Annual Report of Bryn Mawr College

Annual Report of Bryn Mawr College
Dear Alumnae/i and Friends,
I
t is a pleasure to bring you
the College’s 2008–2009
Annual Report. As for most
institutions and individuals,
managing the effects of the
economic recession occupied much
of our time last year. Faculty, staff
and students faced this challenge
with candor and vigor, and were
undeterred in their work on
important initiatives to invigorate
our academic programs, campus
life, and institutional mission. The
stories of our past year are ones of
resiliency, renewal, exploration,
and connection.
Resiliency: Managing
College Finances
We were fortunate that the College
was on a strong financial footing
when the economic downturn
began in 2008. While portfolio
diversification sheltered us to some extent from
the declines of fiscal 2009, the value of the College’s
endowment declined 19.3% from June 2008 to June 2009.
This performance was better than the average of our peer
institutions and significantly better than the performance of
institutions that had not diversified their holdings. We have
worked to moderate the impact of this loss by adjustments in
our endowment spending formula that will “smooth” the
effect on annual budgets.
The recession also affected philanthropic giving to
colleges and universities and Bryn Mawr experienced a
decline in the cash value of gifts. Yet the number of
alumnae/i giving to the Annual Fund increased significantly,
with our youngest alumnae leading the way. I am grateful to
all who made a gift to the College last year.
On the spending side, we acted quickly and prudently to
address the shortfall created by the simultaneous drop in
revenue and increase in financial aid need. We have reduced
annual spending by nearly 6% through a transparent review
process that invited the participation of all campus members.
I was struck by our students’ commitment to the welfare of
our staff and the care with which faculty weighed difficult
decisions and helped us set priorities.
Renewal: Building on Traditions
of Extraordinary Excellence
Ensuring institutional excellence requires continuous
renewal of our faculty, our curriculum, and our facilities. In
2008–2009, our attention turned to the undergraduate
curriculum. A faculty-led Curriculum Renewal Working
Group is leading a comprehensive review of our
undergraduate programs that is continuing into 2009–2010.
Faculty are examining the broad goals of a liberal arts
education looking forward into the next decade, and the
curricular structure that will ensure that our students achieve
these goals. Changes in the writing and language
requirements have already been approved, and discussions
continue on topics such as preparation for global citizenship,
distributional requirements, and quantitative competency.
Renewal also continues in our graduate schools as
programs work to implement the principles and practices for
graduate education approved by the Board in 2008. I am
grateful to Provost Kim Cassidy and Professor Elizabeth
McCormack, Dean of Graduate Studies, for their leadership
of this effort. An important partner in this work going
forward will be Darlyne Bailey, whom we have appointed as
2008–09 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE COLLEGE
Dean of the Graduate School of Social Work and Social
Research following a national search.
In 2008–2009, our facilities renewal effort focused on
Goodhart Hall, which underwent a complete renovation, with
the addition of a small teaching theater. It is a joy to see
Goodhart come alive again for both our arts programs and for
student performing groups. We are currently embarked on a
significant renewal of Schwartz Gymnasium to enhance its
ability to serve our scholar athletes and to promote physical
fitness for all of our students.
Exploration: Opportunities
for New Global Connections
Globalization is changing the structure of higher education,
just as it has changed the organization of nearly every other
enterprise. In 2008–2009, I began to explore opportunities
for Bryn Mawr to forge some mutually-productive global
partnerships through possible connections with institutions
in Europe, Asia and the Middle East. On campus, I have
hosted college and university leaders for conversations
with our faculty about various models of international
academic engagement.
Associate Professor of Classical and Near Eastern
Archaeology Peter Magee is now working with me and with
other senior staff to continue our effort to define our goals
for international initiatives and to explore potential
relationships with particular institutions. I look forward to
reporting to you on our progress in the coming months.
In the meantime, our students and faculty continue to work
and think globally, and we showcase some of these projects
in the pages that follow.
Connection: Engaging our
Vibrant, Diverse Communities
In spring 2009, the College
enrolled the most diverse class in its
history, a class that was selected from
our largest applicant pool ever. Of the
362 members of the Class of 2013 (the
second largest in our history), 34%
identify themselves as U.S. students of
color (6% African American, 15% Asian
American, 9% Latina, 4% multiracial),
16% are citizens of other countries, 19%
are the first in their families to attend a
four-year institution, and 65% are
receiving need-based financial aid to
help fund their educations. Such
diversity is central to Bryn Mawr’s
mission as an extraordinary liberal arts college, enriching the
academic and co-curricular experience of all those who teach
and learn in this vibrant campus community.
The College also contributes to and benefits from our
immediate metropolitan community. By strengthening our
connections to the Philadelphia region, we seek to create
additional opportunities for students to learn, work and serve
through fieldwork, internships and service; to collaborate
with local organizations on projects of common interest; and
to raise the College’s visibility in the region. Our new
GSSWSR dean will help me advance this initiative in her
additional role as special assistant to the president for
community partnerships.
One of the best parts of my own first year at Bryn
Mawr was getting to know its many communities, both on
campus and off. Across generations of students, faculty,
staff, alumnae/i, parents and friends I witnessed a deep,
common devotion to this institution. I have learned to count
on your tough questions and on your high expectations for
our beloved college. I in turn will count on your partnership
as we work to realize our vision for Bryn Mawr now and in
the future.
Sincerely,
Jane McAuliffe
2008-09 ANNUAL REPORT
OF THE COLLEGE
Annual Report
Extraordinary Academics .............8
Robin Parks, Editor and Writer
Tom Durso, Writer
Jim Roese, Photographer
202design, Designer
Lane Press, Printer
Global Leadership for Women......14
Editorial Committee
President’s Message ....................6
A Vibrant, Diverse Community.....20
Bryn Mawr in the Media .............26
Donna Frithsen, Chief Development Officer
Ruth Lindeborg ’80, Secretary of the College
Jenny Rickard, Chief Enrollment and
Communications Officer
College Communications
Claudia Ginanni ’86, Web Content Manager
Matthew Gray, Media Relations Manager
Tracy Kellmer, Production Manager
7
MARIE GULDIN ’10
THE INVESTMENT
SUBCOMMITTEE
• ECON MAJOR
• CHINESE LANGUAGE
SCHOLAR
• MEMBER, OWL
INVESTMENT GROUP
or most
people,
Mandarin
Chinese is as fraught
with complexity and
obtuseness as the
concepts of
economics.
Now imagine
learning both
disciplines at once.
Not only has
economics major
Marie Guldin ’10
spent the last three
years studying
Chinese, she also
intends to link the two
once she graduates
from Bryn Mawr.
As a freshman
premed student,
Bryn Mawr’s endowment is
overseen by a group of talented
trustees and volunteers who
work closely with Cambridge
Associates and the treasurer to
manage the endowment. Over
the past five years, the
committee has worked tirelessly
to diversify the endowment. On
their own time and expense,
members of the committee travel
all over the country to investigate
investment opportunities. As the
portfolio matures, the College is
reaping the benefits of their hard
work and dedication. Bryn Mawr
is grateful to all members of the
Investment Subcommittee who
have given so much of
themselves to improve our
endowment performance. Their
gifts of time and talent are
invaluable to the College’s future.
‘That’s Why I Love Bryn Mawr’
Guldin took a trip to China and Tibet, where the areas’ booming economies were
beginning to smother existing cultures. In an instant her aspirations changed; the
economics class she had taken the semester prior suddenly seemed so interesting and
relevant that she decided to switch majors and reorient her post-graduate plans.
“That’s why I love Bryn Mawr,” Guldin says. “I never took an economics course before
I came to Bryn Mawr.”
Thanks to her China trip, economics won Guldin’s heart, and in the years since
that decision has been validated again and again. She has helped Thomas P. Vartanian,
professor and doctoral chair of Bryn Mawr’s Graduate School of Social Work and Social
Research, on a U.S. Department of Agriculture-funded project to research the impact
of food stamps participation and neighborhood conditions during childhood on obesity
and other health outcomes as an adult. She recently completed her undergraduate
thesis, an economic development piece on the relationship between democracy and
growth in Asia, and is applying to doctoral programs in hopes of landing an academic
or government research post someday. In the meantime, she is a teaching assistant for
the Introduction to Economics course.
“Economics is so applicable to everyday life. Everyone is going to encounter
economic issues in their lives,” Guldin says. “Maybe this is the science and math
person in me, but I need answers, and economics gives me answers.”
8
The College’s three-year
endowment returns are in the top
25% for U.S. higher education
endowments and beating the
S&P 500 by 7.2% annually.
The Investment
Subcommittee
Cheryl R. Holland ’80, Chair
Susan MacLaurin ’84, Vice Chair
Susan K. Barnes ’76
Betsy Zubrow Cohen ’63
Kathryn J. Crecelius ’73
John Hull
William E. Rankin, P ’04
Cynthia B. Tusan ’81
Sally Hoover Zeckhauser ’64
2008–09 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE COLLEGE
ANJALI THAPAR
• ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR
OF PSYCHOLOGY
ith the increasing prevalence of such
• PHD CASE WESTERN
neurological disorders as Alzheimer’s
RESERVE
and Parkinson’s diseases has come an
• NATIONAL INSTITUTE
explosion of research suggesting that varied and
ON AGING FUNDEE
continuing use of the brain throughout one’s life
could help stave off these illnesses. A variety of
commercial firms have
responded by marketing
products they claim offer
the kind of novel stimuli
that keep neurons firing.
For the last 10 years, Anjali Thapar, associate professor
of psychology, has conducted multiple research projects
focused on the effects of aging on higher-level cognitive
abilities, such as memory, attention, and language processing.
With funding from the National Institute of Aging, Thapar and
her team are exploring which of the many commercial
employed, the researchers see improvement in
remedies being peddled to older adults are most likely to be
neuropsychological tests that measure a variety of skills.
effective in slowing the effects of aging.
“This type of comprehensive approach does seem to be
“What is needed is empirical evidence to support which
much more successful in showing transfer across tasks and
of these programs are effective, which cognitive abilities are
into some real-world applications,” Thapar notes.
able to be improved, and which groups are going to see the
Thapar speaks with infectious enthusiasm about the
benefits,” she says.
possibilities of cognitive growth well into the golden years.
Thapar’s preliminary findings suggest that while targeted
“It’s really exciting to be able to say this is not just
something
that ends when you’re 25,” she says. “This is
programs—those focused on a specific cognitive ability—
something that we can all keep working at. There’s a real, true
improve the area being tested, they have little impact on other
benefit to it in the end.”
cognitive abilities. But when more holistic programs are
‘A Real,
True Benefit’
2008–09 FACULTY GRANTS OVER $25,000
Dan Davidson from National
Security Education Program for
“Flagship Language Program in
Arabic”: $1,671,413
Dan Davidson from National
Security Education Program for
“Flagship Language Program in
Russian”: $2,398,501
Julia Littell from the Philadelphia
Child and Family Therapy Center
for “Adherence Scale and
Outcome Family Therapy
Research”: $40,000
Marcia Martin from the
Pennsylvania Department of
Education for “Child Welfare
Training”: $96,645
Liz McCormack from NSF for
“Multiresonant spectroscopy of
long range states of molecular
hydrogen”: $53,384
Anjali Thapar from NIH for
“Theoretical analysis of the
effects of aging on memory and
reaction time”: $115,463
Michael Noel from NSF for
“Engineered samples of ultracold
Rydberg atoms”: $54,049
Thomas Vartanian from the U.S.
Department of Agriculture for
“Long-term effects of foodstamps receipt during childhood
on adult outcomes”: $100,550
Rhonda Hughes from NSF for
“The Edge Program”: $66,011
extraordinary
academics
9
YUAN QIAO ’10
• CHEM MAJOR
n the surface, the long, solitary
• MARIA L. EASTMAN
BROOKE HALL MEMORIAL
hours Yuan Qiao ’10 spends
SCHOLARSHIP RECIPIENT
in a lab synthesizing organic
• CHARLES S. HINCHMAN
compounds would seem to have little in
SCHOLARSHIP RECIPIENT
common with the frenetic energy and
• VARSITY BASKETBALL
nurturing teamwork of basketball, which
she plays as a member of the College’s
varsity hoops squad. But she sees an important link.
‘Just Get Focused’
“The key is to just get focused when you’re doing something,”
Qiao says.
Qiao’s focus both on the court and in the classroom is most
impressive. Last year, she won the Maria L. Eastman Brooke Hall
Memorial Scholarship, awarded to the junior with the highest average,
and the Charles S. Hinchman Scholarship, given to a junior for work
of special excellence in her major subject.
A native of China, Qiao began playing basketball at age 8. After
middle school she studied in Singapore, where her love of chemistry
developed. A scholarship from that country’s Agency for Science,
Technology and Research brought her to the United States and Bryn
Mawr; once she graduates, she will return to Singapore to work at the Agency.
For now, Qiao is applying herself at the College. While maintaining the rigorous practice, training, and game schedule of a
scholar-athlete, she also has scored excellent grades in a difficult major and spent considerable time in the lab assisting William
Malachowski, associate professor of chemistry, with research.
“We’ve been doing organic synthesis—creating new synthetic pathways to make biological structures,” she explains. “That’s a
part of chemistry I like; I’m making something useful.”
“Doing research is like making something valuable to science,” Qiao says, “making new discoveries that hopefully can be
used in some way. I want to be useful.”
2009 Revenue ($107.9 million)
Government Grants 8%
Other 4%
Endowment & Gifts Income 37%
• The endowment provides
$28 million in annual revenue.
• The College’s three-year endowment returns are in
the top 25% for U.S. higher education endowments.
• The College received $20.5 million in FY09 gifts.
• The Annual Fund contributes 5% of revenue.
• The Slade Society made up 71% of our Annual Fund gifts.
• The College received gifts from 7,489 donors.
10
Student Net Tuition & Fees 51%
• Financial aid expense was $22.8 million.
• 57% of students received financial aid.
• Undergraduates contribute 95% of all
net tuition revenue.
• The College received a record number
of applications.
• 19% of the members of the Class of
2013 are the first in their families to
attend a four-year college,
34% are students of color, and 21% are
from international backgrounds.
extraordinary
academics
2008–09 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE COLLEGE
LIZ McCORMACK
• PROFESSOR OF PHYSICS
ully understanding Liz McCormack’s
• DEAN OF GRADUATE
STUDIES
commitment to scholarship at Bryn Mawr
• PHD YALE UNIVERSITY
begins with a look at her CV.
One finds not simply an instructional load
• NATIONAL SCIENCE
FOUNDATION FUNDEE
in physics, but also work with curriculum
development and pedagogy to explore best
• AMERICAN PHYSICAL
SOCIETY FELLOW
practices in teaching science and mathematics;
not only superb teaching but also National Science
Foundation-funded research in the use of laser
light to expand the usually compact configurations of
hydrogen molecules; not merely an administrative role
at the College but a post as its dean of graduate studies.
“Because of the pull between the three, interesting
synergies arise,” she says. “Having the diversity enhances and
makes more rewarding each particular area. It’s refreshing to
move from one to the other, and I have to say being able to be
in a classroom of students is totally reviving.”
McCormack’s atypical arrangement nicely reflects Bryn
Mawr’s encouragement of atypical pathways to success.
She herself tells students that there are many different
ways of making a mark.
“I hope I’m role modeling how you can
shape a rewarding life by pursuing the things
that engage and challenge you,” she muses,
“and also use those interests to give back to the
institutions and organizations that supported
your professional growth and development.”
“Much of the work I’ve done is in the area of very
Ultimately, that goal for McCormack is her legacy as a
precise measurements on simple molecules that test our
physicist. She cites her 2005 election as a fellow of the
understanding and our theories, so the results are fairly
American Physical Society as a seminal moment in her
esoteric,” McCormack says. “Needless to say, I’m not
academic career and hopes she will be remembered for
curing cancer or saving lives!…but within that world I’m
turning out influential research that stands the test of time
and assists scientists in generations to come.
very proud of the quality of the work I’ve done.”
Different Ways
of Making a Mark
FINANCIALLY CREATIVE STRATEGIES
In the economic downturn that began last year we implemented financially creative strategies to which other institutions now aspire. In
typical Bryn Mawr fashion, we reacted quickly, positively, and strategically. Because of this, and continued support from friends, Bryn
Mawr is financially strong. On June 30, 2009, Bryn Mawr’s endowment stood at $556 million. The return on the endowment was -19%.
This compares favorably to the mean return of -20% for our peers. Including last year, the College average annual return is 10.1%. To
preserve the long-term purchasing power of the endowment, we chose not to transfer funds from the endowment to the operating
budget. That has proved to be a prudent decision, given the recent recovery in the markets, and the College has earned an additional
$5.6 million by keeping the money invested. The College has continued to use the downturn in the market as an opportunity to invest
with the best managers and to gain access to excellent investment opportunities because of our strong cash positions. Several years
ago, the trustees adopted a policy of spending between 4.5 and 5.5 percent of the total value of the endowment each year, a band that
would guarantee that current and future students benefit equally from the endowment’s resources. For fiscal year 2010, we reduced the
spending from endowment by $4.9 million and our spending rate is now at 5.16 percent. —John Griffith, CFO and Treasurer
11
JACKIE LANG ’09
• MATH MAJOR, AB/MA
• CHURCHILL SCHOLAR
On to Cambridge!
athematics major Jackie Lang ’09 was one
of just 14 American students in 2009 chosen to
spend a post-A.B. year at the University of
Cambridge as Churchill Scholars. Lang graduated with both A.B. and M.A. degrees and
is now in Cambridge, earning a Certificate of Advanced Study in Mathematics. Lang says
that she chose Bryn Mawr because she had read that women who attend women’s
colleges “are statistically more likely to earn Ph.D.s in math or science…and Bryn Mawr
has a very good record of
supporting women in math.”
• VIOLIST IN HAVERFORDBRYN MAWR ORCHESTRA
SARAH KHASAWINAH ’09
Khasawinah
Wins NSF Grad
Fellowship
arah Khasawinah ’09, a double
• MATH MAJOR, AB/MA
• ENGLISH MAJOR
• NSF FELLOW
• MELLON MAYS
UNDERGRADUATE
FELLOW
• FOUNDER OF COLLEGE
APIARY CLUB
major in mathematics and English who
spearheaded a $10,000 fundraising
campaign to memorialize the victims of the 2007 shootings at
Virginia Tech, received a Graduate Research Fellowship from the
National Science Foundation. The fellowship includes a three-year
annual stipend of $30,000 in addition to a $10,500 annual tuition benefit. Khasawinah, a Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellow,
will use the award to study biostatistics at the Johns Hopkins University.
JULIE GRIFFIN ’11
• GEOLOGY MAJOR
• ANN LUTES JOHNSON ’58
SCIENCE RESEARCH FUNDEE
12
A Summer of Discovery for Four
hanks to the generous support of the Ann Lutes Johnson ’58 Science Research
Fund, four students spent the summer doing their own discovery-based
research in the lab, described below.
Julie Griffin ’11, a geology major, worked with faculty mentor Don Barber to
research sea level patterns. She writes, “I am researching this concept of sea level
dropping by determining the formation of a series of ridges on Cedar Island, located in
the Outer Banks in North Carolina…Through this study, I will contribute research to
other pieces of global data that attempt to determine the progression of sea level over
the past 20,000 years.”
Madeline Berkowitz ’10, a psychology major, writes, “People may place
their arms in an oval shape and rock them back and forth to represent a baby. Most
people find this gesture easy to understand. Is this because the gesture is iconic or
because it is conventional? We seek to learn more about what children understand
about the nature of symbols.”
Megan Roberts ’10, a psychology major, writes, “Understanding how children
learn gesture and word labels for objects provides insight into language acquisition and
early cognitive development.…Knowing whether iconicity or conventionality increases
children’s ability to retain information could influence teaching techniques for children.”
Kathryn Solook ’10, a psychology major, writes, “In recall and recognition
word tasks, older adults tend to not use specific strategies to assist in memory, unlike
young adults.…This study hopes to lessen the difference between the two groups
through instruction in strategy usage.”
2008–09 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE COLLEGE
LILIAN MENGESHA ’10
• ENGLISH MAJOR
en students received the prestigious Mellon
• MELLON MAYS
UNDERGRADUATE
Mays Undergraduate Fellowships in 2008–09.
FELLOW
The program supports students of great promise
and helps them to become scholars of the highest distinction.
Each fellow must do an individual research project under
the guidance of a mentor. Here are some highlights from
their work.
Rachel Awkward ’09, a sociology major,
interned this past summer at Students for a Sensible
Drug Policy, a non-profit organization that works to mobilize
students to challenge drug policies, particularly those that
are harmful to youth.
Jackie Castellanos ’09, a Growth and Structure
of Cities major, spent this past summer in San Francisco’s
Mission District, investigating the interactions among a large
Hispanic population, young artists opening galleries, and the
prevalence of drug use and prostitution.
Students of ‘Great Promise’
Receive Mellon Fellowships
Terah Edun ’10, a political science major, lived for
seven months in Morocco, where she interned with the
America-Middle East Educational Training Services, a nonprofit organization in Rabat that works to strengthen
relations between Americans and the people of the Middle
East and North Africa.
Augusta Irele ’10: “My project is an observation of
the Francophone African immigrant in Paris. I am reading
the literature that these immigrants are producing, and
comparing the literature with the realities of immigrant life
in Paris.”
Lilian Mengesha ’10, an English major, is
researching the relationship between marginalized
communities and cultural performance, specifically how
artists create art in response to an ever-present history of
cultural and racial violence. This past summer and semester,
she conducted interviews with local township theater
initiatives in Cape Town, South Africa.
Kira Montagno ’09, a sociology major, is interested
in studying how family, peer groups and physical appearance
shape the identity of biracial adolescents. She hopes to
explore her topic through in-depth interviews of biracial
adolescents throughout the year.
Joanna Pinto-Coelho ’09, a sociology major, is a
second-generation Brazilian American. Her research project
was on immigration policy and attitudes towards
unauthorized immigrants in Maryland and Virginia. She is
now a grad student at UPenn.
Erica Seaborne ’09, an English major, is
interested in exploring how literary canons are formed,
particularly how women and minorities have been excluded.
She spent the summer compiling a bibliography on topics
such as the political role of literature in our society.
Johara Sealy ’09, a philosophy major from New
York, developed her project on “Women and the Complexities
of Choice.” She is now in grad school at New York University.
extraordinary
academics
13
AKUA NYAME-MENSAH ’10
• CITIES MAJOR
• ECON MAJOR
• BIRCH FUND RECIPIENT
Q&A WITH EUGENIE
LADNER BIRCH ’65,
SPONSOR OF THE
BIRCH FUND
• HEPBURN INTERN
• HANNA HOLBORN GRAY
FELLOW
• VARSITY SOCCER; VARSITY
TRACK & FIELD COLLEGE
RECORD-HOLDER
orn in the
United States to
an American
mother and a Ghanaian
father, Akua NyameMensah ’10 lived in the
Ivory Coast, in western
Africa, for 15 years before
finishing high school in
Tunisia. Both of her parents
had backgrounds in city
planning, which helped
foster a similar interest in
Nyame-Mensah.
A Growth and
Structure of Cities major,
Nyame-Mensah has
structured her academic
program and
career path to
incorporate her
global background and interests. In addition to her work at the College, she is in
an accelerated master’s program that will allow her to earn a master’s in city and
regional planning from the University of Pennsylvania just a year after graduating
from Bryn Mawr. “I hope to become an urban planner,” she
says, “conducting planning research in lesser developed
nations, for an international organization such as the United
Nations or the World Bank.”
Nyame-Mensah used a grant from the College’s Hanna
Holborn Gray Undergraduate Research Program in the
Humanities and Humanistic Social Sciences to study the
history of planning regulation in Ghana’s capital city, Accra.
This year, Nyame-Mensah was able to attend the Society for
American City and Regional Planning History’s conference on
urban planning, in San Francisco, thanks to funding from the
Birch Fund for Penn City Planning Submatriculant Students.
“Planning is so interdisciplinary,” she says. “I enjoy a bit
of history, I enjoy a bit of economics, I enjoy a bit of geography.
I get to touch on all those different things. I don’t think I’m
really good at any one thing, but kind of good in each of them, and by combining
aspects of different disciplines, I can come up with an idea of what a city could
look like.”
‘United Nations
or the World Bank’
14
GENIE BIRCH ’65
• HISTORY MAJOR
• PHD COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
• LAWRENCE C. NUSSDORF
PROFESSOR OF URBAN
RESEARCH AND EDUCATION,
UPENN
• BIRCH FUND FOR PENN CITY
PLANNING SUBMATRICULANT
STUDENTS SPONSOR
Q: What aspects of your Bryn Mawr
experience led to your decision to
fund student research?
A: “I had an extraordinary education
at Bryn Mawr and wanted to help other
students have the same
opportunities.”
Q: What did Bryn Mawr help you to do
in your own life and career that you
might not have done otherwise?
A: “Bryn Mawr taught me to write—the
Freshman English course with the
weekly essays was crucial; and to
think—all my courses were challenging
in different ways. I am sorry that the
English course has not survived, but I
think that the rigorous, personal
instruction that was the hallmark of the
College is still there. In addition, the
Bryn Mawr instructors were dedicated
teachers and scholars—many remain
role models for me. Mary Maples Dunn
comes to mind—I remember that her
American and Latin American history
courses were inspired—and so was her
appearance in class about three days
after having a baby!”
2008–09 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE COLLEGE
SIMONE BIOW ’10
• POLI SCI MAJOR
imone Biow ’10 had to adapt
• QUADRILINGUAL
to different cultures from the very
beginning. Her father is an
American scholar who met her mother, an Italian,
while he was traveling in Sicily. By the time the family
settled in Austin, Texas, where Biow’s father teaches Italian
history and literature, she was fully immersed in her
multifaceted background.
“Being raised in two
cultures meant being
raised bilingual,”
Biow says. “And that
made me more interested
in languages.”
Did it ever. Biow
has added French and
Spanish to her repertoire,
and is a political science
major at Bryn Mawr.
Biow has completed challenging internships
in Madagascar and Colombia (both funded by Bryn Mawr
College scholarships, the latter by an Alumnae
Regional Scholarship) and hopes to
combine overseas work and freelance writing to
help underdeveloped areas.
“Ideally I’d like to enter the NGO world and
ON THE ROAD
establish a grass roots organization somewhere in
Bryn Mawr’s 2008–09 academic year was writ large geographically. Twelve
Bryn Mawr students joined McAuliffe at an invitation-only panel discussion at
the world,” Biow says. “I’d also like to document
New York University featuring British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, former
what I see as a journalist. I want to be an observer
Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and two-time Federal Reserve Chairman
and then be a participant and change lives.”
Paul
Volker, who currently chairs President Barack Obama’s Economic Recovery
What drives Biow’s passion for economic
Advisory Board. The invitation to attend the event came about as a result of
development is an emotional reaction against
President McAuliffe’s participation in the U.K./U.S. Study Group on Higher
injustice and the realization she came to during her
Education in a Globalized World, a small group of higher-education leaders from
overseas work that underdeveloped societies have to
the
United States and the United Kingdom, formed at the request of Brown.
go through too much to fund initiatives that would
McAuliffe also participated in a major interfaith conference, the “Building
improve lives.
Bridges
Seminars,” held in 2009 in Istanbul. The seminars are an annual series
“Seeing people get inspired by coming up with
that brings together a range of internationally-recognized Christian and Muslim
a technology on their own, and creating an NGO to
scholars for an intensive study of relevant Biblical and Qur’anic texts on topics
help others in that situation always inspires me,”
such as concepts of justice and rights and the relationship of science and
she says. “On an emotional level, it resonates with
religion. In the U.S., McAuliffe visited alumnae groups across the country,
me; on the academic side, there are theories to
including Seattle, Los Angeles, Chicago, and throughout the Northeast, as well
explore. For me it’s the local sentiment and the
as every department on the College campus.
feeling I get from people there.”
‘I’d Like
to Enter
the NGO
World’
global leadership
for women
15
MARY OSIRIM
• PROFESSOR
OF SOCIOLOGY
PRESIDENT’S
ADVISORY
COUNCIL
Now in its fourth year, the
President’s Advisory Council
(PAC) provides a forum for
younger alumnae (between
the 10th and 25th reunion) to
provide counsel to President
McAuliffe and other senior
staff on issues of current
importance to the College.
2009 President’s
Advisory Council
Denise Lee Hurley ’82, Chair
Christy A. Allen ’90
Edith Aviles de Kostes ’88
Thanda Tin Belker ’89
Jeanne Callanan ’93
Alice Cheng ’90
Jana Ernakovich ’91
Dianne Coady Fisher ’82
Brinda Ganguly ’97
Meera Dhanalal Gilbert ’90
Carol A. Hitselberger ’86
Aparna Swarts
Mukherjee ’95
Christine Stepien Nevill ’97
Dana Niblack ’93
Lisa Redekop ’83
Stephanie B. Rein ’86
Kathryn Roth-Douquet ’86
Tamara D. Rozental ’95
Courtney SeibertFennimore ’99
Karin Mullone Timpone ’87
Dorian E. Turner ’84
Kira LeBlanc Watson ’91
Lisa Orlandini Vaga ’90
• PHD HARVARD
UNIVERSITY
• FORMER
CO-DIRECTOR,
CENTER FOR
INTERNATIONAL
STUDIES
s a former co-director of the Center
for International Studies and a
current member of its steering
committee, Professor Mary Osirim has
brought world-renowned scholars and
journalists to Bryn Mawr to offer their
perspectives on global issues. As a
sociologist, she has herself become an
expert in some of these areas, thanks to her
work in sub-Saharan African development.
some government, some somebody will latch
on to some of those ideas and try to find ways
of implementing things that can in fact
improve the lives of women, particularly poor
and low-income women, who are the vast
majority of women with whom I’ve worked.”
With a father born in Guyana and
ancestors from areas as varied as Jamaica
and Cape Verde, perhaps it’s natural that
Osirim has taken up international studies.
Her research has taken her
to Nigeria and Zimbabwe,
where the plight of lowincome people—especially women—has
impelled her to seek answers to oftendifficult questions.
“Certainly globalization has had some
positive effects in the world, including in
our own nation,” she notes. “But I also
argue that—particularly in countries of subSaharan Africa, Latin America, and some
Asian countries—a lot of the effects for
those on the bottom have been especially
negative. In this regard, structural
adjustment programs established in many
of these nations at the behest of the
International Financial Institutions resulted
in increased unemployment and poverty,
decreased social services and increased costs
for basic goods.” Through her scholarly
activism, Osirim hopes to change that.
Scholar-Activist
A self-described “scholar-activist,”
Osirim focuses on issues around women
and development, especially the
development of entrepreneurship in the
microenterprise sector—very small
businesses of five or fewer employees.
In many cases, these enterprises could
be helped greatly by nongovernmental
intervention and funding, but
informing them of that availability
can be quite difficult.
“My work with respect to the
development of entrepreneurship
among women has always tried to focus
more on what are the kinds of policy
recommendations that actually come out
of this work,” Osirim says. “Hopefully,
some nongovernmental organizations,
global leadership
for women
16
2008–09 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE COLLEGE
CHRISTINE KOGGEL
• HARVEY WEXLER PROFESSOR
OF PHILOSOPHY
Living Well
Together
• PHD QUEENS UNIVERSITY
• CO-DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR
INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
nternationalization has become trendy on campuses in recent years, but at
Bryn Mawr, efforts to integrate global issues into curriculum and research
stretch back a decade. The founding of the Center for International
Studies in 2000 put the College ahead of the curve in promoting the
internationalization of students’ experiences as well as their academic lives.
In Christine M. Koggel, professor of philosophy, the Center has a
co-director whose scholarly activities align perfectly with its mission. A
development ethicist and member of the International Development Ethics
Association (IDEA), Koggel studies development issues through the prism of
what is called “human flourishing.” With this approach, economic, social, and
political structures are assessed from the perspective of whether they enhance
or diminish one’s ability to live well.
“What does development mean for human beings living well together in
this increasingly globalized and interdependent world?” she asks.
Because of the philosophical nature of Koggel’s work, she approaches traditional development concepts from alternative
perspectives. For example, her recent research has addressed the much-discussed notion of empowerment; while most
economists use the term to refer to the commercial abilities a country or international financial institution gives citizens
through market structures, Koggel explores moral and epistemological questions about whether the prevalent understandings
of empowerment can be matched with on-the-ground understandings made by local nongovernmental organizations engaged
in implementing empowerment strategies and policies. The work took her to Indonesia a few years ago, and she hopes to
expand the scope to India and Latin America in the years to come.
“My current research allows me to explore what empowerment means for specific people in specific countries,” Koggel says.
“For example, what are the implications for women’s empowerment in contexts with histories, traditions, and structures different
from our own? Are some of the established understandings about how to empower people designed in ways that end up
disempowering women?”
OWLS IN FINANCE
The Owl Investment Group (OIG) was started by an anonymous
alumna who donated $100,000 to Bryn Mawr with the express
purpose of creating a student investment group that would
introduce its members to the world of finance. This year, the OIG
stock portfolio beat the S&P 500 by 2%. In the years since its
founding, the group used its returns to fund everything from
concerts to treadmills for the gym. In recent years, they have taken
annual trips to New York City to meet with Bryn Mawr alumnae who
are working in the finance industry, to participate in women-inhedge-fund lunches, and to tour the New York Stock Exchange.
Members of the Owl Investment Group, at the Museum of American
Finance, in front of the Isabel Benham ’31 exhibit, from left:
Nathalie Schallock ’10 (portfolio manager), Sasha Bereznak ’11
(bank treasurer), Jill Settlemyer ’10 (publicity co-chair), Lilly
Amirhekmat ’11 (secretary), and Yufan Wang ’11 (publicity co-chair).
17
Fellows, Interns, and a ‘Golden’
Medal: Highlights from a Year at
the Hepburn Center!
t was a lively 2008-09
at the Hepburn
Center under the
direction of Leslie
Rescorla, with three
fellows, a Katharine
Hepburn Medalist, and 14
students doing summer
internships. The
generosity of Carol
Yoskowitz ’71 funded the
fellows and interns whose
stories appear here.
JANE GOLDEN
• FOUNDER AND
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR,
MURAL ARTS PROGRAM
• KATHARINE HEPBURN
MEDALIST
Medalist Jane
Golden: As founder and
executive director, Jane
Golden established the
Mural Arts Program to
engage at-risk youth,
beautify the city of
Philadelphia and promote
social justice. The Mural
Arts Program has created
more than 2,800 murals and works of public art, earning
Philadelphia international recognition as the “City of
Murals.” At the award ceremony at the National Constitution
Center, President McAuliffe said, “Where others see walls,
graffiti, scribbled words of violence, and the marks of crime,
Jane sees pure potential.”
Fellow Ana María López ’82: Physician Ana
María López is a clinician, researcher and educator whose
focus is on reducing disparities in health care experienced by
many poor, underserved and minority populations. She is the
founding medical director of the Arizona Telemedicine
Program, which increases access to specialty care for
underserved populations in the state of Arizona, and provides
clinical education to rural health-care providers.
Fellow Maya Ajmera ’89: Maya Ajmera is the
founder and president of the Global Fund for Children
(GFC), which makes small grants to innovative communitybased organizations working with some of the world’s most
vulnerable children and youth. Last fiscal year, GFC awarded
488 grants valued at more than $3.28 million to grassroots
groups serving vulnerable children and youth around the
world. Since 1997, GFC has awarded over $14 million in
grants to 362 groups in 72 countries.
Fellow Amy Murphy: Amy Murphy is the
managing director of Philadelphia’s Arden Theatre Company,
which she co-founded in 1988 with Aaron Posner and her
husband, Terry Nolen. Under Murphy’s leadership, the Arden
has grown into a $4.2 million operation that serves more
global leadership
for women
18
2008–09 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE COLLEGE
DEBORAH AHENKORAH ’10
• POLI SCI MAJOR
Q&A WITH CAROL MAGIL
YOSKOWITZ ’71, HEPBURN
CENTER FELLOWS
PROGRAM DONOR
• HEPBURN INTERN
• FOUNDER OF PROJECT
EDUCATE IN AFRICA
• ADMISSIONS TOUR GUIDE
than 100,000 audience
members annually. Murphy
leads the theatre’s operations
and oversees its long-range
planning process.
Intern Deborah
Ahenkorah ’10: “In my
Hepburn internship with the
Global Fund for Children, I
focused on children’s book
publishing in Africa. I left GFC
with a deep understanding of the
nonprofit world. My Bryn Mawr
experience has been full of such
great opportunities as this
Hepburn internship. These experiences have played a huge role in shaping my
vision for my life and for this I am eternally grateful.”
Intern Alicia Steinmetz ’11: “During my Hepburn internship with the
Arden Theatre Company, I learned about grant writing, fundraising, event
planning, and making contacts with local businesses. I sat in on artistic meetings,
worked on set construction, and learned about the daily tasks involved in running a
theatre. This internship greatly complemented my education at Bryn Mawr.”
Intern Amanda Bowes ’10: “My Hepburn internship this summer with
the Reproductive Health Technologies Project allowed me to explore various areas
related to reproductive health and accessibility. (Dr. Susan F. Wood, a 2007–08
Hepburn Fellow, is affiliated with RHTP.) In addition to my final research on the
impact of environmental contaminants on male and female fertility, I also worked
on projects related to ‘green’ chemistry and the HPV vaccine.”
CAROL MAGIL
YOSKOWITZ ’71
• MATH AND FRENCH MAJOR
• MA EMORY UNIVERSITY
• HEPBURN CENTER FELLOWS
PROGRAM DONOR
Q: What aspects of your Bryn Mawr
experience led to your decision to fund
the Hepburn Fellows Program?
A: “When I was at Bryn Mawr, I felt that
the women there were bright, focused,
creative, self-aware and self-reliant, a
lot like the Hepburn women. That
continues to be the case, but the
greater world would not necessarily be
aware of that. I felt that awareness
was important and that the fellows
program would achieve that
awareness, especially with its
interaction with Philadelphia and the
larger community.”
Q: What did Bryn Mawr help you to do in
GROWING LEADERS
—the Leadership Empowerment and Advancement Program—brings
together 15 students each year to receive leadership training. Begun by
student affairs staff who realized the need for leadership development on
Bryn Mawr’s campus, and motivated by stories of alumnae who wished they had had some formal
leadership training during their time at Bryn Mawr, the program not only prepares its participants to
lead, but also assures that LEAP participants give back to and develop the leadership culture on
campus. For example, a workshop on transitioning leadership, “Passing the Torch,” was offered to all
leaders on campus in the spring of 2009. One of several successes emerging from LEAP has been
“The X Factor”—a series of alumnae panels looking at the role gender plays in leadership post-Bryn
Mawr. Organized by LEAP members, the series is open to the entire Bryn Mawr community.
your own life and career that you
might not have done otherwise?
A: “Bryn Mawr helped me feel
comfortable trying new things. It gave
me the confidence to take on jobs that
I might not have otherwise.”
19
KATE THOMAS
• ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR
OF ENGLISH
he great writers of the
• DPHIL OXFORD
Victorian era have been
UNIVERSITY
studied through myriad
approaches, but few scholars have
come at those influential essayists, novelists, and poets
from Kate Thomas’s perspective.
‘What’s Being
Overlooked?’
Thomas, an associate professor of English, was
trained in cultural and literary studies. In a forthcoming
book, Postal Pleasures, she explores literary reflections of
the changes the 19th century postal system brought to
Victorian society. And she recently has begun applying
food studies to her discipline, examining how the shift
from pre-industrial to industrial food impacted the
Victorians’ sense of themselves and their culture, and
how it affected what they wrote about.
“Food and food production were aspects of culture
that were deeply influential to how people lived and
thought, but they haven’t come under scrutiny of literary
scholars, perhaps because they feel too marginal as
subjects,” Thomas says. “I’ve always been motivated by
asking what’s being overlooked, what’s been relegated to
the margins, and this is the link between my first book
on the post office and my second book on class and food:
they are both studies of the quotidian.”
Thomas emphasizes to her students that there is
great value in examining the things that have become so
commonplace as to be neglected. That which is “woven
into the texture of everyday life,” she says, “is worthy of
study,” since in its ordinariness it is expressive of who we
are and therefore shows up thematically in literature.
“Bryn Mawr students are hungry for the challenge of
studying that which is not obvious,” she says. “They
understand that they’re going to find more complicated
answers, more satisfying intellectual results, if they’re
prepared to take an unusual way into a topic.”
MY POSSE = MY BRYN MAWR
For some students—especially those unfamiliar with the private school milieu—it’s not enough to have strong professors, nurturing administrators,
healthful food, comfortable facilities. Or even a full tuition merit scholarship. The loneliness and stress of being at an elite institution can often only be
alleviated by the comfort of friendship. With the help of The Posse Foundation, Bryn Mawr has recruited students from Boston-area public high schools
who have excellent leadership ability and academic potential that might be overlooked by the traditional college admissions process. Each year, Bryn
Mawr accepts a Posse of about 10 students and funds them with a full tuition merit scholarship. When they matriculate at Bryn Mawr, Posse scholars are
aware that they are joining the campus community to lead and make a difference.
a vibrant, diverse
community
2008–09 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE COLLEGE
English, Cities,
Writing, Margins
NICOLE GERVASIO ’10
• CITIES MAJOR
• ENGLISH MAJOR
• BEINECKE
SCHOLARSHIP
RECIPIENT
icole Gervasio ’10 has toes dipped in so many
waters you worry she’ll run out of feet.
• MELLON MAYS
UNDERGRAD FELLOW
She is a double major in English literature and Growth
• BI-CO AND COLLEGE
and Structure of Cities, with a concentration in creative
NEWS CO-EDITOR
writing, and interests in queer and postcolonial studies. She
edits the campus literary magazine Kaleidoscope and has
worked for both The Bi-College News and the college news. And
as one of just 21 students across the country to be awarded last
year’s Beinecke Scholarship, she will receive $4,000
immediately upon graduation from Bryn Mawr and an
additional $30,000 while attending graduate school; she plans
to pursue a Ph.D. in English.
“As an English and Cities double major, I found a way to
choose the path of most resistance,” she laughs. “My areas of
study are not very marginalized at Bryn Mawr, but they’re
definitely an intersection of theoretical ideas that are
marginalized in academia as a broader whole.”
It may not be easy, but for Gervasio—a Mellon Mays
Undergraduate Fellow—it’s quite rewarding.
“I’m one of those people who always had a differently
developed sense of community,” she notes. “It wasn’t the
easiest thing to achieve, so I’m kind of fascinated by people
who are able to develop that sense.”
A semester abroad in South Africa, where she researched
lesbian sexuality, safety, and violence in Cape Town, helped to convince Gervasio
that her “marginalized” interests were well worth pursuing.
Average Undergraduate Grant
$29,744
s
$30,000
$25,000
$21,807
s
$22,395
s
$24,917
s
$27,392
s
$20,000
$15,000
36% ($7,937) increase in average grant
$10,000
$5,000
$0
2005
2006
QPrevious Year
QNew $
2007
2008
sAverage Grant
2009
21
VICTOR DONNAY
• PROFESSOR OF
MATHEMATICS
• PHD NEW YORK
UNIVERSITY
• NATIONAL SCIENCE
FOUNDATION FUNDEE
‘Math is Power’
o doubt you’ve heard that in our increasingly
technological age, a greater facility with
mathematics and science is a much desired, if
elusive, goal.
That it could foster social justice is a more uncommon
sentiment. But for Victor J. Donnay, professor of
mathematics, who has devoted considerable time to develop
ways to bring math to a wider audience, the point is an
important one.
“To graduate from high school, you need a certain
ability in math,” he points out, “and if you don’t get taught
in a way that is understandable and makes sense to you,
even at the high school level, many
paths can be closed to you and you
may not succeed.”
Donnay is ready with other
examples, as well. He cites Bryn Mawr
students whose math skills helped
area residents earn low-income tax
credits. He points out that political
polling and determining where and
how to allocate resources to bring
about social change require the use of
mathematics as a tool.
“Math is power,” Donnay says. “It
makes a difference in the world.”
In addition to exploring math’s
social implications, Donnay also
conducts more traditional research in the discipline. His
current studies involve chaotic properties of dynamical
systems, with a special focus on geodesic flow on surfaces
and billiards. Even with such a complex and challenging
subject, he works to maximize understanding: Donnay and a
colleague in computer science developed a website that
allows users to simulate the movement of billiard balls
across a pool table; the varying shapes of the table cause the
balls to act with either chaotic motion or regular motion.
“This kind of visual interactive exposure to math can
give people a sense of the excitement and beauty of
mathematics,” he says. “I’m engaged in mathematics
because I find it fun, interesting, exciting, and challenging.
I want to help people get a similar sense of how math could
be fun and interesting.”
THE MAWR ON THE HONOR ROLL
For exemplary service efforts and contributions to America’s communities, Bryn Mawr won a place on the 2008 President’s Higher Education Community
Service Honor Roll with Distinction. Bryn Mawr is one of only three Pennsylvania schools (the University of Pennsylvania and Waynesburg University are the
others) and 83 schools nationwide that were named to the Honor Roll with Distinction. The Community Service Honor Roll is the highest federal recognition
a school can achieve for its commitment to service learning and civic engagement. The award is based on the innovation of service projects, percentage of
student participation in service activities, and the extent to which the school offers academic service-learning courses, among other criteria. Stephen
Goldsmith, vice chair of the board of directors of the Corporation for National and Community Service, which oversees the Honor Roll, says, “College
students represent an enormous pool of idealism and energy to help tackle some of our toughest challenges. We salute Bryn Mawr for making community
service a campus priority.” The Honor Roll is a program of the Corporation for National and Community Service, in collaboration with the Department of
Education, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the President’s Council on Service and Civic Participation.
a vibrant, diverse
community
2008–09 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE COLLEGE
SARA CIFUENTES ’10
• SOCIOLOGY MAJOR
en McBride Scholars were each awarded $5,000 tuition
• MCBRIDE SCHOLAR
grants in 2008–09 as a result of the generosity of the
Bernard Osher Foundation. Typical of the inspired and inspiring character of
McBride Scholars—students of nontraditional age—are these highlighted below:
Sara Cifuentes ’10, age 27, sought asylum in the U.S. at age 17 after receiving a
death threat from a guerilla group in her native Colombia. After several years as a babysitter,
she was able to resume her education in 2004 at a local community college. She writes, “It
was one of my most precious dreams: being able to study and have a career of my own. I
wanted, and still want, to be able to be
“I feel particularly good about the gift our
someone who can contribute to society in
family made…to fund scholarships for
the best of ways.” Cifuentes declared a
McBride students. We did this as a memorial
major in sociology, which she
to my mother, who did not go to college in
intends to use in cross-cultural
Germany where she grew up. After her
work.
children were grown, she took courses at The
Rachel Salzberg ’09,
University of Tulsa, and loved it, and
age 27, was raised and educated
continued to grow. The Kate Kaiser
through high school in Israel.
Scholarship Fund gives returning women
She graduated from high school
students who cannot pay for a Bryn Mawr
in 1998 and deferred her
education on their own an opportunity to
compulsory military service for a
change their lives.”
year to volunteer as a youth
—Ruth Kaiser Nelson ’58
counselor in a program for underprivileged kids. Subsequently,
Salzberg served for three years in the Israeli army.
When she completed her service, she attended community “Particularly as an alumna
FELICIA MEEKINS ’11
of Bryn Mawr, I am
college full time. She was delighted with her academic
• CITIES MAJOR
delighted
that the College
success and decided to pursue her bachelor’s degree. At Bryn
• MCBRIDE SCHOLAR
provides such an excellent
Mawr, Salzberg knew she wanted to study how cultures evolve, so
• MELLON MAYS
scholarship program for
she chose anthropology as her major.
UNDERGRADUATE
women determined to
Victoria Sheppard ’10, age 59, worked for many years
FELLOW
obtain
their undergraduate
at the Redevelopment Authority of Philadelphia,
degree despite being
while she raised five children. Along the way, she
beyond
traditional college
earned an associate degree in childcare education
age and often facing
from Temple University, intending to open a child
considerable
challenges.
care center of her own; later, she tried an online
The Osher Foundation is
degree program, but after one course realized she
pleased
to lend support to
wanted a more engaged educational experience.
these outstanding
Sheppard is majoring in sociology, and is
individuals
in the McBride
especially interested in Africana Studies. She has
Scholars program.”
applied for a Fulbright to teach English in South
—Mary
G. F. Bitterman, MA
Africa after graduation.
’68, PhD ’71, President, The
Felicia Meekins ’11, age 33, is the
Bernard Osher Foundation
mother of four children. When her career and
marriage began to fall apart, Meekins’ resiliency
kicked in and she enrolled in community college
full-speed ahead, taking heavy course loads, raising her children, and
struggling through an exhausting divorce process. She then entered Bryn
Mawr. She declared a Growth and Structure of Cities major with a focus
on urban economic development. In 2009, Meekins was chosen as a
Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellow.
23
Osher
Foundation
Supports
McBride
Scholars
Pre-Med and Anthro
rom an early age Melani Olivares ’10, the daughter of Filipino parents,
knew that she wanted to be a physician, a memory many doctors will tell you
isn’t uncommon.
But Olivares also wanted more. And at Bryn Mawr, she’s gotten it.
“I thought that as a premed student I would have to major in biology or
chemistry, but once I was accepted to Bryn Mawr, I started looking at the majors
they offered and thought, ‘there are a lot of different options here’,” she recalls. “As
I learned throughout the classes I’ve taken
here, anthropology and medicine are
actually two disciplines that mix very well.”
MELANI OLIVARES ’10
A pre-med
anthropology major
• ANTHRO MAJOR
who is angling for
• PRE-MED
medical school,
• SPRINGEROlivares found her
ROSENBLUM INTERN
diverse academic
experience greatly
supplemented by a
SpringerRosenblum
Internship. The
summer after her
junior year, she
worked at New
York’s Center for
Immigrant Health,
where she engaged
one-on-one with
cancer patients,
whom she helped
to navigate complex
health-care and
insurance systems.
“It’s the kind of
work I want to do,”
she says simply.
“I’m interested in
studying immigrant
health: making sure
you understand someone’s culture and way of life, since those could be some of the
reasons why they encounter access barriers to effective health care.”
Olivares credits her anthropology classes for sparking an interest in bettering
the immigrant experience.
“I realized how different people coming to the U.S., depending on their
immigration status, have different experiences with health care,” Olivares says.
“I enjoy working with people of different cultures in the health-care setting.”
24
Q&A WITH BETH SPRINGER
’86, SPONSOR OF THE
SPRINGER-ROSENBLUM
INTERNSHIPS
BETH SPRINGER ’86
• ECON MAJOR
• MBA HARVARD BUSINESS
SCHOOL
• EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT,
CLOROX CORP
• SPRINGER-ROSENBLUM
INTERNSHIP SPONSOR
• TRUSTEE OF THE COLLEGE
Q: What aspects of your Bryn Mawr
experience led to your decision to fund
summer internships for students
working in nonprofits?
A: “Bryn Mawr encourages women
to make the world a better place.
Working in non-profit organizations
is a wonderful way to make the
world a better place, and I wanted
more students to be able to afford
this choice.”
Q: What did Bryn Mawr help you to do in
your own life and career that you
might not have done otherwise?
A: “It would be easier, and far quicker, to
call out the few things Bryn Mawr did
not help me to do in my career! To
name just a few, Bryn Mawr taught me
how to think critically and
independently, tackle a new subject,
write more effectively, and gave me
many opportunities to make decisions
on my own and lead others. All of those
skills and experiences have helped me
succeed at work and at home.”
2008–09 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE COLLEGE
ENROLLMENT
NUMBERS
2009–2010 BOARD OF TRUSTEES
Out of a record-high
applicant pool, the College
has enrolled 362 students in
the Class of 2013.
Trustees
Catherine Allegra ’84
Cynthia A. Archer ’75
Bridget B. Baird ’69
Susan Kelly Barnes ’76
Frederick C. Baumert
Joan Breton Connelly,
M.A. ’79, Ph.D. ’84
Lucy Norman Friedman ’65
Donald N. Gellert
Arlene Joy Gibson ’65
Linda A. Hill ’77
(on leave 2009–10)
Denise Lee Hurley ’82
Justine Jentes ’88
Karen E. Kerr ’89
Ann Logan ’76
Malcolm S. Macdonald
Susan L. MacLaurin ’84
Margaret M. Morrow ’71
Georgette Chapman Phillips ’81
The quality and diversity of
the entering class remain
strong. 62% of the entering
students ranked in the top
10% of their high school
class, and the median SAT of
the group is 1300. 19% of
the members of the Class of
2013 are the first in their
families to attend a four-year
college, 34% are students of
color, and 21% are from
international backgrounds.
As a result of stabilizing firstyear enrollments and
increasing retention rates,
the College closed the 2008–
09 year at the highest
enrollment in its history.
William E. Rankin
Barbara Paul Robinson ’62
Willa E. Seldon ’82
Beth Springer ’86
Janet L. Steinmayer ’77
Vicki L. Weber ’79
Sally Hoover Zeckhauser ’64,
chair
Special Representatives
Drew Gilpin Faust ’68
Cheryl R. Holland ’80
Beverly J. Lange ’67
Catherine P. Koshland, Chair,
Board of Managers, Haverford
College
Ex Officio
Jane Dammen McAuliffe,
President of the College
Caroline C. Willis ’66, President
Alumnae Association
Undergraduate Enrollment, FY 1999–2009
1250
1240
1230
1220
1210
Trustees Emeriti
Barbara Goldman Aaron ’53
Robert Aiken, Jr.
Betsy Zubrow Cohen ’63
Lois Miller Collier ’50
Anna Lo Davol ’64
Barbara C. M. Dudley ’42
Anthony T. Enders
Constance Tang Fong ’55
Nancy Greenewalt Frederick ’50
Hanna Holborn Gray ’50
Johanna Alderfer Harris ’51
Alan Hirsig
Fern Hunt ’69
Jacqueline Koldin Levine ’46
Roland Machold
Jacqueline Badger Mars ’61
Ruth Kaiser Nelson ’58
Dolores G. Norton, M.S.S. ’60,
Ph.D. ’69
David W. Oxtoby
Robert Parsky
Shirley D. Peterson ’63
R. Anderson Pew
John S. Price
Alice Mitchell Rivlin ’52
Sally Shoemaker Robinson ’53
Rosalyn Ravitch Schwartz ’44
Edmund B. Spaeth, Jr.
Susan Savage Speers ’51
Barbara Janney Trimble ’60
Betsy Havens Watkins ’61
James Wood
1200
Special Representative
Emeritus
Doreen Canaday Spitzer ’36
1190
1180
1170
1160
99
00
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
a vibrant, diverse
community
25
Bryn Mawr in the Media
The Philadelphia Inquirer (9/08)
“To the Class of 2009” offers words
of wisdom to seniors from the
gainfully employed Sarah E.
Caldwell ’08.
Julie Beckman ’95 and
partner Keith Kaseman,
who designed the 9/11
memorial, are discussed in “As
Pentagon tribute opens, others
years away.” (9/08)
The Chronicle of Higher Education (9/08)
“All the Campus Is a Stage” reports
on the innovative use of
nontraditional venues for 2008’s
Performing Arts Series as a result of
the $19-million renovation of
Goodhart Theater.
Good Morning America (9/08)
“Helping Teens Help Themselves”
features the work of the Railroad
Street Youth Project and its founder,
McBride Scholar Amanda Root ’08.
The New York Times Magazine (9/08)
Annalisa Crannell ’87 is one of the
“Class Acts” in this photo spread of
academics showing off their sense
of style and fashion.
The New York Times blog (10/08)
The GSSWSR’s Sanford Schram
is cited in “Do Americans Still
Hate Welfare?” on the blog
Economix: Explaining the Science
of Everyday Life.
The Philadelphia Inquirer (10/08)
Harpist Gillian Grassie ’09 is
among the finalists for the
prestigious New York Songwriters
Circle Contest.
MSNBC (10/08)
NBC’s Luke
Russert visited
Bryn Mawr last
Thursday to gauge
students’ reactions
to Sarah Palin and Joe Biden in the
vice-presidential debate.
USA Today (11/08)
In “General’s story puts focus on
stress stemming from combat,”
Associate Professor of Social Work
James Martin says that mental
health screening should be seen just
like any other medical screening.
The New York Times blog (11/08)
Trustee Lucy N. Friedman ’65, the
founder and president of The AfterSchool Corporation, takes readers’
questions about New York City afterschool programs.
The Philadelphia Inquirer (11/08)
Molly Parzen ’10 tells the Inquirer
that the election of Barack Obama is
“a massive historic moment.”
The New York Times (12/08)
Constance Rosenblum ’65, editor of
The New York Times’ City Section,
takes questions through as part of
the “Talk to the Newsroom” series.
CNN.com (12/08)
In “Getting Inside Obama’s ‘Brain’,”
CNN’s Ashley Fantz interviews Karen
Kornbluh ’84, who is President-elect
Barack Obama’s chief policy adviser
and the principal architect of the
Cheryl Holland ’80, president of
Abacus Planning Group, is
featured in a column that
highlights model portfolios from
prominent financial advisers who
invest in mutual funds and
exchange-traded funds. (12/08)
2008 Democratic Party Platform.
The Wall Street Journal (1/09)
Psychology Professor Clark
McCauley responds to an article
titled, “Why We Keep Falling for
Financial Scams.”
The New York Times Magazine (1/09)
Professor Paul Grobstein responds
to an article about the influence
genes have on human behavior.
The Philadelphia Inquirer (1/09)
In “Poems vibrating with war, love,”
Associate Professor Karl Kirchwey
reviews Yusef Komunyakaa’s latest
collection of poetry.
National Public
Radio (1/09)
Assistant Professor of Geology Chris
Oze is interviewed for “All Things
Considered.”
U.S. News and World Report (2/09)
Dean of Admissions and Financial
Aid Jenny Rickard and her famous
blue pen were featured in an article
about how colleges and universities
have moved beyond the simple
acceptance letter.
Morning Edition (2/09)
Nina Jablonski ’75, author of Skin: A
Natural History, talks about her
latest research.”
The Philadelphia Inquirer (2/09)
“It’s a beautiful place that rivals the
Ivies,” Haverford sophomore James
Merriam says, in explaining why
he’s chosen to room at Bryn Mawr.
Cnet.com (4/09)
Maxine Savitz ’58 is a member of
President Obama’s newly formed
Council of Advisors on Science and
Technology.
National Public Radio (4/09)
While he’s got plenty of charisma,
South Africa’s presumptive next
president is going to need “an
institutional management culture”
to make sure the details of
government are taken care of, says
Professor Michael H. Allen.
The Chicago Tribune (4/09)
One of several media outlets
reporting the nomination of A.
Thomas McLellan, Ph.D. ’76, as
deputy director of the Office of
National Drug Control Policy.
The New York Times (6/09)
A “virtual swim meet” between Bryn
Mawr and Dickinson College was
held in which each team swam in
their home pools and compared
times to determine the winners.
The Philadelphia Inquirer (6/09)
Neil Patrick Harris and Amy Sedaris
filmed The Best and the Brightest
on Bryn Mawr’s campus and at
other Philadelphia-area locations.
The Philadelphia Inquirer (6/09)
Governor Ed Rendell spoke at a rally
at Bryn Mawr in support of
expanded autism services.
Women’s Media Center (6/09)
Shazia Z. Rafi ’79, of Pakistan,
writes about her life since
graduating from Bryn Mawr, the
lives of her Middle East and West
Asian classmates and Obama’s
Cairo speech.
Big Think (6/09)
Former Federal Reserve Vice Chair
Alice Rivlin ’52 talks about the
economy.
The article “For Top Colleges, Economy
Has Not Reduced Interest (or Made
Getting in Easier)” notes that
applications at Bryn Mawr are up.
(3/09)
The New York Times (7/09)
A photo of Isa He ’12 and another
Bryn Mawr student waiting for a
friend in their own unique way
appeared in The New York Times’
Education Life supplement.
Kansas City Star (7/09)
Jo Ellen Parker ’75 assumes the
presidency of Sweet Briar College.
The Philadelphia Inquirer (7/09)
Bryn Mawr President Jane McAuliffe
was quoted in an article about area
colleges and universities that have
signed up to participate in the VA’s
Yellow Ribbon Program.
The Forward (8/09)
In “Revisiting the Kate We Wanted
to Be,” Forward editor and former
Hepburn Center Fellow Jane Eisner
writes about Katharine Hepburn ’28.
John Griffith and Glenn Smith talk
about how, along with Trustee Cynthia
Archer and other college officials, they
managed to save the College money by
accelerating planned campus capital
projects. (8/09)
Forbes.com (8/09)
Bryn Mawr and other top women’s
colleges are highlighted in the article
“Why Women’s Colleges Are Still
Relevant.”
Huffington Post (5/09)
In this humorous piece, Creative
Writing Lecturer Daniel Torday
wonders if he’ll have to wait till pigs
fly for a shot at a Supreme Court seat.