Mayesha Alam’s writing featured in Daily Star

Congratulations to Mayesha, who was published in the Daily Star, the major English-language newspaper in Bangladesh. Her piece, “In Pursuit of a New Dawn,” discusses issues of outlines her hopes for Bangladesh’s future

http://www.thedailystar.net/beta2/news/in-pursuit-of-a-new-dawn/

Shahla Farzan reports for “The Mindful Californian”

A story by Shahla Farzan, who is pursuing a PhD in ecology at UC Davis, is featured by the California Environmental Legacy Project. The subject is a nature camp for young children at an urban farm near Sacramento.

Listen to the full piece here.

The 2012 – 2015 Class Board

With a fabulous turn out for class elections at Reunion, we have a new slate of officers to bring us to our Five Year.

President: Lauren Darby

Vice President: Elizabeth DuMont McCaffrey

Secretary: Laura Bernstein

Treasurer: Nikki Chambers

Scribe: Aviva Elzufon

Communications Team: Joanna Arcieri and Cathy Pedrayes

Head Class Agent: Melanie Haber

Nominating Committee: Maureen McVeigh, Hillary Ossip

Thank you to everyone who voted!

 

Record Year in Admission

 

…and three 2010ers were a part of it.

The Alumnae Quarterly ran a story about the record number of applications received this year, highlighting the five alumnae who work in the Office of Admission. Three of those are members of the class of 2010: Natasha Payes, Elizabeth DuMont McCaffrey, and Lauren Darby.

Mount Holyoke saw a 14% increase in applications in this cycle, as highlighted in this post by the Office of Communications.

To read the Quarterly article, on page 4 of the Spring Alumnae Quarterly, go here.

 

Reunion Elections

Who will be the next President of 2010? Vice president, treasurer, scribes, and more!

Class officers are elected for five-year terms serving from one reunion until the next (except for graduating seniors, who serve until their two-year reunion).

Elections will be held at Class Meeting, which will be taking place at 5pm in the Class Headquarters on Saturday, May 19th. If you are interested in running for a position, please let the Reunion Planners know in advance. Email your name and the position for which you would like to run. You do not have to attend Reunion in order to run for a position. If you will not be able to make it to Reunion, please include with your email 5-10 sentences about why you feel you should be elected (to be read at Class Meeting by the presiding officer).
There will be an opportunity for nomination at the time of the election as well.

General Responsibilities
Class officer responsibilities include working to maintain strong relationships with other class officers, as well as with classmates. Active involvement leads to strong class organization, spirit, communication, and connections with the College and Alumnae Association.
The following descriptions are excerpts from the Class Officers Handbook. For further detail, please see the original document.

President
The class president is the link between our class, the Alumnae Association and the College. A president must lead with enthusiasm, energy, and commitment. These duties and responsibilities include writing biannual letters, sending e-mails, making personal visits, or calling classmates, as well as playing a prominent role in Reunion Planning and budgeting.

Vice President (This position may also include reunion chair responsibilities)
Vice Presidents should have duties designated by the president. Each Nominating Committee should work with the class board to outline these duties before soliciting candidates for the position. Anyone accepting this office must be prepared to work closely with the president and take over presidential responsibilities, if necessary.

Secretary and/or Scribe
 (1-2 positions)
The secretary/scribe position may be combined or split, depending on the class. The secretary is responsible for preserving class records, keeping minutes of board and class meetings, and retaining the meeting minutes book. The scribe is responsible for gathering, verifying, and preparing class news items, which are forwarded to the Mount Holyoke Alumnae Quarterly Class Notes editor four times a year. The scribes’ guide, available on the Classes and Reunion Resource Page or from the Quarterly office (413-538-3094), provides instructions for preparing class notes.

Treasurer
The treasurer keeps permanent, accurate and business-like records of all class funds, which, at the end of the term, are transferred to the successor. The treasurer completes and submits an Annual Financial Report provided by the Alumnae Association by August 30 each year. She reconciles bank statements on a monthly basis and sends financial reports to the class president at least every six months.

Communications/Web Coordinator (1-2 positions)
The Communications Coordinator/Web Coordinator is responsible for creating, maintaining, and updating the class website or other class social media. Keeping these media current and interesting can be quite time consuming, so splitting the position between two co-coordinators can ease the amount of work and make it much more fun. Creativity is a necessity.

Class Nominating Committee (3 positions)
The class Nominating Committee consists of five members: three elected by the membership at reunion and two appointed by the president, who also appoints one of the three elected members as chair.
The Nominating Committee selects candidates for elective class officers and submits an official slate for class elections. The only additional nominations that can be considered for any given office are those made from the floor at the time of the election at the class meeting.
Consent of the nominee must first be obtained.

Head Class Agent

This officer reports directly to Development Office staff. The head class agent is responsible for her class’s target contribution to the Mount Holyoke Fund each year. She is a motivator and manager of a team of Cornerstone callers and class agents or reunion gift callers who work under her. Training is provided for new head class agents by the Development Office.

Reunion Chair
The reunion chair (or co-chairs) is responsible for organizing and leading the reunion planning process for her class. This person oversees the work of the various reunion committees, keeps up-to-date with planning, and ensures that committee chairs are meeting deadlines. Attends the Reunion Planning Workshop 18 months prior to reunion and erves as the primary contact with the Alumnae Association.

MHC Professors Rank High Nationally

After garnering the ranking of #1 Classroom Experience in Princeton Review’s 2011 listings, our academics are again receiving praise with fourteen professors recognized on the PR list of the 300 Best Professors, the most of any institutions listed.

The following professors were honored:

Barry, Susan R.
Crosthwaite, Jane F.
Daniels, Susan
Ferraro, Vinnie
Fink, Rachel
Frary, Amy
Hartley, James
Mitchell, Sam,
Pleshakov, Dr. Constantine
Rachootin, Stan
Rivers, Christopher
Townsley, Eleanor
Tucker, Jr., Kenneth H.
Woodard, Craig

Princeton Review released the following regarding their methodology:

The Princeton Review and RateMyProfessors.com annually collect data from students at thousands of colleges across the country (and abroad) about their classroom experiences and assessments of their professors. For this project, The Princeton Review culled an initial list using its surveys of hundreds of thousands of students that revealed the colleges at which students highly rated their professors’ teaching ability and accessibility. Data from RateMyProfessors.com identified more than 42,000 professors at those schools that students had rated on its site.  Combining this info, a base list of 1,000 professors was formed.  After obtaining further input from school administrators and students, as well as from Princeton Review’s surveys of the professors under consideration, the editors of The Princeton Review made the final choices of the professors they profile in the book.

What do you think? Do you agree or disagree? Who would you add?

Kelsey Anderson featured on HGTV

On Saturday, March 31st, Kelsey’s search for a home near Madrid was the subject of HGTV’s House Hunters International:

Kelsey and Miguel first met when she was studying abroad in Spain. After returning to Chicago, they maintained a long-distance relationship until she made the permanent move back to Europe. She settled into a new life with Miguel in Zaragoza, but then a new job took Miguel south to the capital city of Madrid. Once again, they were long distance. Now Kelsey’s on her way to Madrid, where she’ll be studying for a master’s degree and hopefully finding a permanent home with Miguel. But her program is in central Madrid, and Miguel’s work is in the north ? finding something that’s well-situated for commuting to both will be tough. Not to mention securing a place that fits Kelsey’s traditional taste and Miguel’s more modern sensibilities will be another challenge. Are they up for it? Find out when House Hunters travels to Madrid, Spain.

Visit the HGTV website to stream it or find local listings.

A Rainy Convocation for Our Little Sisters

The weather was less than ideal, but spirits were not dampened for today’s Convocation, kicking off the 2011-2012 school year. Our little sisters got creative in their blues – many took on characters, ranging from Braveheart to Avatar Na’vi to Sonic the Hedgehog, while others took on sharks, superheroes, and jellyfish (cleverly incorporating use of much-needed umbrellas). President Pasquerella addressed the enthusiastic crowd, as did new Dean of the College Cerri Banks, Dean of Faculty Chris Benfey, and SGA President So Jin Lee ’13. Sadly, the picnic was canceled as a result of the rain.

MHC staff member Natasha P. ’10 greets 2012’s Lazora, Lucy, and Samia

The amphitheater was a sea of umbrellas as the rain poured down.

 

Watch the video of Convocation here!

(Thumbnail and video credit: MHC Office of Communications. Embedded photos property of [twenty ten]).