

879-2227 or by e-mail at cieli@wheelock.<br />

edu. And don’t forget to continue to keep<br />

your contact information updated and<br />

share your news for the Alumni Office’s<br />

Class Notes by visiting http://www.wheelock.edu/alum/alumupdates.asp.<br />

We<br />

look forward to hearing from you!<br />

R<br />

ent Gr !<br />

FA<br />

S h<br />

F<br />

on<br />

p<br />

g<br />

<strong>Wheelock</strong><br />

W<br />

offers this excellent opportunity to provide direct service to children<br />

and youth and to work on special projects while gaining the experience<br />

and mentoring needed for successful careers in youth development and<br />

educational fields. The FAO Schwarz Family Foundation Fellowship program is a twoyear<br />

fellowship for recent college graduates designed to prepare them as leaders in the<br />

fields of education and youth development and to strengthen high-quality youth-serving<br />

organizations. Fellows work within established organizations providing direct service,<br />

and initiating new projects, research, or programs that may involve public policy, organizational<br />

replication or sustainability efforts, or other new initiatives to strengthen the<br />

host organization. For more information, contact Kelly Essman, faculty assistant, at<br />

kessman@wheelock.edu or Ann Tobey, associate professor and director, Juvenile Justice<br />

& Youth Advocacy, at atobey@wheelock.edu.<br />

April Is Earth Day’s 40th Anniversary —<br />

Go Green Every Day Online<br />

The Alumni Relations Office is doing its best to be responsibly green by<br />

relying more on e-mail and our website to communicate with alumni. If<br />

you do not yet receive the monthly Alumni E-Newsletter, it’s probably<br />

because we don’t have your address! Ditto for all alumni who graduated in<br />

or after the year 1990. Class Notes for these alumni are now delivered online<br />

— much to the delight of many who have written or called to say how easy and<br />

convenient it is. To stay connected, pass your e-mail address along to lsaslav@<br />

wheelock.edu in the Alumni Relations Office.<br />

Recognizing in<br />

g<br />

the Value of Teachers<br />

er<br />

Secretary<br />

S<br />

of Education Arne<br />

Duncan is advocating for legislation<br />

that respects the status<br />

of educators as skilled professionals,<br />

recognizes how much they contribute<br />

to society, and compensates<br />

them accordingly. Diane Gould<br />

Thompson ’76, who has taught<br />

kindergarten at Oakland Terrace<br />

Elementary School in Silver <strong>Spring</strong>,<br />

MD, for 12 years, participated with<br />

50 other teachers from the Washington,<br />

D.C., area in a nationally<br />

televised town hall meeting with the<br />

secretary. The discussion focused on<br />

ways to reform education, improve<br />

the Elementary and Secondary<br />

Education Act, and advance methods<br />

for recruiting, preparing, and<br />

rewarding teachers.<br />

Diane Gould<br />

Thompson ’76 and<br />

Secretary of<br />

Education Arne<br />

Duncan<br />

10 <strong>Spring</strong> <strong>2010</strong>


Child Life Specialists<br />

Caroline Hargrave ’09MS,<br />

Lisa Granger ’09MS, and<br />

Danielle Surprenant ’04<br />

Meaningful Work in Cape Town, South Africa<br />

When a doctor at the Red Cross War Memorial<br />

Children’s Hospital (RCWMCH) in Cape Town,<br />

South Africa, decided she needed to incorporate<br />

child life interventions into her care protocol,<br />

she contacted Connect-123 Internship & Volunteer<br />

Programs, an organization that works with students and<br />

professionals from all over the globe who want to apply their skills<br />

to benefit nonprofit organizations, schools, research institutes, and<br />

health care facilities in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Cape Town,<br />

South Africa. Connect-123 contacted <strong>Wheelock</strong>’s Chair of Child<br />

Life and Family Studies Paul Thayer, and within months, by February<br />

2009, Caroline Hargrave ’09MS was in Cape Town beginning<br />

to pilot a child life services program that the hospital needed.<br />

The only tertiary referral hospital of its kind in sub-Saharan Africa,<br />

the RCWMCH annually treats 250,000 children who need specialized<br />

medical care. While there are therapeutic programs available to<br />

children in the hospital, South Africa has no official academic training<br />

for child life or hospital play specialties; this is the first child life pilot<br />

program to take place at any government hospital in the country.<br />

The <strong>Wheelock</strong> Team Goes to Work<br />

Two more <strong>Wheelock</strong> alumni soon joined Caroline on the child life<br />

team she was building: Lisa Granger ’09MS, a volunteer for eight<br />

weeks, and Danielle Surprenant ’04, who is now the Connect-123<br />

Child Life Program director for <strong>2010</strong>.<br />

Much of the work in the pilot program is on the Burn Rehabilitation<br />

and Oncology wards, with additional service in the areas of<br />

“Our collaboration and support of one another<br />

has brought about a sense of solidarity reminiscent<br />

of what I felt during my studies at <strong>Wheelock</strong>, and<br />

working together in this multicultural environment has<br />

been an incredible extension of our education.”<br />

— Caroline Hargrave ’09MS<br />

ICU, Trauma, Short Stay, General Pediatrics, Surgical Wards, Medical<br />

Specialty, and Operating Room as well as in outpatient clinics.<br />

Each of the three <strong>Wheelock</strong> alumni speaks of how deeply meaningful<br />

the work is. “I consistently feel a ‘fullness’ working here as<br />

the interventions we provide have such a profound impact on these<br />

children and families that can be physically felt and seen,” Caroline<br />

says. “I had one mother look at me while I helped calm her child<br />

following a challenging dressing change on the burn ward and say,<br />

‘Now that right there is the medicine.’ Watching parents ‘get it’ and<br />

realize what a difference it can make to play or communicate with<br />

their child in this setting has been very meaningful.”<br />

Danielle thinks the impact of her work, some of the “simple<br />

gestures” of child life care, bridges the gap between language, culture,<br />

and misunderstanding and gives meaning to her <strong>Wheelock</strong> education.<br />

She feels that the three alumni are pioneers. “We are the first ones to<br />

do work like this here, and that brings profound appreciation,” she<br />

continued on page 16<br />

<strong>Wheelock</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong> 11


ALUMNI<br />

Marjorie Wolf Memorial<br />

Grant Recipients<br />

Each year, <strong>Wheelock</strong> alumni prove over again<br />

just how creative they are when they propose<br />

to the Marjorie Wolf Memorial Grant<br />

program projects that will produce a pretty<br />

big bang for not a lot of money ($750 to be<br />

exact). This year’s recipients developed projects that will<br />

have a continuing influence on communities of children<br />

and teachers they work with — one local, the other halfway<br />

around the world — long after the grants are spent.<br />

Buffy Burns Ludwick ’99<br />

Buffy Burns Ludwick ’99 used her grant to develop an agricultural<br />

project for the children and teachers at the Appleton Village School in<br />

Appleton, ME, that harvested a bushel of learning about ecology, plant<br />

life, nutrition, and health, not to<br />

mention the individual growth<br />

and community-building produced<br />

by the process of collaboration.<br />

Together they planned,<br />

planted, and nurtured the<br />

school’s Appleton Roots garden<br />

into its first months of harvest.<br />

“As planned, each grade (K-8)<br />

planted and tended its own garden<br />

bed during last year’s growing<br />

season,” Buffy reported to the<br />

Alumni Association. “Students<br />

are learning and appreciating the<br />

process of recycling, composting,<br />

building fertile soil, planting the<br />

seed, harvesting healthy crops,<br />

and eating fresh, delicious lunch ingredients. On behalf of Appleton Village<br />

School, I want to thank you for supporting our efforts and granting<br />

our proposal. Our ‘Appleton Roots’ garden had a successful first season,<br />

and we look forward to many more!”<br />

Marianne O’Grady ’94MS<br />

Marianne O’Grady ’94MS has started School Is Open, a nonprofit that<br />

supports teachers and students in Afghanistan by providing the educational<br />

tools they need for schools (www.schoolisopen.org). Last summer,<br />

as she has done for<br />

several years, Marianne<br />

traveled to Afghanistan<br />

to conduct teachertraining<br />

workshops in<br />

science education and<br />

child development. Marianne<br />

used her Marjorie<br />

Wolf Memorial Grant<br />

to purchase 20 life-size<br />

X-ray sets, which she<br />

incorporated into lectures<br />

she gave on anatomy<br />

and then donated to 40<br />

teachers representing six<br />

schools from the Sherastan<br />

district of Daikundi<br />

Province. “A goal for this grant was<br />

to distribute the X-ray sets to teachers<br />

in rural and unsupported areas of<br />

Afghanistan where hundreds of children<br />

are now arriving at school each<br />

day,” Marianne told us. “<strong>Wheelock</strong><br />

<strong>College</strong> is supporting education well<br />

beyond its doors in Boston. The mission<br />

of improving the lives of children<br />

and families is occurring as far away as<br />

the middle of Afghanistan.”<br />

12 <strong>Spring</strong> <strong>2010</strong>


Elizabeth Palmer Peabody<br />

Award Winner<br />

Dr. Angela Paige Cook ’73MS<br />

Founder and Director of Paige Academy<br />

Education, strong teaching, and<br />

independent schools that nurture<br />

achievement in black children<br />

have always been at the center<br />

of Dr. Angela Paige Cook’s<br />

life. From her earliest years growing up in<br />

Washington, D.C., where her mother was<br />

principal of an inner-city school, to her own<br />

experience opening one of the first Freedom<br />

Schools for young black children during the<br />

Civil Rights Movement and, later, sending<br />

all four of her own children to historically<br />

black colleges, this year’s winner of <strong>Wheelock</strong>’s<br />

Elizabeth Palmer Peabody Award has<br />

always believed that teaching pride in culture<br />

and leadership skills makes a positive, and<br />

necessary, difference in black children’s educational<br />

achievement.<br />

Angela is well known as a leader in Boston,<br />

where, after receiving her master’s degree from<br />

<strong>Wheelock</strong>, she founded Paige Academy as<br />

an independent school alternative to the<br />

local public schools, where African-American<br />

boys and girls were routinely failing because<br />

of what she believes was and is a lack of<br />

understanding of how black children learn<br />

and excel. Thirty-five years later, while<br />

the achievement gap in the public schools<br />

remains, Paige Academy continues to provide<br />

a successful alternative, setting high academic<br />

standards and providing a “cultural resonance”<br />

that over the years has helped thousands of<br />

black and Latino students develop a positive<br />

sense of self and the confidence to overcome<br />

obstacles to achievement in school.<br />

Surrounded by Black Achievement<br />

“I grew up in the South in a family with<br />

educated relatives, and I attended schools for<br />

black children where we had good teachers<br />

and where we did well,” Angela says. “We<br />

all did our work and learned and achieved.<br />

When I moved up to Boston in 1970, I<br />

worked as a substitute teacher and I didn’t<br />

see that. I saw black children falling behind,<br />

so many being separated out for learning disabilities<br />

and sitting in the basement getting<br />

special education. From my experience in the<br />

South, I knew this wasn’t right, that black<br />

children could achieve, and so I started Paige<br />

Academy to provide what I had benefited<br />

from as a child.”<br />

Angela started small, with her own child<br />

and seven children of friends in an Episcopal<br />

parish hall in Roxbury that charged no rent.<br />

After the first week, word spread and there<br />

were 25 children in the hall. By the third<br />

The Woman Behind the Award<br />

week they were up to 35. Over the years the<br />

school grew, moving into larger and larger<br />

spaces provided by a group of three Victorian<br />

houses and a playground in its current<br />

location not far from Roxbury Community<br />

<strong>College</strong>.<br />

continued on page 17<br />

Elizabeth Palmer Peabody is best known as a teacher and educational reformer, and more<br />

specifically as the mother of kindergarten in America. Inspired by the work and philosophies<br />

of Friedrich Froebel, she established the first kindergarten in Boston in 1860. Ms. Peabody<br />

was also a popular instructor in training courses for kindergarten teachers, and it was she who<br />

encouraged a young Lucy <strong>Wheelock</strong> to enroll in one of those training courses. Miss <strong>Wheelock</strong> was<br />

always very proud that Elizabeth Palmer Peabody’s signature was on her diploma, certifying her to<br />

teach young children.<br />

To honor Lucy <strong>Wheelock</strong>’s mentor, a woman whose values and commitment to education<br />

are so well reflected at <strong>Wheelock</strong>, the Alumni Association presents the Elizabeth Palmer Peabody<br />

Award each year to an alumna/us of the <strong>College</strong>’s graduate program. The award recognizes<br />

professional or volunteer work that exemplifies the mission of the <strong>College</strong> and demonstrates<br />

Peabody’s commitment to finding unity in all types of diversity.<br />

<strong>Wheelock</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong> 13


ALUMNI<br />

GUATEMALA<br />

Al , 2011<br />

1<br />

<strong>Wheelock</strong> alumni, join us on the journey as our students and<br />

faculty return to Guatemala City and Antigua Guatemala next<br />

February for seven days of learning and service. The <strong>College</strong><br />

has a long-standing relationship with Safe Passage, the U.S.-<br />

based, non profit humanitarian organization founded by the<br />

late Hanley Denning ’96MS to bring education and hope to the country’s poorest,<br />

most marginalized children and youth who live in the Guatemala City garbage<br />

dump community. We are excited to offer alumni the chance to join in the efforts<br />

of the hundreds of teachers, staff, and volunteers who travel to Safe Passage from<br />

all over the world each year to contribute their service and to help fulfill Hanley’s<br />

passionate desire to make a difference. Along the way, you will learn about Safe<br />

Passage and about Guatemalan culture, and you are sure to share another<br />

<strong>Wheelock</strong> experience that is meaningful and memorable.<br />

Trip Highlights<br />

• Walking tour of Antigua (UNESCO World Heritage Site)<br />

• Tour of Safe Passage, Guatemala City, including the Guardería<br />

(Early Childhood Education Center)<br />

• Volunteer activities with the children of Safe Passage<br />

• Film and documentary viewings with local scholars<br />

• Participation in the 8th International Literacy Conference in Guatemala City<br />

at<br />

(617) 879 2286 or alumnirelations@wheelock.edu.<br />

la<br />

io<br />

n<br />

ee<br />

lo<br />

e<br />

.<br />

Summer <strong>2010</strong> Professional<br />

Development Institutes<br />

<strong>Wheelock</strong> graduates are lifelong learners who advance in<br />

their professions and make meaningful contributions<br />

to their fields. This summer, Professional & Continuing<br />

Education at the <strong>College</strong> will offer institutes examining<br />

current trends in theory and practice that can<br />

readily be applied to professions as diverse as teaching, public policy, social<br />

work, counseling, community outreach, and law. Advance your career by<br />

coming back to campus for more learning and networking.<br />

Graduate credits, PDPs, and CEUs are offered for these courses:<br />

•<br />

Organizing and Leading Parent Groups<br />

•<br />

Psychopathology of Children and Adolescents<br />

•<br />

Medical Ethics<br />

•<br />

Media Madness: The Impact of Sex, Violence, & Commercial<br />

Culture on Adults, Children, & Society<br />

•<br />

Bullying and Cyber-bullying<br />

•<br />

Theory and Practice of Stress Reduction<br />

•<br />

Teaching Astronomy in the Elementary Classroom<br />

•<br />

Assistive Technology<br />

•<br />

Teaching Literacy to English Language Learners/Multisensory<br />

Approaches to Reading<br />

•<br />

A Framework for Relating to Autism as an ASSET<br />

For current information and to register, visit the <strong>Wheelock</strong><br />

website at www.wheelock.edu or contact Matt Pellish at<br />

mpellish@wheelock.edu or (617) 879-2269.


ALUMNI<br />

Resources<br />

Reading and AV Resources for<br />

Understanding Autism<br />

In <strong>Wheelock</strong>’s Autism across the Spectrum special topics course,<br />

taught by Dr. Amy L. Phillips-Losso, students are learning how<br />

recent science and literature have vastly improved our understanding<br />

of autism, a complex developmental disability that affects a person’s<br />

ability to communicate and interact with others. Wrongly attributed<br />

to detached parenting for many years, autism is defined by a set of certain<br />

behaviors that affect individuals differently and to varying degrees<br />

across a spectrum. Students in the course are learning about the compelling<br />

research that shows how autism emerged as a pervasive developmental<br />

disorder and reading several extraordinary memoirs by persons<br />

with autism and by family members of those with the disorder.<br />

The Seige: A Family’s Journey into<br />

the World of an Autistic Child<br />

Exiting Nirvana: A Daughter’s<br />

Life with Autism<br />

Reading resources include two books by Clara Parks, the first person<br />

to write about life with a child with autism. Parks wrote The Seige: A<br />

Family’s Journey into the World of an Autistic Child three decades ago,<br />

when mothers like her were being blamed for causing their children’s<br />

autism by being too cold (“refrigerator mothers”). “As Clara was a loving<br />

and involved mother to her very special daughter, and had three<br />

other typical children, her memoir was successful in changing this<br />

explanation for the cause of autism,” explains Phillips-Losso. “Because<br />

of The Siege, many people came to understand that autism was a<br />

developmental disorder and not a disorder of attachment.” Parks’<br />

Exiting Nirvana: A Daughter’s Life with Autism was written 32 years<br />

later and portrays her daughter’s experience with autism throughout<br />

her life span.<br />

Rage for Order Documentary<br />

Also recommended is the documentary Rage for Order (view online at<br />

www.video.google.com), one segment in the four-part PBS series The Mind<br />

Traveler by Rosetta Pictures. Narrated by Oliver Sacks, the video includes<br />

readings from many memoirs in addition to current writings by persons<br />

with autism and members of their families.<br />

Policy Connection Website<br />

Talking to Kids about Events in the News<br />

Policy Connection is a regular feature on <strong>Wheelock</strong>’s website and<br />

the <strong>College</strong>’s link between the government and our students,<br />

administrators, and faculty. You can make it yours too. Be it from<br />

Beacon Hill or Capitol Hill, Policy Connection keeps us informed of the<br />

legislation and policies that matter and/or resources that can be useful in<br />

your daily life.<br />

A recent posting gave resources for helping children deal with the<br />

tragedy in Haiti. When such overwhelming events that are felt across<br />

the world happen, children especially have lots of questions: Can this<br />

happen here? Why are the babies crying? Is my house going to fall like<br />

that? How can we help? Understanding how the news on television,<br />

on the radio, in print, or on the Internet impacts children and taking<br />

time to talk with children about their fears, emotions, and perceptions<br />

of the news are extremely important.<br />

Two of the website’s resources that are recommended for talking<br />

with children when tragedy happens are:<br />

• Talking with Kids About News at the PBS website www.PBS.org/<br />

parents/. There, you’ll also find lots of information about child development,<br />

education, children’s health, activities, and parenting advice.<br />

• CHILD CARING, Parenting News & Advice at www.boston.<br />

com/community/moms/, where you’ll find Resources for Talking<br />

with Children When Tragedy Happens, among other helpful articles<br />

related to children.<br />

Walk for Autism<br />

Left to right: Carrie Lagasse Yespy ’00, Associate<br />

Director of Alumni Relations Jane Sanders Wuestkamp<br />

’99, and Rachael Thames ’07/’08MS from<br />

the Community Service and Advocacy Committee<br />

of the Alumni Association joined students from the<br />

Autism Awareness Club in a fundraising walk to<br />

benefit Autism Speaks, the nation’s largest autism<br />

science and advocacy organization (www.autismspeaks.org).<br />

Autism Speaks is dedicated to increasing<br />

awareness of autism spectrum disorders; advocating<br />

for the needs of individuals with autism and their<br />

families; and funding research into the causes, prevention,<br />

treatments, and a cure.<br />

<strong>Wheelock</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong> 15


A<br />

Cape Town, South Africa<br />

continued from page 11<br />

“It is so evident here that a little goes a long way and seemingly<br />

insignificant interactions can make all the difference in the<br />

experience of a child or family that otherwise may not have their<br />

feelings validated or feel comforted and supported.”<br />

— Lisa Granger ’09MS<br />

says. “The people whose lives we are affecting remember the days<br />

when child life wasn’t available, and they can see the difference it is<br />

now making.”<br />

Lisa agrees, noting the rewards of being recognized by the staff as<br />

a positive and supportive influence on the ward. “Just the other day<br />

I had a visiting doctor ask me for advice about making the procedure<br />

rooms at his hospital in Uganda more child-friendly because he had<br />

noticed the changes I am making in the procedure rooms here.”<br />

Still, even as she appreciates the impact she is having, Lisa knows it’s<br />

a two-way street. “I can honestly say that I am unsure as to who is<br />

gaining more from this experience — the children, families, and staff<br />

or myself,” she says.<br />

“While South Africa is a well-developed country, there is still so<br />

much needed here,” Danielle says. “In a hospital where resources for<br />

pain management and care are limited, a seemingly simple alternative<br />

can make a notable difference. Sometimes, our efforts can often<br />

seem fruitless because so many children appear unreachable. But<br />

when a nurse commented on our absence one morning, I learned<br />

otherwise. Her words were, ‘It looks like all you are doing is playing,<br />

but it’s so much more than that. I see that now.’”<br />

Spreading Child Life Throughout the World<br />

As a graduate student in <strong>Wheelock</strong>’s Child Life program, Caroline<br />

had the opportunity to study abroad in the Hospitalized Child in<br />

England program, where she was able to closely observe British<br />

health care professionals and learn about international health care.<br />

“This was valuable practice for what it would be like as an outsider<br />

from another culture and country,” she says.<br />

“<strong>Wheelock</strong> gave me the courage to pursue my career abroad in<br />

South Africa, and each day I learn something new about adapting<br />

and applying child life services in a multicultural setting. I continue<br />

to develop my appreciation and respect for the imperative role that<br />

child life has played and must continue to play in international settings<br />

that would otherwise not have access to such support.”<br />

The hospital’s child life program grew quickly during the first year,<br />

as did Caroline’s management responsibilities. Connect-123 brought<br />

on 22 volunteers and interns who are child life students and practicing<br />

specialists. “It is amazing to have the volunteer students and professionals<br />

who are seeking cross-cultural exposure join us,” Caroline says. “Sharing<br />

ideas and input with specialists from around the globe helps keep interventions<br />

innovative and the team thinking creatively with the resources<br />

“The best thing anyone can do with the gifts and privileges<br />

they have been granted is to share them. I find it very fulfilling<br />

and it gives me purpose every day. I live a very simple life here<br />

in Cape Town. And yet, even with very little, I feel as though I<br />

have it all. This is to have succeeded.”<br />

— Danielle Surprenant ’04<br />

they have.” Now the program is creating volunteer positions for child life<br />

assistants who will be aiding in fundraising, program development, and<br />

community outreach efforts — all benefiting children in need.<br />

When we last heard from Caroline, she was leaving for one week<br />

of service in Rwanda to help other children in need through the<br />

Operation Smile program. “To me, there is nothing more meaningful<br />

than knowing that with the effort we contribute, we can change the<br />

experience that a child will carry with them forever,” she says.<br />

Note: Caroline recommends that alumni who want to know more<br />

about volunteer or internship placements abroad visit the Connect-<br />

123 website at www.connect-123.com.<br />

the<br />

ts<br />

In<br />

I<br />

2008, U.S. News & World Report named Child Life one<br />

of the “11 Best-Kept Secret Careers,” but the rewards of<br />

the profession were never a secret at <strong>Wheelock</strong>, where<br />

academic preparation for the field was pioneered decades ago.<br />

• <strong>Wheelock</strong> was the first college to design an academic<br />

program specifically for Child Life students, establishing<br />

the undergraduate program in 1972 and the graduate<br />

program soon after.<br />

• <strong>Wheelock</strong> offers the only international in-the-field<br />

Child Life course, the Hospitalized Child in England,<br />

established in 1978.<br />

16 <strong>Spring</strong> <strong>2010</strong>


ALUMNI<br />

Dr. Angela Paige Cook ’73MS<br />

continued from page 13<br />

The rooms in the Academy — the infants and toddlers rooms,<br />

classrooms, art and music rooms, library, pottery studio, and computer<br />

lab — are large and bright or cozy-comfortable, painted with soft<br />

warm colors. Some children are off on field trips; others are in small<br />

group circles or classes, depending on age. There is a special emphasis<br />

on math and science, and children are working on computers everywhere.<br />

Nutritious breakfasts, lunches, and snacks are provided, and<br />

there are after-school and summer programs that bring more children<br />

into the school. Despite the broken economy that Angela says is<br />

stressing the families and thus the children, the students are friendly,<br />

calm, and confident.<br />

“I have always wanted to have a positive impact on children’s<br />

learning,” says Angela. “Right now, the school has 115 children from<br />

the local community and from suburbs and towns as far away as<br />

Brockton. About 50 of these are in the 6-to-12 age group. Most of<br />

the children’s families have low incomes and receive assistance to pay<br />

the school fees through kindergarten.” After kindergarten, children go<br />

on to public school or find the money to continue at Paige.<br />

Though it is a daunting and constant struggle, especially in the<br />

current economy, Angela has somehow managed to keep tuition at<br />

$5,000, compared with the $20,000 and up that most independent<br />

schools charge. “About 99 percent of our kids graduate from high<br />

school, and 97 percent of those go on to college. It’s an effective model<br />

and it could be replicated,” Angela notes. There is no achievement gap.<br />

From Schools of Benevolence to Freedom Schools<br />

to Paige Academy<br />

While establishing Paige Academy, Angela continued her professional<br />

education as an Urban Studies Fellow at M.I.T. and as a research<br />

associate at the Trotter Institute. She earned her doctorate in education<br />

in the Leadership in Urban Education program at the University<br />

of Massachusetts, writing her dissertation on the importance and<br />

effectiveness of a culturally resonant curriculum in African-American<br />

communities: A Case Study of a Black Independent School: Reflections<br />

on Cultural Resonance in an Elementary and Pre-School Setting.<br />

Viewed historically, Paige Academy is part of the black independent<br />

school movement that began when African-Americans, brought<br />

to this country to work as slaves, were faced with the task of educating<br />

their children in an oppressive environment. Angela named Paige<br />

Academy in memory of her great, great aunt Lucy Paige Williams<br />

(1876-1965), who was known by all in her Richmond, VA, community<br />

as an extraordinary educator. During the Reconstruction era,<br />

Williams opened her home to teach her adult neighbors and their<br />

children the basic educational and life skills needed to survive. Her<br />

“schools of benevolence” inspired members of her family and others<br />

to recognize the value of well-trained, dedicated teachers and the lasting<br />

gifts these teachers can give to the children and adults with whom<br />

they come in contact.<br />

Angela’s active involvement as an educational leader in the black<br />

independent school movement began in the 1960s, when she participated<br />

in the Civil Rights Movement during her undergraduate years<br />

at Fisk University, a historically black college in Nashville, TN. There,<br />

while pursuing her bachelor’s in elementary education and theater arts,<br />

she and a group of other students opened one of the first Freedom<br />

Schools to teach young black children who lived in the inner city.<br />

Freedom Schools were alternative free schools for African-American<br />

children primarily in the South during the civil rights era. Despite<br />

Brown v. Board of Education striking down segregated schools in 1954,<br />

by the mid-1960s some states still maintained separate and unequal<br />

white and “colored” school systems, with black children receiving little<br />

or substandard education and local school boards restricting their school<br />

curricula. Freedom School education provided traditional academic<br />

studies and was student-centered, while also emphasizing leadership<br />

development and social change. Establishing the schools wasn’t easy. “I<br />

remember the police breaking the windows and smashing the school up,<br />

the sounds of the glass breaking and screaming racial epithets — doing<br />

it just because they could,” Angela says.<br />

Today, Paige Academy teaches some of the subjects taught in the<br />

Freedom Schools, including African and African-American history<br />

to help children develop knowledge of their history and culture and<br />

an appreciation for the contributions of their ancestors, “still so often<br />

absent from public education curricula,” as Angela notes. The excellent,<br />

mostly black and Hispanic teachers provide models of achievement<br />

for the children. Monthly family meetings at the school and a<br />

supportive, collaborative approach make the children, families, and<br />

faculty a community within a community.<br />

Paige Academy’s place in the history of black independent schools<br />

is an important part of its success story. But there is more. “This is<br />

my life’s work — all the families we have touched and who are so<br />

appreciative of education,” Angela says. “I would do it all again. It’s<br />

the love. I love them all.”<br />

The Star Thrower<br />

During her interview, Angela Paige Cook ’73MS, told<br />

the story of The Star Thrower originated by scientist and<br />

poet Loren Eiseley. It goes like this. A man was walking<br />

along a beach. The sun was shining and it was a beautiful day. Off<br />

in the distance he could see a person going back and forth between<br />

the surf’s edge and the beach. Back and forth this person went.<br />

As the man drew closer, he could see that there were<br />

hundreds of starfish stranded on the sand as the result of the<br />

natural action of the tide, and the person was throwing them,<br />

one by one, back into the sea. He was struck by the apparent<br />

futility of the task. There were far too many starfish. Many of<br />

them were sure to perish.<br />

As he came up to the person, the man said, “What<br />

do you think you are accomplishing? There are<br />

thousands of miles of beach<br />

covered with starfish. You can’t<br />

possibly make a difference.” The<br />

person looked at the man and then stooped<br />

down and picked up one more starfish and<br />

threw it back into the ocean. He turned<br />

back to the man and said, “It sure<br />

made a difference to that one.”<br />

<strong>Wheelock</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong> 17


CLASS NOTES<br />

You don’t need to wait for<br />

your Reunion to catch up<br />

with classmates. Write to<br />

your class scribe and share<br />

your news in Class Notes.<br />

This <strong>Wheelock</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong> includes Class Notes<br />

news that was received before Feb. 19, <strong>2010</strong>.<br />

1934<br />

“All is well because we need to make it that<br />

way,” Corinne Martin Bryan wrote. “After<br />

67 years of a happy marriage, I have a lot to<br />

remember with gratitude.” She lives alone in<br />

the home in Waterbury Center, VT, that she<br />

and her husband built 20 years ago after leaving<br />

San Marino, CA. Elizabeth Drowne Nash<br />

says hello from Melrose, MA, and is sorry she<br />

missed the 75th Reunion last year. “<strong>Wheelock</strong><br />

means a lot to me,” she wrote. She is enjoying<br />

being near her family, including her 23 greatgrandchildren.<br />

1935<br />

REUNION <strong>2010</strong><br />

June 4-6<br />

1937<br />

Ellen Moak Lloyd’s daughter, Elizabeth Lloyd<br />

Clement, notified <strong>Wheelock</strong> in late 2009 that<br />

Ellen passed away on Oct. 7. “She always spoke<br />

so well about <strong>Wheelock</strong> <strong>College</strong>,” Elizabeth<br />

wrote. The obituary that Elizabeth enclosed<br />

did indeed show “what a full and productive<br />

life [Ellen] had.” She put her Master of Library<br />

Science degree from Syracuse University to<br />

good use working at the New Berlin (NY)<br />

Central School library for 41 years, retiring<br />

in 2000 as head librarian; continued working<br />

as a volunteer at what is now Unadilla Valley<br />

Central School and as New Berlin’s historian;<br />

and was a dedicated volunteer at the New<br />

Berlin Library for 50 years.<br />

1940<br />

REUNION <strong>2010</strong><br />

June 4-6<br />

1941<br />

Lucy Parton Miller<br />

When Ruth Andelman Danburg wrote last<br />

August, she was “back in the saddle” after<br />

December 2008 cataract surgery that had<br />

gone badly. She was happy to be again enjoying<br />

driving, writing a business newsletter for<br />

her son’s business park tenants, volunteering<br />

at the Boys and Girls Club and Kiwanis, and<br />

quilting and embroidering. “For someone<br />

who formerly thought that she was permanently<br />

losing the sight in her right eye,” she<br />

wrote, “I can now thread a fine sewing needle<br />

with black thread at night. Is that a miracle,<br />

or what? The downside is that I didn’t realize I<br />

had so many wrinkles!”<br />

1942-’43<br />

Stevie Roberts Thomas<br />

Gertrude Gerenbeck Coady of Cranston, RI,<br />

wrote that “Russ passed away in June after 64<br />

wonderful years together” and after he had<br />

been on kidney dialysis for four years. They<br />

traveled often, Becky has two daughters and<br />

four precious grandchildren, and now Becky<br />

feels comforted by her supportive family and<br />

friends, having “much to be thankful for.”<br />

She sends her best wishes to all. Elizabeth<br />

Newman Dubois is still in her old house in<br />

Marshfield, MA, and is still walking regularly,<br />

although not swimming anymore. Her children,<br />

who are her drivers now that she has<br />

given up driving, keep her in touch with the<br />

world. Betty feels lucky to have them nearby<br />

and “generous with their attention.”<br />

From McKees Rocks, PA, Marjorie<br />

Brainerd Floyd wrote that she was hoping to<br />

make it to her 90th birthday on Feb. 16 of this<br />

year. She’s feeling fine and celebrating a new<br />

great-grandson in Denmark. Betty Crooks<br />

Morris in Fort Myers, FL, celebrated her<br />

90th birthday last December with a surprise<br />

party at her summer home in Inlet, NY, where<br />

her children and grandchildren from Alaska,<br />

Oregon, New York, and Massachusetts came.<br />

Betty is fine, although slower, and spends half<br />

the year in Florida with one daughter and half<br />

in the Adirondacks with the other. She has 10<br />

great-grandchildren. Barbara Bragdon Motas<br />

of Kailua, HI, was head of two preschools<br />

in Massachusetts, then started a boutique<br />

in Hawaii, then ran the religious education<br />

program at St. Andrews Cathedral there, and<br />

then was principal of a school. She retired to<br />

become top car saleswoman at Honolulu Ford,<br />

retiring from that job after another 10 years.<br />

“Now,” she wrote, “we attend the UH games<br />

Betty Volk Paris ’42-’43 with great-granddaughters Taylor,<br />

11, and Madison, 9, after an “art class” at her home<br />

18 <strong>Spring</strong> <strong>2010</strong>


— football, volleyball, and basketball. What<br />

next?” Elizabeth Volk Paris of Westwood,<br />

MA, notes that the holidays are a good time<br />

to remember how different and simpler our<br />

world was when we were <strong>Wheelock</strong> students.<br />

Betty realizes how lucky she and Lou are, to be<br />

in their 80s and still have each other and their<br />

extended family, including five great-grandchildren.<br />

“We have wonderful friends, and life has<br />

been kind,” she wrote.<br />

After struggling with shingles and its aftermath,<br />

I (Stevie) am back to teaching tai chi<br />

again, although, because I’m 89, this may be<br />

my last year. My joyful news is that my youngest<br />

daughter, Katherine, who has spent 30 years<br />

in California, is back here, working to assist in<br />

reorganization at the University of Delaware<br />

as it enlarges. It is a real treat to have a family<br />

member nearby, both of us enjoying life to the<br />

full. My very best wishes to all of our class, and<br />

many, many thanks to those who were able to<br />

send notes for us to share!<br />

1945<br />

Jean Reilly Cushing<br />

REUNION <strong>2010</strong><br />

June 4-6<br />

1947<br />

Barbara Bolinger Crabtree’s holiday 2009<br />

letter (poem) spoke of how much she missed<br />

Glenn but also of how much she is enjoying<br />

Friendship Church activities, exercise, travel,<br />

and her dogs. She and daughter Cecily went<br />

on a cruise in the summer of 2009, and she’d<br />

also recently been to northern Arizona and on<br />

a church retreat. Carol Sisson Freeman is still<br />

singing with Sweet Adelines, which she has<br />

been doing for 25 years, and she attended their<br />

International Competition in Nashville, TN,<br />

last October. She wrote, “I was able to take part<br />

in the Guinness Book of Records for singing in the<br />

largest singing lesson ever: 5,561 women were<br />

involved, and it was a great experience!” Carol<br />

has been retired for 18 years and finds that hard<br />

to believe since she didn’t retire until she was<br />

66! She and Bill still go to the gym three times<br />

a week. Edith Goddard Pangaro and husband<br />

Larry still divide their time between New<br />

Hampshire and Florida. Edith is well in her<br />

86th year, still playing tennis and counting her<br />

many blessings each day.<br />

“Things are nice here in Scottsdale [AZ],”<br />

Ann Gilbert Putnam wrote in December. “The<br />

flowers are blooming, and there’s no snow!”<br />

She was saddened to learn of the death of Janet<br />

Brown Coleman. “Posie Van Zandt Simson<br />

called me from Florida, and we had a delightful<br />

conversation about our days at <strong>Wheelock</strong>,” Ann<br />

wrote. “We loved everything about the <strong>College</strong><br />

and the city of Boston.”<br />

Write Home!<br />

New address? Job? Degree?<br />

Baby? Whether it’s big news or an update<br />

to keep your classmates and faculty and<br />

staff at <strong>Wheelock</strong> in the loop, we want<br />

to hear from you. Write to your class<br />

scribe or to Lori Ann Saslav in Alumni<br />

Relations at <strong>Wheelock</strong> <strong>College</strong>, 200 The<br />

Riverway, Boston, MA 02215 or via e-mail<br />

at lsaslav@wheelock.edu.<br />

1948<br />

Carol Moore<br />

Bobbie Fitzgerald Davis and husband Walter are<br />

once again downsizing and moving into a retirement<br />

home. Sadly, their daughter Margaret passed<br />

away last April after battling leukemia for more<br />

than two years. Thankfully, Walter is cancer-free,<br />

a fortunate person. Bobbie still continues to keep<br />

busy with opera and ballet and enjoys working<br />

with such talented people. She also volunteers<br />

with the Association for Catholic Children, where<br />

she sees more and more children in need of education,<br />

along with homes and parents.<br />

The Alumni Office was sorry to hear from<br />

Ysabel Brown Dulken in January about husband<br />

John’s death in April 2009. Your classmates are<br />

thinking about you, Ysabel. Polly Horr Foster’s<br />

husband passed away Sept. 6, 2009. They had<br />

celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary in June.<br />

Polly was planning to be in Florida for the winter.<br />

Elizabeth “Sis” McHenry was unable to<br />

attend our 60th Reunion due to an automobile<br />

accident a few years ago which left her with a few<br />

problems. She says it is sometimes very difficult<br />

to get someone who is VERY BRAVE to take her<br />

out. Edith Hall Huck lost her husband, Rod, in<br />

September. She feels it is time to sell the house<br />

in Longmeadow and keep the Sandwich house,<br />

which they both loved. Deedie is clearing out the<br />

Longmeadow house, which they bought in 1950,<br />

and moved into a condo near her daughter for the<br />

winter months. Her daughter and son have been<br />

a big help in the downsizing process. The new<br />

condo is an over-55 community with interesting,<br />

active people and a clubhouse for activities.<br />

Deedie is hosting the Cape Cod Alumni Picnic on<br />

July 15, <strong>2010</strong>, and would love to see anyone visiting<br />

the Cape as well as regular members.<br />

Jean Thompson (Dibden) Lawton wrote:<br />

“When I was widowed in 1969 by Arthur<br />

Dibden’s death (he was president of Johnson<br />

State <strong>College</strong> in Vermont), I managed to see two<br />

children through college and ordinations. Then<br />

in 2005 I married a widowed Keith Lawton<br />

from Alaska and came here to live, but telephoning<br />

my two children every Sunday. I love being<br />

83 now, as I trust the Lord more and more.”<br />

Jean still corresponds with some friends made<br />

at <strong>Wheelock</strong> but decided she wanted to teach<br />

high schoolers and did so. She published God at<br />

CLASS NOTES<br />

Supping Time, a devotional by Christian Services<br />

Network in California.<br />

Marylin Quint-Rose shared a wonderful<br />

story: “In 1944, I was walking along Pilgrim<br />

Road when I noticed a frail woman walking<br />

briskly. I kept wondering, Why would such an<br />

elderly person be in the vicinity of our building?<br />

The visual memory has lasted all these years. Of<br />

course I soon realized that this frail elderly soul<br />

was the namesake of the college I soon would<br />

be spending my four years at, during formative<br />

years. How fortunate!” Marylin also wrote of her<br />

productive professional life (www.quint-rose.com).<br />

“The old expression still remains from <strong>Wheelock</strong><br />

days — ‘We learn by doing’ — and I’m still ‘doing’<br />

at 83!” she wrote. In the past year or so, she has<br />

given a fun workshop on collages to 16 local<br />

women in Tenants Harbor, ME; lectured at the<br />

Rockland Library; and given lectures and classes<br />

to Pakistani art students in the cities of Lahore<br />

and Karachi. “The group seemed quite interested<br />

in my tales (fortunately), and of course I brought<br />

<strong>Wheelock</strong> into my lecture!” she wrote. She credits<br />

<strong>Wheelock</strong> with having taught her how to communicate<br />

comfortably with groups. She planned<br />

to address middle schoolers about Three Cups of<br />

Tea in early <strong>2010</strong>. She also does shows at Mars<br />

Hall Gallery in St. George, ME, during summers,<br />

and she finds winter a great time to work on<br />

sculptures and new collages. Last Thanksgiving<br />

she traveled to North Carolina to visit with her<br />

two daughters and her grandsons. Marylin shuddered<br />

to hear from Barb Sturgis ’48/’62MS<br />

about the deaths of Gwen Price and Jill Walsh.<br />

She closed with “Keep well, busy, and active!”<br />

I (Carol) am still cleaning out, passing my<br />

treasures on to others, throwing out, and saving<br />

very little! But I must say I am not as enthusiastic<br />

as I was when I first started lugging boxes<br />

down from the attic. But I am persevering.<br />

While my cousin and I visited Deedie on the<br />

Cape last fall, Martha McLeod Parmenter ’47,<br />

her daughter Bonnie, and Anne Mulholland<br />

Heger ’49 joined us for a lunchtime visit.<br />

Later, Deedie, my cousin, and I visited Nancy<br />

Williams Sevin ’49, who spent only her freshman<br />

year at <strong>Wheelock</strong> and is now in a retirement<br />

home in Tiverton, RI. It is always special<br />

visiting with “old” friends from so many years<br />

ago. Blessings galore to each of you!<br />

1949<br />

Anne Mulholland Heger<br />

Mickey Mitchell Schwarz was one of the small<br />

number who attended the 2009 Reunion. She<br />

wrote that the few who did attend had a great<br />

time catching up with each other. All were<br />

impressed with the new building as the dorms<br />

are so different from the ones in our days.<br />

After the Reunion, she and her husband went<br />

<strong>Wheelock</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong> 19


CLASS NOTES<br />

to Maine to visit her sister. Her sister lives in<br />

Friendship, as does Enid Stockbridge Holly’s<br />

sister and Sue Small Shanahan’s cousin. When<br />

Mickey went back in October, she saw Stocky.<br />

Mickey and her husband traveled back to<br />

Finland and Norway, going farther north and<br />

cruising the fjords. Alice Roberts Gow wrote<br />

that her husband was in the hospital for 10 days<br />

at one point but in late December was recuperating<br />

at home and doing well.<br />

As for your scribe (Anne), somehow my days<br />

are busy. I am in good health, which I attribute<br />

to my daily walks with my black Labrador named<br />

Sam. I had a granddaughter married in October,<br />

which was a fun day. I was on a cruise in January<br />

with my daughter and daughters-in-law. In March<br />

my family and I spent time in the Virgin Islands.<br />

1950<br />

Edith “Anne” Runk Wright<br />

1952<br />

Ann Sibley Conway<br />

REUNION <strong>2010</strong><br />

June 4-6<br />

Elaine Barnes Downing enjoys a variety of<br />

activities at the skilled nursing health center in<br />

Bakersfield, CA, where she lives. She was very<br />

ill in the hospital for seven weeks in the spring<br />

of 2009 but has been slowly recovering and is<br />

learning to use her walker for short periods. Her<br />

partner, Bob, “is in pretty good condition for 85<br />

years” and lives near her in the health center, so<br />

they eat meals together and enjoy visitors together.<br />

Elaine enjoys being invited to holiday gatherings<br />

put on by son-in-law Todd’s family each year.<br />

1954<br />

Ginger Mercer Bates<br />

Elizabeth Bassett Wolf<br />

Brian and Ginger Mercer Bates keep very<br />

involved with their family as well as those of the<br />

academic world of graduate students. Their house<br />

always seems to be full of students. Barbara<br />

McCarthy Brennan is recovering from a herniated<br />

disk. Volney Forsyth Dawson mentioned the<br />

small book that she and her <strong>Wheelock</strong> roommate,<br />

Neilie Heffernan Odell, put together for their<br />

families and friends for Christmas. The book has<br />

Neilie’s paintings and Volney’s poetry in it. She<br />

said it was so nice to have something in print as a<br />

result of their long friendship.<br />

Jim and Sylvia Tailby Earl received the<br />

Arts Patron Award (called the “Annie”) for<br />

Anne Arundel County (Maryland). It’s been a<br />

wonderful honor in support of the arts around<br />

Annapolis. They’re enjoying their three little<br />

grandsons in the area. Peggy Clifford Goode is<br />

enjoying life by the sea with her family. She has<br />

Elaine Barnes Downing ’52 (seated) with son Kent (behind Elaine to her right), daughter Debbie (behind Elaine to her left),<br />

and their significant others<br />

started volunteering in the first grade of her local<br />

school system and absolutely loves it. Life is good.<br />

Bill and Ruth McKinley Herridge mentioned<br />

that they celebrated daughter Elizabeth’s 50th<br />

birthday with family and friends in September.<br />

Elizabeth’s husband, Roy Barry, died suddenly<br />

a week later at home. They are all grieving. It<br />

will take time to heal. Their five grandchildren<br />

are thriving. Peter, now in pre-kindergarten, had<br />

a 20 percent liver transplant from his mother,<br />

Catherine, at age 6 months and is growing and<br />

developing well. At present, Ruth is serving in<br />

a pastoral care ministry. Michael and Nancy<br />

Shapiro Hurwitz were in Naples, FL, for the<br />

winter. Nancy plays golf and bridge and is<br />

involved in Brandeis University activities when<br />

she’s in Massachusetts. Their six grandchildren<br />

are in the Boston area and Palo Alto, CA. Fran<br />

Tedesco Lathrop feels very fortunate to have<br />

her two children living close by. She sees one of<br />

her grandchildren for dinner once a week. What<br />

could be better?<br />

Paige and Nicky Wheeler L’Hommedieu<br />

recalled the perfect weather that made our 55th<br />

Reunion so special. We celebrated in the rooftop<br />

garden of the new hallmark Campus Center and<br />

Student Residence (CCSR) building and stunning<br />

adjacent dining room. This environmentally<br />

friendly garden is dedicated to Margaret Helena<br />

Earl, Sylvia Earl’s mother-in-law.<br />

Ralph and Persis Luke Loveys have 18<br />

grandchildren. Everyone is well and happy. Persis<br />

reported that Elsa Weyer Williams is doing fine<br />

and caring for husband Don. They were not able<br />

to go to Florida this year but would appreciate<br />

hearing from classmates. Harriet Knapp<br />

McCauley e-mailed that she and Mac have<br />

moved to a patio home in Orchard Park, NY. Fox<br />

Run is a full life-care facility with skilled nursing,<br />

etc., should they need it. She leads a water aerobics<br />

class two mornings a week and is as active as<br />

she was before the move. They spend summers<br />

in Canada and were to leave for Amelia Island,<br />

FL, in March. Mary Jeffords Mills’ sister-in-law<br />

Shirley reported to <strong>Wheelock</strong> back in June 2009<br />

about the deaths of Mary and husband Brooks,<br />

but she also wanted to make sure Mary’s classmates<br />

knew the “real success story” of Mary’s son<br />

John’s oldest child, Erin (also the niece of Hope<br />

Mills Keleher ’90). Erin was the valedictorian<br />

of her class at Brewer, ME, High School last<br />

spring; is a terrific athlete; got a full scholarship to<br />

Princeton; and was named one of 140 Presidential<br />

Scholars who went to Washington shortly after<br />

graduation to receive a medallion.<br />

“Life is good at the Pines in Plymouth, MA,”<br />

according to Irwin and Lois Barnett Mirsky.<br />

There are other <strong>Wheelock</strong> graduates at the<br />

Pines, too, but not from our class. Lois enjoys<br />

her interests in writing literacy, taking courses,<br />

and being with her four local grandchildren.<br />

Bob and Jo West Norton went on a fascinating<br />

Elderhostel trip to Glacier National Park last<br />

summer. Due to a tremendous avalanche in the<br />

winter of ’08, they couldn’t go on the “Going-tothe-Sun<br />

Road” so instead experienced part of the<br />

Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation initiative.<br />

Go to http://www.y2y.net if you want to see a<br />

spectacular part of our country. It has been and<br />

will continue to be a huge effort to complete and<br />

still leave a corridor for the wildlife to roam free.<br />

Penny Power Odiorne spent a whole month<br />

in her favorite Maine spot of Ogunquit last<br />

summer. She loves her home in Vero Beach and<br />

playing bridge. Penny even went on a “Bridge<br />

Cruise” in December!<br />

We are sorry to learn of Pattie Andrews<br />

Richmond’s diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease.<br />

She has had to have half her thyroid removed.<br />

Bob has been especially helpful. An e-mail to<br />

20 <strong>Spring</strong> <strong>2010</strong>


CLASS NOTES<br />

Pattie would be most welcome (Pattiewc54@<br />

verizon.net). Hugh and Fran Levine Rogovin<br />

were in Florida for the winter, enjoying the sun<br />

and the lack of ice and snow. They receive much<br />

pleasure from mentoring the college students<br />

and are grateful for all their e-mails. They both<br />

continue to stay well. Joan Kemp Seeber spent<br />

the holidays with her family. She is very proud<br />

of her children’s and grandchildren’s accomplishments.<br />

Nancy Pennypacker Temple ’54/’80MS<br />

is continuing her involvement in Therapy Dogs<br />

Inc., which she has done for about 12 years. She<br />

arranges for eight to 10 dogs and handlers to<br />

work with children from the local elementary<br />

school to practice oral reading in the library.<br />

Nancy and “Nikki” also visit patients weekly at<br />

Cape Coral Hospital. The highlight of the year<br />

was our 55th Class Reunion.<br />

2008 was a hard year for Suzanne<br />

Hamburger Thurston. Unfortunately, her double<br />

knee replacement, though successful, did involve<br />

some complications. She continues to teach ESL,<br />

tutor students, and volunteer taking blood pressures<br />

at the health center. Her seven grandchildren<br />

are well and she feels blessed.<br />

News from Jerry and Rhoda Uram<br />

Wasserman indicated they both are doing well.<br />

Rhoda is still working and is happy to be near<br />

her two daughters. Dick and Ginny Thomas<br />

Williams are constantly on the go and always full<br />

of energy. With so many grandsons, there seems<br />

to be one graduating from college or becoming<br />

an Eagle Scout every year. Ginny is as organized<br />

as ever and keeps their lives running smoothly.<br />

Kathy Clark Williams mentioned that her one<br />

great-granddaughter, Lily Henson, lives only an<br />

hour away. She is a sheer delight and a special<br />

blessing to her family. Kathy sends her best wishes<br />

to all her classmates.<br />

I (“Chippy”) am enormously grateful for the<br />

speedy classmates who made this Class Notes<br />

column possible. For those who didn’t send something<br />

this time, send us your e-mail address so we<br />

can read about you next time. My life is happily<br />

busy helping those in the nonprofit world. My<br />

and Ginger’s e-mails are elizabeth@thewolfs.info<br />

and gingerbates@cox.net.<br />

1955<br />

Nancy Cerruti Humphreys<br />

Penny Kickham Reilly<br />

REUNION <strong>2010</strong><br />

June 4-6<br />

1957<br />

Joan Patterson Brown<br />

We did it! I (Joan) am so proud the Class of 1957<br />

came through with Flying Colors! We had more<br />

responses than any other class this time around!<br />

Let’s Keep It Going!<br />

Sallie Farrel Brown wrote of her trip to Jay,<br />

VT. It was a sad/sweet time — the focus of the<br />

trip was to spread Paul’s ashes with a view of his<br />

kingdom . . . The Old Sonnenhof Inn. Sally did<br />

a lot of traveling in the past year—including to<br />

Montreal, Vermont, Disney World, Colorado,<br />

Nova Scotia, and California—and would go back<br />

to San Francisco in a minute! “I hope you are all<br />

as healthy and happy as I am,” she wrote. Gail<br />

Angleman Brusch and Don are still happy to<br />

be living in their retirement village, Ann’s Choice.<br />

She loves to hear news from <strong>Wheelock</strong> friends!<br />

Every few months she has lunch with Nancy<br />

Merry Bergere ’55 — it is a great treat! Sue Terry<br />

Covell and Tom are still living in Casa Grande,<br />

AZ, most of the year, heading north to Colorado<br />

and their three children and back to Arizona in<br />

October. Tom and Sue love retiring among folks<br />

of similar ages who are out walking, enjoying life,<br />

comparing stories of their travels, and forgetting<br />

the aches and pains of aging! Sue would love<br />

to know if there are any “<strong>Wheelock</strong>ers” in the<br />

Phoenix area where Casa Grande is!<br />

Our sympathy goes to Ginny Plumer Crook<br />

(P.O. Box 293, Scituate, MA 02066-0293),<br />

who lost her husband of 52 years on Nov. 1,<br />

2009. He had not been well for three years and<br />

died peacefully in his sleep. Ginny wrote that<br />

her “children” are scattered all over the world<br />

— Hong Kong; Orono, ME; Wilder, VT; and<br />

Tampa, FL. Between them, they have produced<br />

10 sons! Ginny has been retired for 10 years and<br />

is LOVING IT! Bernadette Bruer deGutierrez-<br />

Mahoney wrote: “We had a great Thanksgiving<br />

here in Laurel with kids and grands — three girls<br />

are in college (Mt. Holyoke, Holy Cross, and<br />

Fairfield). The twins are taking over the place<br />

— 10 months old and they are as cute as a pair<br />

of buttons!” Janice Wright Freelove (jwfre@<br />

comcast.net) sold her condo in Magnolia, MA.<br />

She has moved to Reading, MA, which puts her<br />

close to her daughter. She misses the ocean view<br />

but loves being near everything! Her address is 3<br />

Summit Drive #315, Reading, MA 01867.<br />

Mary Bloomer Gulick wrote: “Bob and I are<br />

both well. We are enjoying all Rochester has to<br />

offer, traveling to many places (New Zealand and<br />

Egypt in the past two years), and staying in touch<br />

with six grandchildren. I am thrilled our daughter<br />

Jane Gulick Fellows ’07MS, a Union <strong>College</strong><br />

graduate and a teacher in Concord, NH, received<br />

her master’s degree from <strong>Wheelock</strong>. She was able<br />

to attend the satellite program in Concord. I like<br />

to think my high regard for <strong>Wheelock</strong> influenced<br />

her decision to choose this program.” Anne<br />

Wingle Howard (awhowardsav@aol.com) wrote:<br />

“Jim and I are bouncing back and forth between<br />

Savannah and Maine and loving both! We had a<br />

great tour of the new building at <strong>Wheelock</strong>. It is<br />

wonderful and it pulls the campus together beautifully.<br />

For the past few years I’ve had fun making<br />

Nantucket baskets with friends. We cover the dining<br />

room table and get together until the weather<br />

is too good to stay inside!”<br />

Barbara Stagis Kelliher is still vying for<br />

the honor of the oldest graduate still employed!<br />

“Every time I think of retiring, I imagine myself<br />

hanging out with old people, and it propels me<br />

back to my desk at AAA in Nashua, NH,” she<br />

wrote. “I decided, 24 years ago, I wanted to see<br />

the world. I have only a few places left on the<br />

list! Sooooo call me. I would be happy to tell<br />

you Where to Go!” Sara Sibley Lenhart wrote:<br />

“It took a blizzard to get me to stay home long<br />

enough to catch up on some long-overdue correspondence.<br />

My husband, Mark, has retired<br />

at long last. It is great to have him home, after<br />

years of his being away. We are fortunate enough<br />

to see our children and grands frequently. From<br />

time to time Mark and I see Barbara Knowles<br />

Jacobsen with husband Ray walking on the<br />

boardwalk we all enjoy. Earlier this fall I had<br />

the pleasure to join [Class of 1958 members]<br />

Maggie Weinheimer Sherwin, Judy Littlefield<br />

Bateman, Marcia Potter Crocker, Sandra<br />

MacDonald Ingmanson, and Nancy Alexander<br />

Anderson for their mini reunion in Mystic. I<br />

am actually the only one who lives in this area;<br />

it is a central meeting place for them. It was nice<br />

of them to include me! Life is good!” Carolyn<br />

Berryman Reidy has had health issues, including<br />

a stroke, since Jim passed. She continues to do<br />

better each day and has a Positive Attitude!<br />

Sally Curran Smith wrote from “down<br />

under”: “I am spending a month with son Eric<br />

and family. We will be at the beach in Port Fairy<br />

for the week before to include Christmas —<br />

different from the snowy Christmases in Vermont!<br />

In November my two ponies and two ‘new’<br />

miniature horses and I moved to Aiken, SC, for<br />

the winter. As long as I have the house in Aiken,<br />

I decided to see if it will fit into my winter plans.<br />

BUT I am also planning to return to Vermont for<br />

the month of February for some skiing! My ‘new’<br />

knees will be four years old, and it’s time they got<br />

back on SKIS! P.S. If you are planning to be in or<br />

near either Greensboro, VT, or Aiken, SC, please<br />

give me a call (VT 802-533-2537 / SC 803-643-<br />

8708)! The welcome mat is always out!”<br />

Mac and I (Joan) flew to Shanghai on April<br />

29! The following day we watched Chinese carpet-making<br />

and design. We joined a Shanghai<br />

family for a Home-Hosted lunch, which was<br />

wonderful, and then took a train to Suzhou, the<br />

center of the Chinese silk industry. On to Xi-an,<br />

known for the 2,200-year-old Terra Cotta Army<br />

— 6,400 figures accidentally discovered in 1974!<br />

Awesome! We visited fifth-graders at the Shao<br />

Ping Dian Primary School, where they read and<br />

spoke English to us! The following day we were<br />

at the Great Wall, 2,000 miles long and packed<br />

with Chinese people on holiday. A 30-something,<br />

<strong>Wheelock</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong> 21


CLASS NOTES<br />

well-dressed Chinese man approached me and<br />

asked if he could take a picture of me with his<br />

mother. I told him it would be fine as long as I<br />

could give her a hug. He translated, she had a big<br />

smile, we hugged, and he took the picture! This<br />

happened several times in China. They see very<br />

few blondes! Three weeks went very fast. What a<br />

wonderful, fantastic, enlightening experience!<br />

22 <strong>Spring</strong> <strong>2010</strong><br />

B.J. Woodward Mack ’59 and husband John<br />

1958<br />

Margaret “Maggie” Weinheimer Sherwin<br />

Carol Yudis Stein wins the prize for being the<br />

first to respond. I think she walked from the<br />

mailbox to the computer. Carol has left her volunteer<br />

job in a third grade and now volunteers in<br />

a local hospital — an extra pair of hands wherever<br />

they are needed. All three of her children were to<br />

be in Florida during November, saving Carol and<br />

Jim a trip to New Jersey. She had cataract surgery<br />

and can now see her wrinkles more clearly. She’s<br />

still involved in lots of leisure activities — when<br />

there is time. When Jane Bowler Pickering<br />

wrote, she was recovering from back surgery and<br />

planning to go to Florida for the winter. She and<br />

Dick are busy with volunteer activities and their<br />

seven grandchildren. Jane says that growing old is<br />

not for the faint of heart.<br />

Sally Beckwith Novak is a traveler — trips<br />

to Arizona, Kansas, and Alaska in 2009. When<br />

not traveling, Sally keeps busy with book clubs,<br />

teaching swimming, church activities, Ridgewood<br />

Choral Society, and her watercolor painting. One<br />

of her paintings has been turned into note paper<br />

that is sold to help restore a local colonial home.<br />

Sally would love to hear from other classmates<br />

who may share her interest in watercolors.<br />

Charlotte Pomeroy Hatfield and Jim have<br />

bought a new home in Topsham, ME. They did<br />

all their own packing, and their belongings were<br />

taken to the mainland by barge. She still keeps<br />

in touch with Julie Russell, Gail Wheeler, and<br />

Mardy Moody O’Neil.<br />

Pat Morrissey Goglia and Charles celebrated<br />

their 51st wedding anniversary last July. Pat still<br />

works in the bookstore at Mass. Bay Community<br />

<strong>College</strong>. Mannie Cook Houston is having fun<br />

with her 14-month-old grandson and even gets to<br />

help in his day care center. She hoped to see Sybil<br />

Magid Woodhouse in the near future.<br />

Laura Lehrman wrote: “Our country has been<br />

through a lot of late, and we therefore are quite<br />

struggling to keep up with the world chaos, and<br />

all the electronics and the implications for societal<br />

changes are just huge. I’m well — still living in the<br />

heart of Manhattan and loving it.” She happened<br />

to write on the day of the Yankees’ ticker-tape<br />

parade up Broadway but was herself off to an even<br />

more special occasion: her grandson Jonathan’s<br />

bar mitzvah. She was “a bit frazzled with all the<br />

arrangements” but thrilled about his accomplishment.<br />

She added: “My art projects keep multiplying,<br />

and I’m getting ready to ‘put it out there,’ as<br />

they say. A big step for me. To claim my artistic<br />

nature as not folly but substantive. Will keep all<br />

posted as I move along with it.” Laura welcomes<br />

anyone “in town” to be in touch with her.<br />

Off the Lost Souls List is Doris Hood<br />

Cameron. She has seven grandchildren — one<br />

for each day of the week. They all descend on<br />

Sundays to help cook dinner while Grandpa John<br />

plays golf. Dosie taught hyperactive kids for many<br />

years and now tutors inner-city kids. Her daughter<br />

received her M.S. at <strong>Wheelock</strong> several years<br />

ago and works with Down syndrome students.<br />

Glad to have you back, Dosie.<br />

Our mini Class of ’58 reunion in Mystic,<br />

CT, in September was such fun! Marcia Potter<br />

Crocker, Nancy Alexander Anderson, Sandy<br />

MacDonald Ingmanson, Judy Littlefield<br />

Bateman, Sara Sibley Lenhart ’57, and I<br />

(Maggie) talked nonstop for hours. We had invited<br />

Margot Moore Greener ’59 to join us, but<br />

she is still teaching and had some sort of parentteacher<br />

event at night so was not able to join us,<br />

but she wants to be kept in the loop for another<br />

year. The weather was beautiful. We shopped, ate,<br />

shared grandkid pictures, and kept the desk clerk<br />

at the Best Western amused. We plan to extend<br />

the event next year.<br />

1959<br />

Sally Schwabacher Hottle<br />

Maddy Gatchell Corson wrote from her home<br />

in Falmouth, ME, that in the fall of 2009 she<br />

went to Florida to attend the beautiful memorial<br />

service for Janet Watt Swanson’s husband, Ted.<br />

It was an honor for Maddy to be there and to<br />

get to know and love the Swanson gang. Emmy<br />

Groeneveld Crosby wrote from Hastings-on-<br />

Hudson, NY, that she is active in church and Girl<br />

Scouts, singing in the choir, and trying to keep<br />

up with her three granddaughters.<br />

Helen Doughty Lester’s next book, Tacky’s<br />

Christmas, will be out in September and will<br />

include a CD with five Tacky Tacky carols (“Deck<br />

the Iceberg” and “O, Tackytree How Lovely<br />

Are Thy Feathers,” for example). She continues<br />

visiting schools to encourage children to write.<br />

Doutsie wishes we could have our 50th every<br />

year — it was great fun to be with so many dear<br />

friends. Virginia Ludwig McLaughlin says all<br />

is well in Houlton, ME. Ginny, daughter Lee,<br />

and grandchildren had a reunion in August with<br />

Yvonne Emmons Duvall at Yvonne’s charming<br />

summer cottage on Squirrel Island, ME.<br />

As for me (Sally), I was so happy to see so<br />

many friends at our 50th. What a great time!<br />

It was particularly exciting that 62 percent<br />

of you contributed to our class gift, enabling<br />

us to win the Beulah Angell Wetherbee Prize,<br />

and 34 percent of you attended the class luncheon,<br />

enabling us to win the Gertrude Abbihl<br />

Prize. And one more honor for our class: Alice<br />

Thompson Brew was one of the two recipients of<br />

the “Making a Difference” Award.<br />

I’m looking forward to hearing from more of<br />

you the next time I ask for news.<br />

1960<br />

REUNION <strong>2010</strong><br />

June 4-6<br />

1963<br />

Jane Kuehn Kittredge<br />

Muffy McDowell celebrated the first anniversary<br />

of her marriage last Dec. 27. Her son and<br />

daughter-in-law had a baby during the winter,<br />

and her daughter and son-in-law are expecting<br />

in August. “That’s enough excitement for one<br />

year,” she wrote. Boots Kane Tolsdorf and Dick<br />

are still spending winters in Florida and summers<br />

on Nantucket — “and in between at my home in<br />

West Chester, PA, where sons and three grandchildren<br />

live,” she wrote. She has been very active<br />

in and passionate about spreading information<br />

about Lyme disease after battling it for two and a<br />

half years. Now she feels great again and is back to<br />

golf and tennis. Boots loves community theater in<br />

Florida and enjoys acting, singing (she sings with<br />

a Barbershopper group), and dancing. “I am on<br />

Facebook, so sign up and say hi to me!” she wrote.<br />

1964<br />

Phyllis Forbes Kerr<br />

Roberta Gilbert Marianella<br />

News came from four of our classmates who for<br />

the last six years have been celebrating their own<br />

<strong>Wheelock</strong> Reunion (and always include Muffy<br />

McDowell ’63). They pick one of their homes<br />

and spend a weekend together. Sometimes they go<br />

to a museum or an event, but mostly they spend<br />

time walking and talking. They catch up on the<br />

last year and then discuss politics, religion, and<br />

current events. This is what they had to say. . . .<br />

Joan Pushee Gatto and Kenny live in Newton,<br />

MA, and are busy with their grandchildren in<br />

Natick, MA, and Portland, ME. They spend the<br />

summer in rural New Hampshire enjoying their<br />

cottage and the life they live there. Patricia Stern


CLASS NOTES<br />

Hersh and Raymond live in Florida. They are<br />

excited that daughter Heather and son-in-law<br />

Yale have moved closer now that Yale is at the<br />

University of Pennsylvania Medical School doing<br />

research. Son Brian and Raymond work together<br />

in an investment business. Patricia volunteers<br />

at a cancer center and baby-sits for a 1-year-old<br />

while she waits for grandchildren. Joan Steele<br />

Light and Randy moved to Cazenovia, NY. Both<br />

daughters and grandchildren are nearby. Randy<br />

and Joan are busy with community events, family<br />

activities, household improvements, and some<br />

traveling. Lynn Biskup McCarthy is living in<br />

Chicago baby-sitting the grandtwins three days<br />

a week. She teaches an Introduction to Teaching<br />

course at Loyola University. Lynn has been traveling<br />

to see the remains of ancient civilizations since<br />

retirement four years ago.<br />

Unfortunately a very bad knee prevented Noni<br />

Noble Linton from attending our 45th. Both she<br />

and her husband are thoroughly enjoying their<br />

“perpetual cruise” at the Overlook in Charlton,<br />

MA — retirement living at its best! Noni is very<br />

active serving on a couple of committees, taking<br />

art lessons (finding the fun in watercolor and<br />

pastel painting), reading books she never had time<br />

for, joining PEO to work on behalf of women who<br />

need help financing their college educations, and<br />

much more. Grandkids number seven, and thanks<br />

to Skype’s help, they are able to keep in touch.<br />

Noni welcomes anyone in the Charlton/Sturbridge<br />

area to visit and she’ll give you a tour.<br />

This year Priscilla Harper Porter completed<br />

two curriculum guides for the Palm <strong>Spring</strong>s Air<br />

Museum and collaborated on two curriculum<br />

guides for the We the People books published<br />

by the Center for Civic Education. Priscilla<br />

also completed a series of curriculum guides for<br />

third- and fourth-grade teachers in San Diego,<br />

where she and husband Chuck enjoyed extended<br />

trips for research and teacher training. Kathleen<br />

O’Keeffe Capo had a great visit with her roommate,<br />

Patricia Burke, in November — two days of<br />

nonstop talking! “We reminisced about our crosscountry<br />

car trip in 1963,” Kathleen wrote. “Fergus<br />

and Tony got to do sport activities, and we could<br />

just keep chatting. Nothing has changed.”<br />

“John and I had a delightful time seeing<br />

everyone and enjoying the festivities at the 45th,”<br />

wrote Sandy Gewinner Perry. “<strong>Wheelock</strong> looks<br />

great with the new Brookline campus and its new<br />

sophisticated glass building. Our oldest granddaughter,<br />

who is almost 12, had a role in Honk<br />

in the <strong>Wheelock</strong> Family Theatre production in<br />

February. We are spending time in Florida this<br />

winter on Hutchinson Island.”<br />

Two brave classmates reported moving to new<br />

areas on their own. The first, Jessi Ruth MacLeod<br />

’64/’92MS of Woolwich, ME, is off to Alexandria,<br />

VA, where she will be able to enjoy her daughter’s<br />

family and the warm weather. The second is Susie<br />

Nivison Gwin, who has moved from Orlando,<br />

FL, to Ukiah, CA, to be near son Rob and his<br />

wife and children and nearer to Vale, where son<br />

Sam lives with his family. She loves seeing her<br />

four grandchildren — all toddlers. Susie enjoys the<br />

beautiful mountain views and the cooler weather.<br />

“It has been a great move!” she exclaimed.<br />

We have three classmates who wrote in about<br />

their amazing voyages: Janet Larsen Weyenberg<br />

with husband Eric traveled to Botswana from<br />

Hawaii and fell madly in love with it. “An elephant<br />

walked by one morning as we were eating<br />

breakfast,” she wrote. That was just one of many<br />

magnificent animals she saw, plus more than 120<br />

birds that were new to her. They spent a month<br />

in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. Everyone is healthy.<br />

Her dad is 91 and still living in his own house;<br />

her still frisky cairn terrier, Gus, is 13. Janet<br />

continues her work as a docent at the (incredibly<br />

lovely) Contemporary Museum in Honolulu.<br />

And then there is Ann Fleming Fiske, who last<br />

year went to Dubai where her son, his wife, and<br />

two granddaughters live; England, where she rented<br />

a house in Kent; the Isle of Guernsey, where<br />

she did research for her book club; and Hawaii,<br />

where she celebrated her son-in-law’s recovery<br />

from lymphoma. Harold and Ann also bought a<br />

cottage in Bar Harbor, ME, where they will spend<br />

much of their summers. While not traveling, Ann<br />

keeps busy singing in two choirs, attending art<br />

history classes, and doing some volunteer work.<br />

Ann looks forward to catching up with Ginny<br />

Pratt Agar, who lives on Mount Desert Island,<br />

ME. Ginny is a busy traveler, too, often taking<br />

the plane to Arizona, where her newly married<br />

daughter lives, or to California, where her son<br />

lives with her granddaughter. Carter, her oldest<br />

son, has just returned from many years of working<br />

in China to live and work in California, so<br />

she will not be flying to the Far East anymore.<br />

Ginny enjoys taking German lessons and often<br />

travels to Germany with her German friend<br />

Helmet. She, too, has enjoyed visiting Patricia<br />

Burke on recent trips to New York.<br />

After 15 years working as the education<br />

coordinator for two heritage organizations,<br />

Barb Russell Williams has retired. Now she is<br />

a volunteer for the Eastside Heritage Center in<br />

Washington state. She continues her work for the<br />

Bellevue Botanical Garden Society, managing botany-based<br />

school trips and a Living Lab Program.<br />

She wrote that this work enables her to use many<br />

<strong>Wheelock</strong> skills and she loves the job. Her two<br />

small grandchildren live in Scottsdale, AZ.<br />

I (Phyllis) continue to lunch with Ann<br />

Brown Omohundro nearly once a week. Dick<br />

has recently retired, and they now are the proud<br />

grandparents of Paul’s daughter, Kayley, 6,<br />

and a new baby, Jack. The family lives outside<br />

Chicago. Ann has become very active studying<br />

shock treatment and works with Kitty Dukakis<br />

to help remove the stigma of this very effective<br />

treatment for depression. She recently endured a<br />

knee operation but reports that she is doing well.<br />

Rachel Ripley Roach made it all the way to our<br />

Reunion from California. We all enjoyed seeing<br />

her after so long. She is now a first-time grandmother<br />

of a little boy whom she tries to see every<br />

other week. Her home time is spent working on<br />

the literacy problem. She tutors weekly and runs<br />

workshops monthly. She also works with the<br />

Retired Teachers Association in California. The<br />

group is very active politically and socially, trying<br />

to preserve and protect their pension.<br />

In October I had the pleasure of spending<br />

time with Judy Reutter Blanton at our husbands’<br />

45th Reunion from the Harvard Business School.<br />

Since we both met our husbands on the same<br />

night at a mixer there, it was fitting to meet there<br />

again. Judy still lives in New York City, and after<br />

years of being the director of admissions for the<br />

Episcopal Nursery School, she is now the director.<br />

Congratulations!<br />

Shortly after the Reunion, in August, my sister<br />

Lee died at the age of 68. This was a very sad<br />

time and a shock to us all. Ginny and Ann O.<br />

both came to the funeral, which was a great comfort<br />

to me. But life goes on, and I am busy with<br />

our three grandchildren, art classes at the MFA,<br />

life drawing, and sketching at local coffeehouses.<br />

I continue on the board of the Forbes House<br />

Museum, and I’m excited about the launching of<br />

the China Trade Trail. Our cherished grant will<br />

allow us to link up all the house museums and<br />

facilities in a colorful brochure. This will aid visitors<br />

and scholars of the Trade to get a complete<br />

viewing of the rich wonders Massachusetts has<br />

to offer in this field. A kickoff day of talks by<br />

Chinese scholars is scheduled for April 24 at the<br />

Boston Athenaeum.<br />

Thanks for all who took the time to write.<br />

You are the best!<br />

1965<br />

Mary Barnard O’Connell<br />

Mary Dominick Connors<br />

REUNION <strong>2010</strong><br />

June 4-6<br />

1966<br />

Margery Conley Mars<br />

The Alumni Office was sorry to hear in January<br />

of the death of Joyce Nothacker Robinson. Joyce<br />

was a loving wife, mother, and grandmother;<br />

an inspiring teacher; and an amazing friend.<br />

Diagnosed with pancreatic cancer the first week<br />

of August, she died two months later, on Oct. 3,<br />

2009, her 65th birthday.<br />

Connie Muther loves being retired and in<br />

sunny San Diego. She has moved into a new<br />

condo and is volunteering at a zoo, at a natural<br />

history museum, and on whale touring boats.<br />

<strong>Wheelock</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong> 23


CLASS NOTES<br />

Patricia Wild wants classmates to know that<br />

www.patriciawild.net now has an interactive<br />

menu for middle and high school students and<br />

their teachers who want to learn more about her<br />

book Way Opens: A Spiritual Journey. Her website<br />

also features a blog: “Every week I discuss my<br />

growing awareness of race, the criminal justice<br />

system, and how what nudged me to write Way<br />

Opens continues to inform my life,” she wrote.<br />

“I am eager for people to read these entries . . .<br />

and to add comments.”<br />

1967<br />

Betsy Simmonds Pollock<br />

Greetings from your Class of 1967 scribe! Our<br />

classmates continue to be involved with grown<br />

children’s and grandchildren’s lives. Several have<br />

retired and report travels to exciting and interesting<br />

places and volunteering to keep connected.<br />

Not all that responded to information requests are<br />

retired; some continue productive careers.<br />

Susan Mitchell Cronk says both daughters<br />

got married — Michelle on Feb. 14 and Bonnie<br />

on Sept. 19. Peggy Ann Benisch Anderson<br />

’53 attended both weddings. “The weather was<br />

great and it was nice to see Peggy,” Susan wrote.<br />

Donna Pulk Elliott continues to advocate and<br />

care for her husband full time. She still participates<br />

in various groups such as . . . Sewing,<br />

Support, Women’s Club, Bridge, and Symphony<br />

League. One of the highlights of Donna’s year<br />

was seeing her college roommate after 40 years:<br />

Ruth Rupkey Bell was east this summer and<br />

came by for the day. “It was great. We had a<br />

wonderful time,” Donna wrote. Ruth has retired<br />

from teaching and keeps connected by volunteering<br />

in the school. She says that it is the best<br />

of both worlds.<br />

Peg Smith Smith is still living in Stowe,<br />

VT, where she has owned a Coldwell Banker<br />

Carlson Real Estate business for 35 years. “This<br />

fall, I went back to Penland School of Craft for<br />

two months to take a sculpture course, and I<br />

will have a show in August,” she wrote. “I love<br />

living in Stowe and have all my children and<br />

grandchildren close by. I went to Tracey Ober<br />

Anderson’s retirement party from teaching in<br />

Marblehead, MA, and reconnected with Pam<br />

Chesley Dennett ’66, one of my other roommates.<br />

We had not seen each other for over 40<br />

years. That was great fun.” Carolyn Wright<br />

Unger reported: “This has been a year of reflection<br />

since I retired in June from my primary<br />

gifted ed. teaching position.” For 11 years<br />

Carolyn taught problem-solving, logic, creative,<br />

and analytical lessons to 700 kids a year in K-3.<br />

In the most recent experience, she developed<br />

lessons to bring children outdoors. At the end<br />

of the school year, the entire school gathered to<br />

wish her well in retirement by dedicating the<br />

24 <strong>Spring</strong> <strong>2010</strong><br />

Thanks to<br />

<strong>Wheelock</strong><br />

from ’67<br />

“This has been a year of reflection since I retired<br />

in June from my primary gifted ed. teaching position.<br />

Thirty years of teaching has certainly given<br />

me many memories to reflect on, my teacher<br />

stories. I must say that every time I walked into a<br />

classroom or met with a group of kids, I thanked<br />

<strong>Wheelock</strong> for such a sound background.”<br />

— Carolyn Wright Unger ’67<br />

“I keep <strong>Wheelock</strong> close in many memories. My<br />

education there has definitely contributed over<br />

my lifetime to achieving many goals, and I have<br />

thought back on those days with gratitude for<br />

the philosophies learned and the values that<br />

were taught.” — Linda Moritz Katz ’67<br />

outdoor classroom to her. “It was such an unexpected<br />

honor!” Carolyn wrote. “Thirty years of<br />

teaching has certainly given me many memories<br />

to reflect on, my teacher stories. I must say that<br />

every time I walked into a classroom or met with<br />

a group of kids, I thanked <strong>Wheelock</strong> for such a<br />

sound background.”<br />

Ingrid Hasskarl Chalufour retired from the<br />

Educational Development Center in Newton,<br />

MA. During her 20 years at EDC, Ingrid worked<br />

on early childhood projects with national impact.<br />

Ingrid wrote, “I have especially enjoyed getting<br />

involved in early childhood science work with<br />

two <strong>Wheelock</strong> faculty, Karen Worth and Jeff<br />

Winokur.” She plans on continuing to do some<br />

work for EDC and spending part of the year with<br />

her husband at their house in Maine. Ellie Jacobs<br />

Garrett is retired. Retirement allows them the<br />

opportunity to focus on their four grandchildren,<br />

spending time with each family, which is challenging<br />

and fun.<br />

Linda Moritz Katz lives in Cleveland, OH.<br />

She is a social worker for the Cleveland Heights<br />

Office of Aging, two days a week. She and her<br />

husband also are fortunate to have children and<br />

four grandchildren in the area, whom they often<br />

see. Linda wrote: “I keep <strong>Wheelock</strong> close in<br />

many memories. My education there has definitely<br />

contributed over my lifetime to achieving<br />

many goals, and I have thought back on those<br />

days with gratitude for the philosophies learned<br />

and the values that were taught.” Barbara<br />

Taylor Posner still does educational consulting<br />

for special needs students and young adults. She<br />

travels across the country looking at schools and<br />

programs. It is rewarding work. She sees Bev<br />

Boden Rogers twice a year at Sanibel Island<br />

and a Chamber Music Festival in Newport, RI.<br />

In the summer, she enjoys swimming across the<br />

lake her house is on.<br />

I (Betsy) have a very part-time job as a merchandiser<br />

for American Greetings Card Co. I<br />

am recording secretary for our newly organized<br />

Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR)<br />

group. My husband and I still travel to the<br />

East Coast to visit family as time allows. I’ve<br />

become interested in genealogy and have visited<br />

some locations where my great-grandparents<br />

lived between 1874 and the 1880s. It’s fun,<br />

but I have a long way to go before the family<br />

tree is complete!<br />

1968<br />

Marilyn Rupinski Rotondo<br />

Cynthia Carpenter Sheehan<br />

Lee McLellan Collins and her husband both<br />

retired in June ’03 and are busy traveling and<br />

enjoying visits from family and friends. A new<br />

grandson arrived in October ’09, and they look<br />

forward to caring for him one day a week when<br />

their daughter returns to work. “What a wonderful<br />

life!” Lee wrote. Catherine Scheid Evans<br />

and husband Art are settled in Cincinnati, OH.<br />

Art is chairman of Obstetrics at University of<br />

Cincinnati. Their annual travels include visiting<br />

their oldest son and family in Quito, Ecuador (he<br />

is a public affairs officer at the U.N. Embassy);<br />

visiting their son in New York City; and visiting<br />

their daughter and family in Atlanta.<br />

Carol Hamel Long is still in the publishing<br />

business — going on 27 years now. She is in<br />

Executive Acquisitions for Technology Books for<br />

Wiley Publishing. “Programming and computer<br />

security do seem a bit of a stretch from early<br />

childhood education, but I’m sure there is a link<br />

there somewhere,” she wrote. Oldest son Matt is<br />

a diplomat with the U.S. State Department and<br />

is posted in Rabat, Morocco, right now. Carol’s<br />

middle son, Nathan, died in August ’07 after a<br />

brave 20-month battle with brain cancer. “We<br />

try to live now as he lived — fully and with joy<br />

— but it is a very hard road, when you have lost<br />

a child,” she wrote. Carol and husband Wayne’s<br />

plans are to move back to her hometown of<br />

Southborough, MA, where her mother’s family<br />

has lived for 12 generations. Sue Ordway Lyons<br />

is into her sixth year of retirement following a<br />

wonderful teaching career. She and husband Tom<br />

just celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary,<br />

and they have two grown sons. Sue has learned to<br />

machine quilt, has time to spend with family and<br />

friends, has caught up on reading, and enjoys<br />

time with her 94-year-old mother. Sue keeps in<br />

touch with Susan Castleton Ryan ’68/’73MS<br />

and Nonie Gignoux Spevacek.<br />

Sue Webb Tregay is “still an artist painting<br />

away and had a breakthrough [last] spring,”<br />

she wrote. “I can’t wait to get to the studio each<br />

morning.” Sue has a wonderful grandson “who is<br />

about to be displaced from his throne by baby #2<br />

in June. I’m too old to be a grandmother of toddlers,”<br />

she wrote.


CLASS NOTES<br />

2009 ITCA Regional Parent Leadership Award<br />

Sally Clark Sloop ’68Gayle Ziegler Vonasek ’72/’78MS wrote to<br />

make sure we knew that Sally Clark Sloop<br />

’68 was presented with an award at the<br />

National Early Childhood Conference in Washington,<br />

D.C., in December. The IDEA Infant and Toddler<br />

Coordinators Association chose Sally as the winner of<br />

the 2009 ITCA Regional Parent Leadership Award,<br />

“given annually to acknowledge outstanding state parent<br />

leadership on behalf of the Part C program for<br />

infants and toddlers with developmental delays or disabilities<br />

and their families,” according to a press release<br />

about the award. The award recognizes leadership in<br />

the areas of family support, recruiting and/or training<br />

families, serving on committees, and developing legislative<br />

initiatives, among others.<br />

Letters of support submitted on Sally’s behalf spoke<br />

of her work to “advocate for the critical importance of<br />

understanding the family perspective and providing needed support” in addition to the<br />

way she “has devoted her career to enhancing the availability of both [caring professionals<br />

and effective parent-to-parent support].” Gayle, who was Sally’s student teacher<br />

in Newton, MA, in 1971, wrote, “I know firsthand of her talent in teaching young<br />

children,” and talked about Sally’s “intelligence, commitment, compassion, and creativity”<br />

— gifts that she knows <strong>Wheelock</strong> nurtured.<br />

Recently retired from family support work for the state of North Carolina, Sally is<br />

currently mentoring Head Start teachers.<br />

1969<br />

Linda Bullock Owens<br />

Tasha Lowell Allan<br />

November of 2009 was a terrific month for Tasha<br />

Lowell Allan ’69/’91MS. First, the Lowell family<br />

was honored for its many years of dedication<br />

to education at the <strong>Wheelock</strong> Passion for Action<br />

celebration. Tasha said that she has “never been so<br />

proud to be associated with <strong>Wheelock</strong>” and was<br />

truly inspired by the event’s speakers as well as by<br />

the stories of the current scholarship recipients<br />

who are supported by this program. The month<br />

was capped by the birth of Shea Abraham Allan,<br />

Tasha’s third grandchild, who lives close enough<br />

for frequent visits from her home in Hull, MA, to<br />

his in Center Conway, NH.<br />

Having retired from teaching four years ago,<br />

Carol Henderson Amaral is working part time<br />

at a yarn store in Falmouth, MA. She wrote that<br />

she is a very busy member of the “sandwich generation,”<br />

visiting her parents in a nearby nursing<br />

home and keeping in touch with her daughter,<br />

Tazeena, who lives in Los Angeles.<br />

If anyone will be traveling to Colorado during<br />

the summer months, look for Cheri Breeman<br />

on Fridays at the Dillon farmers’ market, where<br />

she sells her jewelry and pottery. When the snow<br />

flies, on the weekends she can be found driving<br />

a shuttle bus at Arapahoe Basin Ski Area, which<br />

earns her free skiing at almost every ski resort in<br />

the state.<br />

On the East Coast, Nance Kulin Liebgott<br />

divides her time between living in New York<br />

City and the warmer climate of Sarasota, FL.<br />

Between keeping up with one daughter in Prague<br />

and another in Pennsylvania, Nance finds time<br />

for periodic visits from several of our classmates<br />

as well. Liz Henderson Lufkin is working in<br />

Wareham, MA, with students who have “social,<br />

emotional, and behavioral exceptionalities” while<br />

living in the cozy former home of her grandmother<br />

in nearby Marion. Her four sons and two<br />

granddaughters love to join her there in warm<br />

weather water and beach activities.<br />

I (Linda) recently caught up with Marge<br />

Miner, who is well on her way to recovery from<br />

knee replacement surgery, which she had soon<br />

after attending our Reunion last year. She manages<br />

to squeeze Pilates, swimming, and walking<br />

rehab regimens into her hectic life with husband<br />

Tom and two teenage daughters. In Panama, Rita<br />

Sladen Sosa continues her work as a secondary<br />

principal at Balboa Academy, finding time to<br />

mentor her assistant principal, who has just finished<br />

getting her credentials. Rita wrote that she<br />

and Alex celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary<br />

in November of last year.<br />

1970<br />

REUNION <strong>2010</strong><br />

June 4-6<br />

1974<br />

Laura Keyes Jaynes<br />

What a busy time in our lives! Thank you to the<br />

four classmates who took the time to write back.<br />

I wish that we could all try to double or triple<br />

our communication efforts, especially with the<br />

convenience of the Internet. If you didn’t get a<br />

chance to write for the <strong>Spring</strong> <strong>2010</strong> issue of the<br />

<strong>Wheelock</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong>, perhaps you can e-mail me at<br />

mrsjay22@hotmail.com. We have four more years<br />

to work on getting together in 2014! Our 40th<br />

Reunion! Imagine!<br />

I am doing well at this time in my life. I<br />

continue to enjoy teaching fourth grade in<br />

Merrimack, NH, and my husband of 36 years,<br />

Steve, is a sales manager at a Subaru dealership<br />

in Natick, MA. We just returned from a fabulous<br />

holiday vacation in Hawaii, where both of our<br />

kids live, work, and go to school.<br />

Jackie Schulte has been teaching preschool<br />

at the John Winthrop School, in Back Bay, for<br />

35 years, ever since she student-taught there in<br />

1974. She continues to treasure her wonderful<br />

relationships with each precious child and<br />

loved ones.<br />

Paula Davison wrote that she has become<br />

chairperson of the Alumni Association<br />

Endowment Fund Committee: “The <strong>Wheelock</strong><br />

Alumni Association is unique in having its own<br />

endowment fund. The committee oversees its<br />

financial management and makes grants to support<br />

Alumni projects. We have very creative<br />

alums and want to support as many as we can.”<br />

Paula also helped coordinate a <strong>Wheelock</strong> World<br />

Service Day (April 17) project for Cape Codarea<br />

alumnae.<br />

Rita Abrams Draper’s family is doing well,<br />

and she is enjoying her two grandchildren. They<br />

continue to spend most of the winter in Costa<br />

Rica, which is great after a busy season. She was<br />

so sorry to miss the 35th Reunion. She had too<br />

many catering functions that weekend. She sends<br />

her regards to all! Naomi Resnick Schwartz<br />

has been living in Providence, RI, for the past<br />

30 years, and she is teaching third grade in an<br />

inner-city public school. She wrote: “I’m loving<br />

my class, the people I work with, and the extracurricular<br />

activities that go on in my school. (I<br />

have no thoughts of retiring yet.) Providence is<br />

a wonderful little city, with a symphony, good<br />

restaurants, lots of ‘art,’ proximity to the ocean,<br />

and a good number of loyal friends. It was a good<br />

place to raise kids and is a good place for empty<br />

nesters.” Naomi and husband Stan have three<br />

grown children. She is looking for information on<br />

Nancy Blumenthal.<br />

<strong>Wheelock</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong> 25


Last June, Alice Strachan Barr ’78 (standing, fourth from left) invited some <strong>Wheelock</strong> friends to her parents’ home in<br />

Kennebunkport, ME, for a mini reunion. Back row, left to right: Judy Birofka Brown ’77, Lynn Freedman Byrnes ’77,<br />

Jill Schoenfeld Ikens ’77, Alice, Francesca Wright ’77, Sue LaRese Vivian ’77, Andree Howard ’77, and Lita Kochakian<br />

Zuchero ’77. Seated on the floor, left to right: Lisa Brookover Moore ’77, Elsa “Hillje” Whitmore Morse ’77, Sarah<br />

Zartman ’78, and Margaret Smith Lee ’77<br />

Please, 1974 classmates, let’s hear from you!<br />

Don’t hesitate to e-mail me anytime. 2014 will be<br />

here before you know it! It is sooo much fun to<br />

see what everyone is doing. Best wishes to all!<br />

1975<br />

Leslie Hayter Maxfield<br />

1976<br />

Angela Barresi Yakovleff<br />

REUNION <strong>2010</strong><br />

June 4-6<br />

Last October, Maryanne Galvin was invited to<br />

Denver, CO, to show her film Interrogate This<br />

at the International Association of Chiefs of<br />

Police Convention. She participated in a panel<br />

discussion, “Negotiating Ethical Dilemmas for<br />

Psychologists in the Interrogation of Terror<br />

Suspects,” and then in a Q&A. Among many<br />

words of praise for her film, the president of a<br />

Florida chapter of the ACLU, a nonpsychologist,<br />

found that Maryanne’s “balanced presentation,<br />

using a variety of media techniques, brought to<br />

the forefront a component of the war on terror<br />

that is not broadly known,” and he commended<br />

her for “taking on such a challenging subject and<br />

presenting it in an engaging manner.”<br />

1977<br />

Margaret Smith Lee<br />

Lisa Brookover Moore<br />

Debbie Warren Block is living in Atlanta, GA,<br />

and teaching kindergarten at The Davis Academy-<br />

Atlanta’s Reform Jewish Day School. She and husband<br />

Mitch have celebrated 25 years of marriage,<br />

and they have one daughter who is a graduate of<br />

the University of Wisconsin and one daughter<br />

who is a student at the University of Virginia.<br />

Ellen Broderick is enjoying her work at the<br />

Austen Riggs Center in Stockbridge, MA, a center<br />

that specializes in psychotherapeutic treatment of<br />

psychiatric disorders. Hollis Brooks wrote from<br />

snowy Boulder, CO: “I’m in my fourth busy year<br />

of working for a global event management company,<br />

where clients include Adobe, Time, Inc.,<br />

Cisco, and The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.<br />

New Yorker Cathy Aliapoulios Kraut ’78 and<br />

I chat on the phone almost daily, and I also stay<br />

in touch with Lynn O’Brien ’78, who’s based in<br />

Florida. I keep my connection to teaching alive<br />

with volunteer work as a reading coach.”<br />

Lynn Freedman Byrnes is finishing up<br />

her Certificate of Advanced Graduate Study<br />

in Special Education Administration while her<br />

husband is beginning work on his doctorate.<br />

Daughter Allie is a teacher in Beverly, MA; son<br />

Ryan is finishing his senior year at Endicott<br />

<strong>College</strong>; and daughter Lindsay is planning her<br />

wedding. In August, Lynn attended the opening<br />

of the new Riverway House with former<br />

dorm-mates Louise Close, Jill Schoenfeld Ikens,<br />

Andree Howard, and Nancy Pike Tooker.<br />

Louise Close wrote that she and husband Joel<br />

are “leaving New England’s harsh winter behind<br />

and are heading for Florida and the Carolinas . . .<br />

only to surface again in the spring.” Empty nesters<br />

now, with one daughter working in Singapore<br />

and a son at the University of Wisconsin in<br />

Madison, Louise is enjoying her work on<br />

<strong>Wheelock</strong>’s Board of Trustees.<br />

Andree Howard and wife Liza have finished<br />

work on their house and are now concentrating<br />

on their five grandchildren, who all live within<br />

a hundred miles of them. Andree is teaching<br />

at the Feinstein Child Development Center in<br />

Providence, RI, which is a lab school for the<br />

University of Rhode Island, giving her the opportunity<br />

to teach both preschoolers and college<br />

students. Tracy Weinberg continues to work as<br />

associate director of the Texas Association for<br />

the Gifted and Talented. He runs professional<br />

development conferences for up to 3,000 people,<br />

does a good deal of advocacy and lobbying, and<br />

administers scholarship programs. In his spare<br />

time, he performs regularly with his band, Three<br />

Way Street, in the central Texas area.<br />

Audrey Zabin is a geriatric care manager at<br />

Audrey Zabin and Associates in Boston. Lita<br />

Kochakian Zuchero is keeping busy with her job<br />

as a fifth-grade special education teacher, as well as<br />

tutoring after school. Daughter Victoria is a sophomore<br />

at Assumption <strong>College</strong>, and son Alexander<br />

is a freshman in high school. She and husband<br />

Glenn recently celebrated their 22nd anniversary.<br />

I (Lisa) am is a PADI-certified open water<br />

scuba instructor teaching PADI scuba courses in<br />

Crystal Lake, IL. Daughter Kristin was married in<br />

March 2009, and son Tim is a 2008 graduate of<br />

<strong>Wheelock</strong> <strong>College</strong>. I attended a mini <strong>Wheelock</strong><br />

reunion in June 2009 hosted by Alice Strachan<br />

Barr ’78. As evidenced in the picture, some of us<br />

are wearing our “lobstah” bibs in anticipation of<br />

the coming lobster feast. It was a wonderful weekend<br />

of renewing old friendships!<br />

1978<br />

Pat Mucci Tayco<br />

Sarah Baldwin-Weissman is living in Chicago<br />

and keeping busy with her two children, ages 15<br />

and 12. She is involved in freelance marketing<br />

projects and working on her illustration business.<br />

Sarah’s website is www.sarahbaldwindesigns.<br />

com. Laurie Rockett Lupton is in her 16th year<br />

of teaching kindergarten for the Detroit Public<br />

Schools. Laurie reported that she has had the<br />

opportunity to share her <strong>Wheelock</strong> education<br />

with her colleagues as they undergo massive<br />

reforms. Her three children are now graduated,<br />

and she and her husband look forward to visiting<br />

them in their new cities.<br />

Beth Perry Nee is taking on more and more<br />

leadership roles at Sacopee Valley High School<br />

in Hiram, ME, since receiving her M.S. in<br />

Educational Leadership in ’08. Her daughter,<br />

Jessica Williamson, will complete her M.S.W. at<br />

<strong>Wheelock</strong> this spring, and FAFSAs have been<br />

filed for her twins, Liam and Logan, who are<br />

high school seniors. Her children inspire her and<br />

continuously place her in awe. Beth has also been<br />

enjoying catching up with <strong>Wheelock</strong> classmates<br />

on Facebook. Nancy Bissinger Timm is a clinical<br />

social worker in a group practice in New Orleans<br />

with three psychiatrists, three psychologists, and<br />

two social workers. Since Hurricane Katrina, they<br />

have been steadily busy. Her practice is primarily<br />

made up of children, adolescents, and their families.<br />

Nancy says her undergraduate degree from<br />

<strong>Wheelock</strong> provided her with a child development<br />

foundation that has been invaluable. She has<br />

three children — 25, 23, and 19 — and is married<br />

to Steve Timm.<br />

I (Pat) am continuing to use my wonderful<br />

<strong>Wheelock</strong> education as I enter my fourth year<br />

of directing a Bright Horizons program — the<br />

Booz Allen Hamilton Family Center in McLean,<br />

VA. I am very proud that Bright Horizons has<br />

26 <strong>Spring</strong> <strong>2010</strong>


CLASS NOTES<br />

Knitted Together Through Wool Power<br />

Sheri Gardner Von Urff ’79<br />

Sheri started a nonprofit organization<br />

four years ago called Wool<br />

Power, Inc. with the goal of<br />

keeping the craft of knitting alive and<br />

well and developing it as a resource<br />

through creative collaborations with<br />

others. “I have been working with 150<br />

knitters in a small village in Wote,<br />

Kenya, who are using knitting as a<br />

form of economic development,” Sheri<br />

writes. “Last year, I sent by cargo 280<br />

pairs of knitting needles and about<br />

1,500 balls of donated yarn, and<br />

now the women are knitting to sell<br />

their finished items. [See the colorful<br />

animal pillows on Sheri’s website, www.woolpower.org.] The woman on the left in the<br />

photo I sent is Lucy, who works in the U.S. but also helps the Akamba people to grow<br />

their own cotton and spin it into yarn. My collaboration with the knitters in Wote<br />

began through Lucy, who asked me to knit with the yarn that the Akamba knitters had<br />

spun in order to evaluate its workability. The photo shows us looking at the first shipment<br />

of their yarn to the U.S.”<br />

Sheri, who lives west of Philadelphia with her husband of 14 years and their 11-yearold<br />

daughter, is also working through Wool Power, Inc. and a unique alliance with<br />

a local school district in Chester County, PA, to launch the first knitting recycling<br />

program. And she is starting a book of yarn stories from women (and men) about<br />

how they got started knitting and about items they have made. She invites <strong>Wheelock</strong><br />

alumni to pass on their anecdotes. Wool Power!<br />

won Fortune <strong>Magazine</strong>’s “Top 100 Best Places to<br />

Work” again for <strong>2010</strong> and my program was listed<br />

in Northern Virginia <strong>Magazine</strong>’s “Top 100 Best<br />

Day Care Programs” for <strong>2010</strong> for the first time.<br />

1979<br />

Barbara Dalbeck Piccirillo continues to work<br />

at Regional School Unit 75 in Topsham, ME,<br />

as a school occupational therapist. She’s been<br />

in that district, at various schools, for 17 years.<br />

Currently she works with students in kindergarten<br />

through grade 12 but spends most of her<br />

time at Woodside School with K-5 children. “My<br />

background in teaching has helped as I am participating<br />

more in first- and third-grade writing<br />

groups as well as in art,” she wrote. “I also run<br />

weekly fine motor groups in all of our kindergarten<br />

classrooms.” Last summer, Kim Morse Roell<br />

’80, Letitia Moore, and Anne Lang Mrozowski<br />

’78 visited Barbara, and she had a great time<br />

reconnecting with them.<br />

1980<br />

Elizabeth Corning DeMille<br />

Kathy Formica Harris<br />

REUNION <strong>2010</strong><br />

June 4-6<br />

1981<br />

Colleen Miller Rumsey<br />

Ted DeMille ’81/’86MS has written Making<br />

Believe on Paper. He credits his <strong>Wheelock</strong> experience<br />

with having helped him write the book,<br />

especially Florence Rossman.<br />

1983<br />

Carol Rubin Fishman<br />

“I can’t believe that I have a job that I like so<br />

well,” Susan Marr wrote about her assistant<br />

director position at Phoebe Hearst Preschool<br />

in San Francisco, where she celebrated her<br />

15th anniversary in February. She had three<br />

semesters of a master’s program in Elementary<br />

Education (at San Francisco State University)<br />

under her belt as of December and was planning<br />

to focus on her California credential<br />

in <strong>2010</strong>. She also planned to come east this<br />

spring to see family and Riverway buddies.<br />

Susan shared the sad news of her brother<br />

John’s sudden death last June, making 2009<br />

a tough year. Congratulations to Karen<br />

Sullivan, who married Scott Arseneault on<br />

July 5, 2009.<br />

1984<br />

Kathryn Welsh Wilcox<br />

Thank you to all of the members of the Class of<br />

1984 who sent us lots of exciting information<br />

about their lives! Check out the latest!<br />

Nancy Rogers Belisle, now living in<br />

Ohio, wrote of meeting up with Karen Mello<br />

Diamond ’83 and Melanie Levesque Madden<br />

at Mel’s Diner (owned by Melanie and husband<br />

Jack) in East Providence back in January. “We<br />

had not all been together in years,” Nancy<br />

wrote, “and we had a great time catching up.”<br />

Later that day, Nancy and Karen had another<br />

fun time catching up with Lil McCarthy<br />

Holbrook and Nancy Frame Mealey ’86 when<br />

they and some of their kids and spouses got<br />

together for dinner at Granite Links Golf Club<br />

in Quincy, MA.<br />

Christina Moulton Eckert shared that she is<br />

a published author. Her book series is going to<br />

be coming out this spring. Her son is graduating<br />

from film school this May and is heading<br />

out to Los Angeles. Her daughter is attending<br />

Northern Arizona University in the fall. Her 10-<br />

year-old son keeps growing up too fast! If there<br />

are any alumni in the Phoenix or Scottsdale,<br />

AZ, areas, please contact her! Cyndi Weyne<br />

Ryan is enjoying her third year as the coordinator<br />

for special education early intervention<br />

services for infants and toddlers in Los Angeles<br />

County. She and husband Tom celebrated their<br />

22nd anniversary in April. She also shared<br />

that her first grandchild from her stepdaughter<br />

Lindsay and husband Scott was born in<br />

September 2008, and then his sister was born<br />

last August. Stepson Matt continues to do well<br />

in the California oil refinery business. Daughter<br />

Kasey is engaged to Mark Madonna Newman<br />

of the U.S. Navy this summer. Youngest son<br />

Zachary is in boot camp in the U.S. Marine<br />

Corps in San Diego. “We are blessed to have<br />

a life that is full and rich with family,” Cyndi<br />

wrote. “I would love to hear more from and<br />

about my <strong>Wheelock</strong> sisters.”<br />

All is well in Cecilia Tatem Small’s household.<br />

She continues to work at the elementary<br />

school in Maynard, MA, as the counselor/social<br />

worker for the school of 500 students. She also<br />

still coordinates the Social Worker Weekend<br />

On Call Team for Emerson Hospital. Having a<br />

“house of teenagers” means she and her husband<br />

stay busy. In January, she wrote, “I am excited to<br />

join Martha McNulty and Patty Dowell Merrill<br />

as we head north for a weekend visit with Monica<br />

Trussell Belkin!”<br />

As for me (Kathryn), my life is very busy. I<br />

continue to teach first grade here in Murrieta, CA,<br />

as well as taking on the responsibility of being the<br />

PTSA president at my son’s high school! It does<br />

not leave me very much free time, but I manage<br />

<strong>Wheelock</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong> 27


Left to right: Nancy Frame Mealey ’86, Karen Mello Diamond<br />

’83, Mitch Belisle (Cornell ’07), Lil McCarthy Holbrook<br />

’84, and Nancy Rogers Belisle ’84 at (Nancy’s son) Mitch’s<br />

lacrosse game at the Boston Garden on Jan. 9. Mitch plays<br />

for the National Lacrosse League’s Boston Blazers.<br />

to get to water polo games and swim matches each<br />

week. My oldest son, Steven, started his freshman<br />

year at Chapman University in Orange, CA. He is<br />

planning on majoring in business. It is so exciting<br />

to see him enjoy the college experience. It brings<br />

back wonderful memories of my days at <strong>Wheelock</strong><br />

and living in Colchester House! My youngest son,<br />

Andrew, is a junior at our local high school. He is<br />

enjoying having his oldest brother gone so now he<br />

is big man on campus.<br />

1985<br />

Linda Edwards Beal<br />

REUNION <strong>2010</strong><br />

June 4-6<br />

1987<br />

Kathleen Hurley DeVarennes<br />

Allison Small Annand still enjoys teaching in the<br />

Hollis, NH, integrated preschool but has plans to<br />

move from Hollis to Nashua. All is well with her<br />

family; both daughters are in high school. Pam<br />

Lackey Cawley, husband Mark, and their two<br />

sons live in Franklin, MA. Pam works part time<br />

as a retail merchandiser for Hallmark and has a<br />

small party planning business that she is trying<br />

to expand (www.PerfectPartiesbyPam.com). Son<br />

David became a bar mitzvah in June 2009, and<br />

she was very proud of him.<br />

1988<br />

Carol Ann McCusker Petruccelli<br />

Shirley Bourque Fruguglietti’s 7-year-old<br />

daughter keeps her very busy. Her family continues<br />

to be actively involved with the deaf<br />

community as Lily straddles two worlds. They<br />

have met so many wonderful deaf friends that<br />

they would not have met without Lily. Shirley<br />

is also a proud grandmother of a 2-year-old.<br />

She feels very blessed. Chris Schuman Kenny<br />

has been really lucky to reconnect with a lot of<br />

<strong>Wheelock</strong> friends. She has been busy with PTA<br />

and volunteering in preschool since all the kids<br />

are in school. She is glad to be back in the classroom.<br />

She has traveled to St. Louis for a mini<br />

family reunion and also went to Disney. Julie<br />

Shea is working for Boston Public Schools as an<br />

evaluation team facilitator, and her oldest son,<br />

Glenn, is a Marine and is being deployed to<br />

Afghanistan. The children in her school are all<br />

set to send him care packages while he is over<br />

there. Denise Williamson has enjoyed her trips<br />

to Austria, Italy, and Ireland. She is still busy<br />

with Autocross.<br />

As for me (Carol Ann), I am keeping very<br />

busy with work and my two young boys. I had<br />

the opportunity to skate Fenway Park with<br />

them back in January. It was a great experience.<br />

1989<br />

Susan Kelly Myers<br />

What a wonderful Reunion! It was so enjoyable<br />

to catch up with so many of you, see the new<br />

campus buildings, and enjoy the city of Boston.<br />

It was like old times to sit and talk with everyone.<br />

It sure brought back a lot of memories to<br />

stay in a dorm room on campus! Thank you to<br />

all who attended.<br />

Lisa Cantore is truly living out the <strong>College</strong>’s<br />

mission. “The end of 2009 was quite eventful for<br />

me,” she wrote. “A documentary aired on the local<br />

Rhode Island PBS station about the day camp I<br />

created for young children with cancer and their<br />

siblings. Please look for it on your station, as it<br />

may air nationally!” Lisa also moved back to her<br />

home state of Connecticut, where she is now<br />

a child life specialist at Connecticut Children’s<br />

Medical Center (Hartford). She is excited about<br />

this big change but says she misses “the RI child<br />

life/<strong>Wheelock</strong> crew.” (Congratulations, Lisa, on<br />

making a difference in the lives of young children<br />

and their families.) Kim Del Greco Stephens<br />

relocated to Seguin, TX, in July 2009. She is<br />

hoping to continue her work in the child life<br />

field and stays very busy with husband Bob and<br />

two children, Nick and Katharine. “We are very<br />

close to San Antonio and would love to have<br />

visitors if anyone heads out our way,” she wrote.<br />

Vickie Williams was ordained an elder in the<br />

Pentecostal Church in June 2005. As an elder, she<br />

traveled to New Orleans to serve the families who<br />

were impacted by the destruction of Hurricane<br />

Katrina. She is now serving on the ministerial staff<br />

at St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church,<br />

in Boston, and is busy raising two delightful sons<br />

(ages 10 and 8).<br />

I (Sue) have had a busy and wonderful year.<br />

I traveled to Paris in April for my free incentive<br />

trip with Pampered Chef. I went on a Mexican<br />

Riviera Cruise with my family (plus 35 friends<br />

from around the country), and I am back in<br />

the classroom as a substitute teacher. My four<br />

children (ages 13, 12, 8, and 7) think it’s great as<br />

long as I’m not their teacher for a day.<br />

Please keep in touch and let me know if you<br />

ever find yourself in the Denver area.<br />

Young<br />

Alumni<br />

Online Class Notes<br />

WOW — What a Success!<br />

Many of our more recent grads who like to<br />

communicate online have asked to be able to<br />

see their Class Notes on <strong>Wheelock</strong>’s website.<br />

We thought it was a great idea, especially<br />

when we realized we could update Class Notes<br />

and Reunion information more frequently<br />

(quarterly for Class Notes), upload more photos<br />

of special occasions, and keep news extra current.<br />

So we did it!<br />

Since last fall, alumni have been able to<br />

find news of those who graduated in or after<br />

1990 by browsing the Undergraduate Class<br />

Notes and Graduate Class Notes links on our<br />

website at: www.wheelock.edu/classnotes.<br />

The move to online Class Notes for more recent<br />

classes is getting raves from alumni. We’re so<br />

glad you like it!<br />

Master’s Degrees<br />

Sandra Heidemann ’81MS has co-written a<br />

book, Play: The Pathway from Theory to Practice<br />

(<strong>2010</strong>). She is currently working as the Words<br />

Work! classroom coordinator for the Saint Paul<br />

Foundation in St. Paul, MN, implementing early<br />

literacy professional development strategies for<br />

Head Start teachers. In 2006, she was presented<br />

with the Evelyn House Award by MnAEYC in<br />

appreciation of time and effort given to young<br />

children in Minnesota.<br />

Deaths<br />

28 Sylvia Littlehales Nichols<br />

34 Betty Marvin Anderson<br />

34 Ruth Swanson Hallowell<br />

34 Virginia Clayton Thorne<br />

37 Ellen Moak Lloyd<br />

37 Florence Woodman Smith<br />

41 Jeannette Stevenson Thurman<br />

41 Barbara Shaw Zajonc<br />

44 Laura Kelly Peters<br />

44 Jane Sponnoble Timm<br />

44 Jane Cooper Wyman<br />

47 Florrie Baybutt Smith<br />

48 Miriam “Topsie” Seipp Christensen<br />

53 Mary Ditmore Mathews<br />

56 Inge Buechling Nichols<br />

57 Marilyn “Lyn” Hunziker Palmer<br />

66 Joyce Nothacker Robinson<br />

74AS Rosella Jones<br />

74 Sally Malloy Sanford<br />

76MS Holly Horton<br />

77 Naomi White<br />

87MS Michael Pearl<br />

90MS Donna White<br />

97/97MS Kathy Morris<br />

28 <strong>Spring</strong> <strong>2010</strong>


Welcome to the<br />

“New” Library<br />

Exciting changes occurred in the <strong>Wheelock</strong> Library during<br />

winter break. A quick look around the first-floor area<br />

reveals many improvements that go far beyond fresh<br />

paint. The space is now wide open and bright (new lighting<br />

complements the natural, outdoor light flowing in from the<br />

glass doors facing The Riverway), and accommodates a combined<br />

service and reference desk, many new computers, quick-service<br />

computer kiosks, study tables, and lots of comfortable seating for<br />

reading. A new group study room on floor 3M also has technology<br />

updates, and the <strong>College</strong> Archives (now on the Library’s<br />

lower level) has a new display case for rotating exhibits that<br />

are bringing <strong>Wheelock</strong>’s history and traditions into full public<br />

view. It all makes the Library an inviting place to spend time<br />

researching, prepping papers, or otherwise focusing the mind.<br />

Charles and Irene Frail Hamm ’60<br />

Endowed Scholarship Challenge<br />

Continues to Inspire<br />

In 2007, Charles and Irene Frail Hamm ’60 created an Endowed<br />

Scholarship Challenge in the amount of $1 million to provide<br />

scholarships for future urban teachers and to encourage others to<br />

establish endowments for the same purpose.<br />

Those who contribute to urban teaching scholarships demonstrate<br />

a strategic, forward-looking approach to giving that makes it possible<br />

for <strong>Wheelock</strong> to prepare students who will serve one of the fastest<br />

growing yet most underserved segments of our society — urban children<br />

and families. To join the Hamms in educating more and better teachers<br />

for our city schools, contact Linda Welter, Vice President for Advancement,<br />

at (617) 879-2233 or lwelter@wheelock.edu.<br />

Reunion <strong>2010</strong> Roundup for<br />

Classes Ending in 0 and 5<br />

It’s happened again. Five years have flown by since your<br />

last Reunion! In 2005, Toby Congleton Milner ’70<br />

and Shawana Thomas Daniels ’95 won “Making a Difference”<br />

Service Awards, the Class of 1955 won all four class<br />

prizes, the Class of 1960 sailed off on a Charles River adventure,<br />

everyone “quacked up” on the Duck Tour, and, as Mary<br />

Barnard O’Connell ’65 declared, “Laughter filled the air!”<br />

What will happen this year? Which classes will win the prizes?<br />

What’s the most amazing change on campus since 2005?<br />

That’s hard — there’ve been so many! What we do know is that<br />

there are plenty of plans afoot to make Reunion <strong>2010</strong> the best<br />

ever. Come and find out what’s going on, call your classmates,<br />

and let the fun begin!


200 The Riverway<br />

Boston, MA<br />

02215-4176<br />

(617) 879-2123<br />

Bookmark Your<br />

Reunion Website<br />

Reunion Weekend <strong>2010</strong><br />

June 4-6, <strong>2010</strong><br />

Celebrating the Classes of 1925, 1930, 1935,<br />

1940, 1945, 1950, 1955, 1960, 1965, 1970, 1975,<br />

1980, 1985, 1990, 1995, 2000, & 2005!<br />

Reunion plans are in the works. Bookmark the<br />

Reunion page on the <strong>Wheelock</strong> website for updates<br />

on who has registered. See you there!<br />

Gracias!<br />

World Service Day Volunteers<br />

Tons of thanks to alumni who participated in <strong>Wheelock</strong>’s first<br />

annual World Service Day on April 17. Those who organized and<br />

joined <strong>Wheelock</strong> volunteer projects in Los Angeles, San Francisco,<br />

Cape Cod, Boston, southern New Hampshire, Sarasota, Singapore, and<br />

Portland demonstrated, once again and with energy, how <strong>Wheelock</strong><br />

<strong>College</strong> alumni live its mission. And they did a great job launching a<br />

new service tradition that pays back in the chance to see old friends,<br />

meet new ones, be useful, and have fun. See you next year!<br />

Alumni<br />

Events<br />

Cape Cod Club<br />

Annual <strong>Spring</strong> Luncheon<br />

May 13 • 12 p.m.<br />

Hyannis Yacht Club<br />

RSVP (617) 879-2261<br />

Don’t Miss New<br />

Art on Campus, p. 4<br />

Greater Portland Alumni Club<br />

Annual Meeting and Dinner<br />

May 19 • 6 p.m.<br />

The Purpoodock Club<br />

Cape Elizabeth, ME<br />

RSVP (207) 878-2356<br />

Boston Young Alumni Reception<br />

for all graduates 1995-<strong>2010</strong><br />

June 5 • 7 p.m.<br />

Beer Works<br />

61 Brookline Avenue<br />

Boston, MA

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