Many Ways To Make a Difference
I was thrilled to read about the new “Ministrations” column for Wellesley magazine. I have felt many times over the years that my career and family choices aren’t...
Many Ways To Make a Difference
I was thrilled to read about the new “Ministrations” column for Wellesley magazine. I have felt many times over the years that my career and family choices aren’t the ones that would be recognized, and I should have written a letter much sooner because I suspect there are plenty of other Wellesley alums who feel the same way. Those who are running the world from a less visible position are just as impactful as those in more public-facing roles, and it makes me so happy to see that Wellesley is recognizing that each one of its alumnae is an extraordinary woman, no matter what she is doing in the world today. Wellesley women are strong, capable, empathetic, and brave, and we contribute an enormous amount to whatever endeavor we set our sights on. Whether we are in the supporting role rather than the starring one, are straddling both in-home and out-of-home jobs, or are the breadwinners, society benefits from having Wellesley women sprinkled around the world in various capacities, and we should all be proud of our choices!
Jessica Spiegel Egan ’97, San Rafael, Calif.
A Standout Essay
I absolutely loved this (“A Second Life” by Monica Byrne ’03, summer 2023). My ancestors are from Ireland, too, and I’ve often fantasized about going on a solo trip just like this. Beautiful piece.
Kelly Wallenstein Kiley ’07, Gig Harbor, Wash.
Monica, that was beautiful. I hear you and see somehow, like those tourmaline eyes, that you are living a beautiful life. Travel onward!
Nico Ntim-Addae ’20, Accra, Ghana
What a beautiful meditation. I’m intimately connected to Ireland, the place my grandparents came from, and to Greece, where I married, raised my children, lost my marriage and my younger son, and regained my identity. I find the framing of living as though you are preparing for the end is liberating and allows for moments of happiness and grace. Thank you.
Jane Flynn ’83, New York, N.Y.
Challenges for International Scholarship Students
What an opportunity the Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program at Wellesley College offered to the 23 students from Africa in the drive to create scholars for social and economic progress (“Building a Thriving Community at Wellesley,” summer 2023). I do not doubt that Bilqis Ayeni ’23 was in disbelief when she first heard about the program. I would have jumped at the opportunity if that was available to me more than 50 years ago. You see, there were no such programs then. In the United States Information Service library on my birth island of Penang in Malaysia, I researched American colleges and universities that offered full scholarships for foreign students. Wellesley awarded me a full scholarship with room and board. This made it possible for me to attend. However, there was no coverage of daily expenses or, most importantly, an airplane ticket to fly to the U.S. to begin my studies. My financial aid application was very clear that my family income was so meager, there was no way I could afford even a one-way ticket. I remembered wondering what the college admission administrator was thinking. Fortunately, my sister and her husband scraped together enough cash to buy me a one-way ticket. Scholarship students were not allowed to work for the first year, and they sent me $20 a month for expenses. I worked as a nursing assistant the first summer and weaned myself off their financial support. It was not until seven years had passed that I saved up enough money to buy a round-trip ticket to go home for the first time.
The opportunity to attend Wellesley College was an experience of a lifetime. Its motto of Non Ministrari sed Ministrare is precisely why I am a humanitarian volunteer. It will be wonderfully fulfilling to catch up with these 23 scholars in 20 years’ time.
Kwan Kew Lai ’74, Belmont, Mass.
Maybe the First Lake Waban Champion?
I am thrilled that the Wellesley crew won its third Division III team title! I also enjoyed the sprinkling of rowing pictures throughout Wellesley magazine.
The day after I accepted admission to Wellesley in the spring of 1968, I asked if I could bring my racing shell on campus to row on Lake Waban, as I had already won my first national lightweight sculling title. The answer was, “No, but do not worry, you can row at MIT on the Charles River.” When I met with the MIT athletic director in the fall of 1968, he made three conditions: 1) I could only row during a specified time period, a couple of hours in the afternoon, 2) I could not rerig sculls to fit my small frame, 3) I was not allowed to row underneath a bridge, even though at the last nationals, I had achieved a national title lightweight trifecta, as in the same year I won in singles dash, doubles, and quad. Freshmen were not allowed to have a car, so getting to MIT during that time, even if I could have rigged my class schedule, was not going to happen. And rowing in a scull rigged for a much taller and heavier person would have ruined my form. Not being allowed to row under a bridge meant that I did not become the first female sculler to row in the Head of the Charles.
Sometime in the spring, the boatman convinced the College to allow me to bring a boat on campus and arranged for me to buy an already old, rebuilt single shell from Garofalo (the builder of the iconic class eights). With a month to train for the nationals on campus, I managed to win my last national title the following June. I then retired in October, after traveling to Austria as an alternate on the second U.S. national team, seeing the huge size of East German and Russian female rowers. The good news is that the U.S. rowing officials finally agreed that women should be allowed to row for the first time in the 1976 Olympics.
I was honored with induction into the College’s Athletics Hall of Fame in 2016.
Barbara Morry Fraumeni ’72, Dresden, Maine
A First on the Charles
I greatly enjoyed Melissa Ludtke’s article on the glorious history of rowing at Wellesley (“History on the Water,” spring 2023). There is much to celebrate. My wife, Jane Ward ’72, rowed at Wellesley, and joined the women’s crew at MIT in 1971 as a resident exchange student. She stroked that crew in the fall of 1971 in the Head of the Charles race, the first women’s eight to be allowed to compete in the Head. They were inserted into an “intermediate” class of schoolboy eights, since there were no classes for women’s eights. They did well, although they did not place very high in the long race. The following year, there was a class for women’s eights, and the history follows as Melissa so eloquently writes.
Steve Waller, Centerville, Mass.
Crew in the 1980s
In this issue (“History on the Water,” spring 2023), I was really looking forward to reading the article about rowing at Wellesley. I was on the crew team from 1981–85 and captain in my junior and senior years, and crew was an integral and important part of my time at Wellesley. I learned a lot about the early days of rowing, but once the author turns to modern day (more or less the ’70s) there is a huge gap. She jumps from May 1977 to 2003 and says that was the crew team’s next national competition. I’m not sure if all of the archives and photos of crew in the ’80s and ’90s were lost somewhere, but I can add details from my four years:
Betsy Cooper was our coach in the 1980s. Betsy rowed at Boston University, and that is how Wellesley had a berth at the BU boathouse for many years. Our crew won a medal (silver or bronze, I would have to dig it out to verify) in women’s lightweight fours at the Head of the Charles my sophomore year—the boat was all sophomores: Tracy Donner, coxswain, Nathalie Kettendorf, Anne Fiske, Gretel Hayes, and myself in bow. We also competed at nationals in my senior year/1985 (made it back just in time for graduation or had to leave early from graduation to race, someone else out there can verify) and won a medal in a four. I’m not sure about the rest of the ’80s and ’90s, but I imagine that there are a lot more stories to tell and races at nationals.
I remember loving to row on Lake Waban in the morning. We also lived through working out in the basement of Alumnae Hall (ergs and East Germans and everything else) while the “new” sports center was being built. We spent one spring break in Philadelphia, another in Boston, and I do not think we ever made it farther south. I had the utmost respect for Betsy and for my rowing peers, and we worked hard together. I’m glad that I rowed when I did, because I don’t think I would have made it if practice meant hopping on a bus every morning at 5 a.m. to head into Boston. While I really identified myself as a crew jock, I also enjoyed many other aspects of Wellesley and cannot imagine going to bed every night at 9 and missing all of that!
I’m proud of the accomplishments of Blue Crew in recent years, but I also think we had something wonderful and unique back in the days when we raced mainly in fours with the occasional eight, when we had to learn to weigh enough, turn around, and pick up the pace right away on Lake Waban to prepare for a 2,000-meter race on a 700 meter cove-to-cove. It was magic.
Karla Brom ’85, Brooklyn, N.Y.
A Family Tradition?
I was delighted to see the emphasis on crew and enjoyed the wonderful photos while marveling that the handsome, though confining, costumes of the class of 1887 enabled them to pull the oars!
Though I didn’t row, my daughter Elizabeth Dreyer Geay ’92, who rowed for Tower Court, and I were pleased to learn that her niece/my granddaughter has a passion for the sport. We hope to see her as the third-generation Wellesley woman and second-generation rower on Lake Waban two years hence.
June Teufel Dreyer ’61, Pinecrest, Fla.
Dr. Rock Remembered
Thank you and thank you to the authors of the In Memoriam for Dr. Rock (“In Memoriam,” spring 2023). Dr. Rock was my research advisor for two summer research programs and an independent study semester. Dr. Rock had a huge influence on me as a young chemistry major and I will always be grateful for her guidance.
I have always been grateful for my Wellesley experience, and Dr. Rock and Professor Kolodny were a large part of an exceptional chemistry department that included Helen Mann, Jeanne Darlington, Stephen Kahl, and Jean Crawford, who nurtured and inspired me.
Elizabeth Caron Conrad ’80, Napa, Calif.
How fast the years have flown. Elizabeth Rock was a new professor, only a few years older than I was, teaching a challenging physical chemistry course for my senior year as a chemistry major. I am delighted to see how productive her years were and saddened by her loss.
Carol Bergen Pantuck ’60, Englewood, N.J.
Systemic Change to Help Bees
I’m just getting around to reading this interesting article (“Plan Bee,” fall 2022). I do take issue with the suggestions made to “support native bees in your own backyard.” All were good suggestions, but I wish at least one item suggested activism in some way.
It’s a mistake to think that creating a small oasis in your yard will solve the problem without addressing the larger environment. I do all these things and don’t see many bees or pollinators or insects in general. I’m in a Facebook group where members comment on this often. If your city or town is spraying, there won’t be any bees who can make it to the oasis you’ve provided.
I would have welcomed information about organizations that are tackling this issue and others.
Anna Marie Ventura ’80, N. Dartmouth, Mass.