Smith College Alumnae Class of 1999

Bike the Pike with 99ers

2008-05-26T22:09:00.004-04:00

via Dana Brown

BIKE THE MASS PIKE WITH CLASS O' 1999

We are less than a year way from our 10 year reunion and if you are like me you are probably thinking of a cool story to tell all the folks you have not seen in ten years. Well here's an opportunity to add to a chapter in your reunion book or if you are like me a great way to jump start your weight loss program before May '09.

It's the MassPike Bike Tour. Check out the website and read the details. You don't have to be a Lance Armstrong type to attend. It will be lots of fun, the tour begins in Concord, MA and ends in NORTHAMPTON, MA. If you are interested, please join Katrina Gamble and I August 14-17 for three days of fun and excitement as we bike through MA.

Please email Dana Brown. Out goal is that have a Smithie team with as many 99ers as we can get. See you on the PIKE!

2008-05-18T20:48:00.002-04:00

Happy Graduation Smith Class of 2008 and to all 99ers who are graduating this year!

Remember to save the date for next year!
Our 10th reunion is now only 1 year away.

Reunion will be graduation weekend May 15 - 17, 2009
A preview of the on campus schedule is can be found HERE.

10th Reunion Survey

2008-04-28T15:39:00.002-04:00

Hello Class of 1999!

Next May will be our 10th reunion, and we want to make it a fabulous and fun event for everyone. Please take a minute to fill out our online survey so we know what people would like to do in Northampton!

Also, we are looking for lots of volunteers (very small to big time commitments) and ideas, so please consider what you can do to help! Please forward this link to any and all 1999 class members.

10th Reunion Class Survey

Please complete the survey by Friday, May 9th.

If you have any questions or want more information contact class vp Maggie Vecchio-Smith at her email.

See you next spring!
Maggie

Weber Tierney Family profiled in NY Times

2008-03-18T19:49:00.004-04:00

Gay Couples Say Civil Unions Aren’t Enough

Eager to celebrate their partnership, Tracy and Katy Weber Tierney were among the first in line when Connecticut created civil unions three years ago as a way to formalize same-sex relationships without using the word “marriage.”

But when Tracy was giving birth to their son, Jake, five months ago, a hospital employee inquired whether she was “married, single, divorced or widowed.”

“I’m in a civil union,” she replied. When the employee checked “single,” Tracy protested. “I’m actually more married than single,” she said, leaving the employee flustered about how to proceed.

That conundrum is at the core of a case on which the Connecticut Supreme Court is expected to rule soon. It presents a new constitutional challenge to the political compromise that several states have made in recent years to grant rights to gay and lesbian couples while preserving the traditional definition of marriage as between a man and woman. At the same time, the state legislature’s joint Judiciary Committee has scheduled a public hearing in Hartford on Monday to consider amending the civil union law in light of complaints from same-sex couples that the measure had not delivered the equal rights it had promised. The committee passed a bill that would have legalized same-sex marriage, 27-15, last year, but it was never put to a full vote of the legislature.

Read the rest of the article

Wedding of Pamela Gigliotti

2008-03-05T19:57:00.000-05:00

Pamela Gigliotti was married this past August. Jennie Riley, '99, and Andrea Reece, '98, were both in attendance.

Photo left to right: Andrea Reece, Pam Gigliotti, and Jennie Riley.

A Boy for Emily Warren

2008-03-04T07:59:00.000-05:00

Emily Warren and her husband Ray welcomed their son Jonah Samuel Yang on October 29th, 2007. Jonah measured in at 8 pounds, 11 oz. and 20.25 inches.

Congrats Emily and Ray!

Mini-Reunion in Minnesota

2008-03-02T10:31:00.000-05:00

This past summer, Heather (Cricket) Sawick got together with Lisa Meier, Geneva Johnson, and Maggie Vecchio-Smith (all ’99) for a little mini-reunion in Minneapolis, MN.

Left to Right: Geneva Johnson, Lisa Meier, Cricket Sawick, Maggie Vecchio-Smith.

When Worse Than a Woman Who Voted was One Who Smoked

2008-03-01T09:22:00.000-05:00

This funny little Wall Street Journal article about attitudes towards women smokers in the early 20th century. I normally would not post, but they reference the rules around smoking at Smith in the early 1900's... plus there are some choice quotes from a NY alderman. Enjoy!

"Several women's colleges banned smoking. At Smith College, students seen smoking, even off campus, received a demerit. Three demerits meant expulsion. Bryn Mawr students were prohibited from smoking within 25 miles of the college except in private homes."

If this had been the rule when we were at school, I think half my house would have been gone in the first week.

This quote has to be the best. Who knew that simply seeing a woman smoke could cause such havoc.

In 1922, a New York alderman, Peter McGuinness, proposed a city ordinance that would prohibit women from smoking in hotels, restaurants or other public places. "Young fellows go into our restaurants to find women folks sucking cigarettes," the alderman argued. "What happens? The young fellows lose all respect for the women, and the next thing you know the young fellows, vampired by these smoking women, desert their homes, their wives and children, rob their employers and even commit murder so that they can get money to lavish on these smoking women."

Kathryn Rotondo married in June

2008-02-28T17:05:00.000-05:00

Kathryn Rotondo and Matt Loper were married this past June in bristol RI, with Smithies Marcia Rotondo '01, Laura Marshall '01, and Katha Washburn '94 in attendance. Kathryn and Matt traveled to Ireland for their honeymoon.

photo: Kathryn and husband Matt on the Hill of Tara in Ireland.

A Boy for Natalie Belanger

2008-02-26T08:26:00.000-05:00

Natalie Belanger and husband Patrick Ring welcomed their first child, Nathaniel Patrick, in November 2007.

Natalie also passed on her email address, nbelange23 at aol dot com for anyone interested in getting back in touch.

Congrats Natalie and Patrick!

Wedding of Samantha Miller Bloom

2008-02-24T09:18:00.001-05:00

Samantha Miller Bloom married Warren Bloom (Brandeis '95) on November 24, 2007 at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Stacy Connole Weymuller '99 and Nichola Groom Walker '98 were both in the bridal party

In the photo:
Top row, from left to right: Tracy Hazas '03, Christine Koronides '98, Nichola Groom Walker '98, Samantha Miller Bloom '99, Stacy Connole Weymuller '99, O'Hara Tudor '99, Christina Jimenez '98.
Bottom row kneeling, left to right: Casey Fleming '99, Meaghan Darcy '99, Jennifer McSpedon Foley '99.

Photo Credit: Greg Kessler

Smithie '89 Up for an Oscar

2008-02-23T20:04:00.004-05:00

Cynthia Wade, class of 1989, is nominated for an Oscar in the short documentary category for her film Freeheld. The film follows NJ policewoman Laurel Hester's fight to have her pension transfered to her partner while dying from cancer.

Wade says, “Our film is the story of a dying police officer who wants to give her pension to her partner. She died and never got to see the film. I spoke to her surviving partner today, and she was very emotional. Her case changed the law in parts of New Jersey and the elected official who was against it is now running for Congress, so it’s still very much in the press. Our hope is we can make a difference in the elections. We have to tell this story. Hopefully the Oscar nomination will bring more awareness to couples around the country.”

Class Notes Submissions Time

2008-02-22T21:17:00.002-05:00

Hi All

Sorry for the long radio silence. Life has been a little crazy these days, but I promise to begin posting again this week.

In the meantime please remember that class notes are due to Ingrid by Friday, Feb. 29th. Submit notes via the class email address, smithcollege99@gmail.com and include the phrase "Summer 2008 Class Notes" in the subject line of your email. Let us know if it is ok to post your photo and news to the blog as well.

Thanks all!
Tiffany

Class Notes Submissions Time

2007-11-18T09:15:00.000-05:00

Hi All!

It's that time again, so please send Ingrid your news on or before, Tuesday, Nov. 20th, to the class email address.

If anyone is interested in being a regular blog poster please let me know. My new job is really sucking away my time and I am not able to keep up my old posting schedule.

Cheers and Happy Thanksgiving All!
Tiffany

Smith College Alumnae Quarterly Class Notes Submissions Policies

General Submission Guidelines

1. The Alumnae Quarterly will not publish any references to engagements, plans for adoption, pregnancies, etc. or any contingent/future events. These notes will be deleted from submissions. Only events that have have already taken place will be published.

2. The Alumnae Quarterly will not publish classmates' personal or business contact information, including website addresses, unless such information is related to official class business. Please note, the Quarterly does not consider mini-reunions, etc. to be official class business.

Photo Submission Guidelines

1. All people in the photo must be identified by their undergraduate (and married names, if any), as well as their class year.

2. Photo submissions should include a brief photo caption.

3. Should you wish to submit photographs along with your updates, they can either be sent to the gmail address, above, or directly to the Smith College Alumnae Quarterly Associate Publications Editor, Cherly Dellecese, at cdellece@smith.edu

4. The Alumnae Quarterly prefers e-mailed photos (JPEGS, ideally at 300 dpi).

Submissions of News and Photos to Class of 1999's Blog and Flickr Website

Got ants in your pants? Can't wait until the Spring 2008 issue of the SAQ to share your news and/or photos with the Class of '99? If so, check out the Class of 1999's blog at http://smithcollege99.blogspot.com. You can also share photos online at http://www.flickr.com/photos/smithcollege99.

A Boy for Katy Weber Tierney

2007-10-26T08:35:00.000-04:00

Katy Weber Tierney '99 and her wife Tracy welcomed Jacob Brian on
9/28/07. He was a whopping 8lbs9oz and 21.5inches long and is a
champion eater. Katy and Tracy are blessed to have mothering support
and advice from Lissa and Farzanah Gangjee '97 and their daughter
Amaya (future Smth class of 2029) and showers of love from Kate
(Farneth) Hirsch '98 and Marnie (Reichelderfer) Leavitt '98.

Congratulations Katy and Tracy!!!!!!

Sylvia Plath’s Youthful Art

2007-10-03T13:37:00.000-04:00

Paintings and drawings by the poet Sylvia Plath, many never seen before, will be published in Britain this October by Oxford University Press to mark the 75th anniversary of her birth, The Guardian newspaper in England reported. The book “Eye Rhymes: Sylvia Plath’s Art of the Visual,” edited by Kathleen Connors and Sally Bayley, includes illustrated childhood letters, found in the Plath family attic in 1996, that Plath wrote when she was 7. There are also schoolbook sketches, portraits, photographs and paintings, including a self-portrait, that Plath made while an art student at Smith College. The works were all completed by the time she was 20, when she decided to concentrate on writing. Oxford plans to publish “Eye Rhymes” in the United States in January.

Guardian article: Revealed: Sylvia Plath's unseen art, discovered in the attic
The Book: Eye Rhymes: Sylvia Plath’s Art of the Visual

Wedding of Melody Niwot

2007-10-02T09:02:00.000-04:00

Melody Niwot married John Curtin in July in Madison, WI.
L to R: Olivia Kissin '99, Melody Niwot '99, Elizabeth Lentini '79, and Camille McGregor '99.

Congratulations Melody and John!!!

Happy Mountain Day!

2007-10-01T11:42:00.000-04:00

If you have a wonderful mountain day memory please leave us a note in the comments section. In anticipation of reunion, we are beginning to collect photos from while we were in school, so if you have a scanned version of a mountain day photo please email it to us so we can add it to our collection.

The alumnae association is also collecting memories at the Mountain Day Alum Blog.

'98 Hubbardite dies while serving in Iraq

2007-09-26T20:21:00.000-04:00

From the Boston Globe:
Roselle Hoffmaster, a graduate of Smith College who died while serving in the Army in Iraq, is being remembered fondly today at the Northampton institution. "You couldn't find a more caring or compassionate person. She's a giver. She's the ultimate team person who gave her all," said Carla Coffey, who coached Hoffmaster in cross country and track and field.

Hoffmaster, 32, an Army captain, died last Friday in Kirkuk of non-combat-related causes. She was the First Brigade Combat Team surgeon, the military said this weekend in a release from Fort Drum, N.Y.

Hoffmaster, a native of Cleveland, graduated from Smith with a biochemistry degree in 1998. She was commissioned into the Army Medical Corps in 2004. She was assigned to the Tenth Mountain Division in July and deployed to Iraq this month. She is survived by her husband and parents, the Army said in a statement. The Army has released no further details on the circumstances of her death. The investigation is still ongoing, said Fort Drum spokesman Benjamin Abel.

Professor Christine White-Ziegler said Hoffmaster was "a real star, just off the charts in terms of her academics." "She was just a very easygoing and approachable person. ... You could see her concern for others," she said.

"It's very sad for the whole Smith community. We're very saddened by her death," said Coffey, the coach.

Remembering Madeleine L'Engle, Smith '41

2007-09-09T03:03:00.000-04:00

Madeleine L'Engle, a well known writer of classic children's books, including the Newbery Medal-winning A Wrinkle in Time, passed away on September 6, 2007.

L'Engle believed that storytelling "... does indeed have something to do with faith. Faith that the universe has meaning, that our little human lives are not irrelevant, that what we choose or say or do matters, matters cosmically." In her 1963 Newberry acceptance speech, she mentions that "a book, too, can be a star, explosive material, capable of stirring up fresh life endlessly, a living fire to lighten the darkness, leading out into the expanding universe." This is why children's stories remain relevant to adults today.

In memory, I posted a tribute to Madeleine L'Engle in my blog here.

On her way to being a conducting superstar!

2007-09-06T20:43:00.000-04:00

The Beaumont Texas Journal has a article up about the search for a new conductor for the Symphony of Southeast Texas and our own Carolyn Kuan is at the top of the list.

Best of Wishes Carolyn!

Symphony of Southeast Texas returns to Julie Rogers for opener
Search for conductor begins with Carolyn Kuan

Conductor candidate Carolyn Kuan of Seattle, will lead the Symphony of Southeast Texas in its Sept. 15 season opener.
The Symphony of Southeast Texas is sporting a new look this year. The orchestra returns home to the beautifully restored Julie Rogers Theatre with the opening concert of the 2007- 2008 season. This season also marks the symphony's search to select a new Music Director/Conductor of the orchestra.

Audience members will have a chance throughout the season to cast their vote for the new leader of the orchestra.

The first concert of the season will be Saturday, Sept. 15, at 7:30 p.m. Carolyn Kuan, of Seattle, leads the orchestra through three late romantic period masterpieces. Borodin's Polovtsian Dances from his unfinished opera, Prince Igor, will be immediately recognizable to audience members. The main dance theme was used in the 1953 Broadway hit Kismet.

Read The Rest of the Article

Smith Kicks Coke off Campus

2007-09-05T15:53:00.000-04:00

The change concerning Coca-Cola took place at the end of last year. I have been meaning to post about it for some time as it has garnered a lot of press since then.

A Student Backlash Against Coke
Lots of college students get to know their peers through drinking. At Smith College, students got to know each other over drinking soda — or, rather, not drinking it. In May, a group on campus forced the school to end its exclusive contract with Coca-Cola.

Students in Smith's Students for Social Justice and Institutional Change had become aware of allegations that Coca-Cola was complicit in human rights violations at a bottling plant in Colombia and had contributed to environmental degradation in India. Such actions would be in violation of Smith's Vendor Code of Conduct, which demands fair business practices of its vendors, including safe working conditions and a commitment to fair wages. In statements posted on the company's website, Coke has denied the allegations and argues that boycotts of Coke products are detrimental to local economies.

Ally Einbinder, the Smith sophomore who helped lead the charge that forced the college to end its contract with the company, says that aside from the allegations themselves, she felt that the exclusivity of the contract was of concern. "There were very few beverage options on campus that weren't Coke brand," she says, noting that the only non-Coke drinks sold on campus were Stewart's soda (owned by Cadbury Schweppes, another soft drink conglomerate) and Vitamin Water, which was recently bought by Coca-Cola.

Read the Rest of the Article

Creating her first feature-length documentary

2007-09-04T17:19:00.000-04:00

Our own Julie Casper Roth is profiled in Wisconsin's The Daily Telegram about her new documentary project. Julie also won Best Experimental Film and Best of Smith College at the 2007 Five College Film Festival for her film Object Lesson.

Documentary captures story of first gay club in Superior and its owner The Daily Telegram - 08/31/2007

The Main Club is the subject of a documentary by a Superior native.

Julie Casper Roth is planning to shoot her first feature-length documentary on the history of Superior’s first openly gay club and its owner, Bob Jannsen. ... Roth wants Northlanders, and the rest of the nation, to know more about the club.

“There’s an amazing history with the Main Club, and it’s almost a hidden history,” she said. “People in town will benefit from learning about the Main and the benefit it has in the community.” ...

When she moved away from Superior for college in Massachusetts, Roth attended Smith College in Northampton, a community with a vibrant gay community, she said. Seeing that vibrancy, Roth began to wonder about the gay community back in the Twin Ports. During college, Roth started working with experimental and documentary video. Since then, her work has been screened at film festivals and she’s won awards for her work.

Many of the films Roth makes deal with identity. She’s visited the topics of motherhood, mental illness, gender and sexuality in the past. This film follows that interest because it allows her to explore how people mediate GLBT identity within the Superior area, she said.

Read the entire article.

1875 Ad for Smith College

2007-09-03T10:43:00.000-04:00

I found this bit of Smith history in the archives. The ad ran in 1875 to encourage young women to apply. I have typed out the text below the image since its a little hard to read.

Smith College for Young Women
Northampton, Mass.
This college will be opened for the reception of students on the second Thursday, 1875. The course of studies occupying four years, will be fully equivalent to that in our best New England colleges for young men.
Candidates for admission to the lowest class will be examined in Arithmetic, Geography, the construction of the English language, general outlines of History, the Latin and Greek Grammars, the Catiline of Sallust, the seven orations of Cicero, the first six books of Virgil's Aenid, three books of Xenophon's Anabasis, two books of Homer's Iliad, Algebra to Quadratic Equations, and two books of Geometry.
For circulars or information apply to the President, Rev. L. Clark Seelye, Amherst Mass.; or to the Secretary of the Trustees, J.M. Greene, Lowell, Mass.

Katrina Gamble published in Legislative Studies Quarterly

2007-08-31T15:13:00.000-04:00

Our own Katrina Gamble's findings on racial differences among legislators participating in select House committees are published in the current issue of Legislative Studies Quarterly.

Black Legislators More Active Than White Counterparts, Study Finds
PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — In a behind-the-scenes analysis of the U.S. Congress, Brown University political scientist Katrina Gamble found that black representatives put more time and resources than white representatives into developing policies and advocating for legislation of interest to African Americans. Furthermore, Gamble’s findings indicate that black representatives are more actively involved on legislation of all types – not just on bills benefiting African American constituents. Her research focused on three committees in the House of Representatives from the 107th Congress, in session through 2001 and 2002. The findings are published in the current issue of Legislative Studies Quarterly.

“With Congress becoming increasingly diverse, it is crucial to study how diversity affects deliberation, discussion, and policy outcomes,” said Gamble, assistant professor of political science at Brown. “These findings demonstrate that diverse political institutions are important for providing political representation to racial minorities. As we see more and more African Americans run for state-wide and national office it is significant to know that many black politicians work as advocates for racial minorities, but are also active on a variety of issues relevant to all Americans.”

Read the rest of the Brown Press Release