Category: President

Apr 16 2024

Sad News: Maria Madsen Holzberg and Kathleen Castaldi McAuley

  • April 16, 2024

Dear Classmates:

This is clearly the worst part of my role….I have been informed that two of our classmates have passed away, Maria Madsen Holzberg and Kathleen Castaldi McAuley.

I am enclosing links to Maria and Kathleen’s obituaries and an article from the Hartford Courant about Maria that Sue Rittenhouse Sokoloski found that I thought you all would want to read.

Also, I know Nancy Herman Jarrett and Andi Popik Tabor, our Class Scribes, already wrote to everyone asking you to send remembrances of Maria to them so they can include these memories in the next issue of the Quarterly.  Please also send your remembrances of Kathleen to them, at scribe77@mtholyoke.edu .

My thoughts are with Maria and Kathleen’s families and friends, 

Liz

 https://www.courant.com/obituaries/maria-madsen-holzberg/

https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/gazettenet/name/kathleen-mcauley-obituary?id=54842240

Permanent link to this article: https://new.alumnae.mtholyoke.edu/1977/2024/04/16/sad-news_maria-madsen-holzberg-and-kathleen-castaldi-mcauley/

Apr 12 2024

Sad News

  • April 12, 2024

Greetings, classmates.  Sadly, we have lost another.  Maria Madsen Holzberg passed away on March 28th.  We would like to include any rememberances in the next issue of the Quarterly.  Please email us at scribe77@mtholyoke.edu with any memories.  Thank you, Nancy Herman Jarrett and Andi Popik Taber (your class scribes)

Permanent link to this article: https://new.alumnae.mtholyoke.edu/1977/2024/04/12/sad-news-2/

Dec 11 2023

Upcoming Class of 1977 Book Club, January 25th @8pm Eastern

  • December 11, 2023

Hello all, I am here to report that our Class of 1977 Book Club is alive and flourishing! On September 19th we held our 2nd Book Club Zoom meeting, where 25 of us had very lively discussions of the book, A Discovery of Witches, by an MHC alum, Deborah Harkness. Some of us loved it, some of us hated it, and some of us were just not sure – what a great book for our class! And a special thank you to Sue Berry Duncan, Nancy Mathiasen and Maureen Harrigan for their leadership of this book club meeting.

 

And we are very lucky that immediately after our September meeting, Sandy Jones and Pam Taylor reached out to say they would like to recommend the book for the next Book Club and would lead the discussion. So I am happy to report that our next book will be the Pulitzer Prize winning novel, Middlesex, by Jeffrey Eugenides (2002, Farrar, Straus and Giroux), and our discussion will take place on January 25th at 8pm ET. It’s a long book and since there are a lot of holidays coming up between now and then, we wanted to make sure everyone has enough time to read the book.

 

When I asked Sandy to write a little blurb about the book and why she and Pam suggested it, the “Professor” in Dr. Sandy Jones came out (as well as her “tell it like it is” attitude) and she provided the following:

 

In 2007 when I was restricted to bed rest recovering from bilateral knee replacements, Pam Taylor sent me a copy of Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides (2002, Farrar, Straus and Giroux). Not only was the book an excellent read, but it also had a special fascination for me because I am a reproductive physiologist and had learned about this intersex condition in graduate school.

 

We proposed a Class of 1977 discussion of the book because of its timeliness in the context of current political controversy surrounding gender issues. The unfortunate conflation of sex and gender reflects widespread ignorance regarding the distinction between the biological and socio-cultural roots of these very different terms. Multiple state legislatures have banned any intervention or treatment for transgender youth while overlooking the fairly standard medical practice that continues to lead doctors to advocate for and perform “corrective” surgeries on intersex babies. The long-term success of this practice has been seriously questioned and these operations have been compared to genital mutilations by intersex adults.

 

I actually had to get legal protection from FIRE, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, to continue to teach a combination of lectures on the biological basis of sex and the cultural construction of gender in my non-majors’ biology course after a parent complained to the university about their daughter being exposed to “woke shit.” Most people seem to think that sex is dichotomous because they have never learned that it is actually bimodal with more than 30 different genetic and developmental anomalies that lead to intersex births. My commitment to teaching this has become deliberate advocacy for the LGBTQ+ community because I am so tired of the ignorance that is used to justify social persecution. Students of this generation are much more open, and the ones in my classes consider this valuable information that they have never been taught before.

 

Pam suggested that I open our Zoom meeting with a very short explanation of the 5alpha reductase deficiencythat causes the particular intersex condition that is the topic of the book. It will not be a lecture!!! (5 minutes max) The scientific accuracy of the story is extremely impressive, especially since medical science has learned so much more about this, very recently. Wikipedia has an extensive article on this Pulitzer Prize winning book, if you would like a preview.

 

Below is the Zoom link for the meeting, and of course I will send out several reminders before January 25th.. And I really hope many of you can join – I am pretty sure it is going to be a very lively and thought-provoking discussion.

 

See you all on January 25th at 8pm ET

 

Fondly,

Liz

Permanent link to this article: https://new.alumnae.mtholyoke.edu/1977/2023/12/11/upcoming-class-of-1977-book-club-january-25th-8pm-eastern/

Dec 11 2023

Did You Miss Deb Roth’s Staying  SELF-Centered and Joy-Full during the Holidays or Want to Learn More? .

  • December 11, 2023

Hello everyone, on December 6th we had a fantastic Zoom meeting led by Deb Roth ’77 on Staying  SELF-Centered and Joy-Full during the Holidays.  

Deb has been kind enough to follow up with a list of many wonderful resources on this topic and we thought a lot of our classmates would find these helpful, so I am sending out this eblast to the entire class.  We recorded the session which is posted on our class website’s Zoom Conversation webpage or here.

Here you go…

DEB’S RESOURCES:

Kirtan Kriya  — https://youtu.be/pnEZh03WaOA  (my video)  Also check out Jennifer Hadley’s “40-day Challenge” at https://jenniferhadley.com/kirtankriya

Body Prayer & Julian of Norwich — https://youtu.be/dmXGAJC4Ngg  (my video)                                            AWAIT ALLOW ACCEPT ATTEND

Chair of Joy (and Felicitas) —  https://youtu.be/QziB6CLm50w (my video)  Also check out the Joyely website:  https://joyely.com/   SIT BREATH THINK FEEL

Nature Mandala cards — https://naturemandala.com/

Daily reading/journal book  — Essene Book of Days (on Amazon)

Sanskrit chants  (Deva Premal – Mantras for Precarious Times)

 

Others:

HeartMath –  https://www.heartmath.org/

Positive Intelligence —   https://www.positiveintelligence.com/

 

— My “Self Care for the Holidays” article: https://spiritedliving.com/blog/prepare-for-the-holidays-by-practicing-radical-self-care-now/

— Circle of One: The Art of Becoming a SELF-Centered Woman – e-book by Deb Roth about women, self care, and life transitions    https://spiritedliving.com/spiritual-bookstore-books/

— Connect with me on Facebook and Instagram or via my website (where you can also get 25 tips for self care when you join my mailing list) 

 

And don’t forget to put our next Class of 1977 Book Club discussion on your calendar – January 25th at 8pm ET, on the Pulitzer Prize winning book Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides, being led by Sandy Jones and Pam Taylor. 

 

And for those who celebrate, I wish each of you a Happy Holiday and Joyful New Year.  

 

Fondly, 

Liz

Permanent link to this article: https://new.alumnae.mtholyoke.edu/1977/2023/12/11/video-available-from-december-6-zoom-call/

Dec 05 2023

REMINDER: This Wednesday Dec 6th at 8PM ET, Deb Roth and Staying Self-Centered and Joy-Full

  • December 5, 2023

Hi everyone, just a reminder that this Wednesday, December 6th at 8 pm ET, Deb Roth will be facilitating a very timely discussion during this busy holiday season, and the Zoom link is at the end: 

Staying SELF-Centered and Joy-Full during the Holidays!

For MHC Class of 1977

If there was ever a time to ramp-up (or create) your self-care practices, now is the time! As if the state of the world wasn’t enough, we’ve now officially entered the annual HOLI-DAZE and if we want to move through it in one piece, we need to find powerful, practical ways to keep grounded and centered. 

I mean that literally – I’ve coined the phrase “sacred SELF-centeredness” to reflect how important it is to stay connected to your true essence, your best SELF, especially when we’re being pulled in many directions. And yes, it really is a sacred commitment that we make to ourselves, especially for those of us who have been taught to take care of everyone else first… a destructive little bit of socialization that women seem to have done a particularly good job of internalizing.  Unchecked, this tendency results in a full-blown case of co-dependent behavior in some or all of your relationships. And not to mention, also the tendency to crash and burn when you hit the wall or are caught in the whirlwind of holiday overwhelm. 

To support myself and my clients through times like this, I’ve become a “collector” of meditations, spiritual practices, and nurturing daily routines. However (full disclosure here), I’m not one of those people who can sit in silence and “clear my mind” for any length of time, so all of them include some kind of movement and/or singing/chanting. Some of them are 1-2 minutes, and the longest one is 12 minutes. I’d love to share them with you and lead you through a few so you have a few more tools in your own self-care toolbox to get through the next month or so. 

Please come with some of your favorites, too. Let’s support each other in these challenging times!

Deb Stone Roth is an Interfaith Minister, Life & Career Transition Coach, and Relationship Guide. She has spent the last 45+ years coaching, training, writing, and speaking on the topics of practical spirituality, women’s empowerment, radical self-care, conscious relationships and managing life’s big changes, as well as convening monthly women’s circles (both “live” and on the phone), a yearlong Women’s Spirituality program, and co-creating hundreds of unique wedding ceremonies and other life-passage rituals. You can read more about her work at: www.SpiritedLiving.com

———————————————————————-

Deborah Roth, MA, PCC
Founder of Spirited Living™ and 4thU Artivists (Activism Through the Arts)

Interfaith Minister and Spiritual Life and Relationship Guide
Spirited Life/Career Transition Coaching, Relationship Support for Couples and Singles, Unique Wedding Ceremonies & Life Passage Celebrations, Women’s Moon Circles and Meditations

Office: 212-665-9660
Cell: 917-309-4008

 

I hope to see as many of you as possible because I know I will really need this as the holidays approach, and I can imagine many of you will too. 

 

The Zoom link is below, 

 

See you soon, 

Liz

 

Liz Gershon is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

 

Topic: Class of 1977  “Staying SELF-Centered” Zoom Meeting December 6th at 8pm ET

Time: Dec 6, 2023 08:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

 

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85344543396?pwd=ckthTlVzS1Z4TXA2ZC95YkRvcG9kZz09

 

Meeting ID: 853 4454 3396

Passcode: 168886

 

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Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kcCCYrnfFq

Permanent link to this article: https://new.alumnae.mtholyoke.edu/1977/2023/12/05/reminder-this-wednesday-dec-6th-at-8pm-et-deb-roth-and-staying-self-centered-and-joy-full/

Nov 17 2023

“Staying SELF-Centered and Joy-Full” Zoom Meeting December 6th at 8pm ET

  • November 17, 2023

I am very excited to invite everyone to our next Class activity, Staying Self-Centered and Joy-Full during the Holidays, with Deb Roth leading the event. It will be on December 6th at 8 pm ET and below is a summary of Deb’s plans:

Staying SELF-Centered and Joy-Full during the Holidays!

For MHC Class of 1977

If there was ever a time to ramp up (or create) your self-care practices, now is the time! As if the state of the world wasn’t enough, we’ve now officially entered the annual HOLI-DAZE and if we want to move through it in one piece, we need to find powerful, practical ways to keep grounded and centered.

I mean that literally – I’ve coined the phrase “sacred SELF-centeredness” to reflect how important it is to stay connected to your true essence, your best SELF, especially when we’re being pulled in many directions. And yes, it really is a sacred commitment that we make to ourselves, especially for those of us who have been taught to take care of everyone else first… a destructive little bit of socialization that women seem to have done a particularly good job of internalizing. Unchecked, this tendency results in a full-blown case of co-dependent behavior in some or all of your relationships. And not to mention, also the tendency to crash and burn when you hit the wall or are caught in the whirlwind of holiday overwhelm.

To support myself and my clients through times like this, I’ve become a “collector” of meditations, spiritual practices, and nurturing daily routines. However (full disclosure here), I’m not one of those people who can sit in silence and “clear my mind” for any length of time, so all of them include some kind of movement and/or singing/chanting. Some of them are 1-2 minutes, and the longest one is 12 minutes. I’d love to share them with you and lead you through a few so you have a few more tools in your own self-care toolbox to get through the next month or so.

Please come with some of your favorites, too. Let’s support each other in these challenging times!

Deb Stone Roth is an Interfaith Minister, Life &  Career Transition Coach, and Relationship Guide. She has spent the last 45+ years coaching, training, writing, and speaking on the topics of practical spirituality, women’s empowerment, radical self-care, conscious relationships, and managing life’s big changes, as well as convening monthly women’s circles (both “live” and on the phone), a yearlong Women’s Spirituality program, and co-creating hundreds of unique wedding ceremonies and other life-passage rituals. You can read more about her work at: www.SpiritedLiving.com

———————————————————————-

Deborah Roth, MA, PCC
Founder of Spirited Living™ and 4thU Artivists (Activism Through the Arts)

Interfaith Minister and Spiritual Life and Relationship Guide
Spirited Life/Career Transition Coaching, Relationship Support for Couples and Singles, Unique Wedding Ceremonies & Life Passage Celebrations, Women’s Moon Circles and Meditation

The Zoom link is below,

See you soon,

Liz

 

Topic: Class of 1977 “Staying SELF-Centered” Zoom Meeting December 6th at 8pm ET

Time: Dec 6, 2023 08:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85344543396?pwd=ckthTlVzS1Z4TXA2ZC95YkRvcG9kZz09

Meeting ID: 853 4454 3396

Passcode: 168886

 

Permanent link to this article: https://new.alumnae.mtholyoke.edu/1977/2023/11/17/staying-self-centered-and-joy-full-zoom-meeting-december-6th-at-8pm-et/