The Westonian Magazine The Westonian The Trinity Reporter The Trinity The Trinity Reporter SPRING 2019 ‘Positively pivotal’ Graduating seniors honor the professors who’ve guided them ALSO IN THIS ISSUE: Women at the Summit YEARS OF COEDUCATION AT TRINITY COLLEGE SPRING 2019 SPRING SPRING 2014 50 CONTENTS FEATURES 10 Women at the Summit: 50 Years of Coeducation at Trinity College Title IX A history of advancing equity 14 ‘Positively pivotal’ Graduating seniors honor the professors who’ve guided them 20 A Q&A with Sonia Cardenas Vice president for strategic initiatives and innovation 24 Interdisciplinary Science Program First-year students explore connections, dive into research, learn ‘how science is done’ 30 That next step Career Development Center takes ‘holistic and personalized’ approach 36 1823 Scholars Merit-based program enriches talent and engagement at Trinity ON THE COVER Simran Sheth ’19, right, poses with her mentor, Assistant Professor of Computer Science Ewa Syta. For more about Sheth and Syta, as well as nine more seniors and their mentors, please see page 14. PHOTO: SHANA SURECK DEPARTMENTS 03 ALONG THE WALK 06 VOLUNTEER SPOTLIGHT 07 AROUND HARTFORD 08 TRINITY TREASURE 41 CLASS NOTES 71 IN MEMORY 78 ALUMNI EVENTS 80 ENDNOTE THE TRINITY REPORTER Vol. 49, No. 3, Spring 2019 Published by the Office of Communications, Trinity College, Hartford, CT 06106. Postage paid at Hartford, Connecticut, and additional mailing offices. The Trinity Reporter is mailed to alumni, parents, faculty, staff, and friends of Trinity College without charge. All publication rights reserved, and contents may be reproduced or reprinted only by written permission of the editor. Opinions expressed are those of the editor or contributors and do not reflect the official position of Trinity College. Postmaster: Send address changes to The Trinity Reporter, Trinity College, 300 Summit Street, Hartford, CT 06106 The editor welcomes your questions and comments: Sonya Adams, Office of Communications, Trinity College, 300 Summit Street, Hartford, CT 06106, [email protected], or 860-297-2143. www.trincoll.edu ON THIS PAGE Shusterman Visiting Artist in Theater and Dance Yael Rasooly performs in January 2019 in the Austin Arts Center’s Goodwin Theater in the award-winning Paper Cut, her one-woman show that explores the daydreams of a lonely secretary. Rasooly, one of Israel’s most prominent independent theater makers, taught “The Actor and Object/Puppet Theater” during the spring semester. Her residency at Trinity was supported by the Israeli Institute, which is dedicated to enhancing knowledge and study of modern Israel. PHOTO: JOHN ATASHIAN / Fall 2014 / 3 LETTERS WANT TO WRITE A LETTER? The Trinity Reporter welcomes letters related to items published in recent issues. Please send remarks to the editor at [email protected] or Sonya Adams, Office of Communications, Trinity College, 300 Summit Street, Hartford, CT 06106. COEDUCATION CHALLENGES depicting Lou Shipley and Kevin The feature article on the introduction McMahon all add up to an emboldened of coeducation 50 years ago was par- publication. ticularly well done. The piece reflected As a onetime Tripod Editorial Board the many challenges undergraduate member who has spent a career com- women had at that time not only at missioning and directing graphic Trinity but also in medical schools as designers and ad agencies in the con- they faced similar problems. In my sumer packaged goods and sports/ October 2018 regular monthly commen- entertainment worlds, these improve- tary in our local paper, The Virginia ments convey progress. And Coach Sheppard, whom I remem- Gazette, I addressed the issue in medi- Well done. ber from my time at Trinity, would lose cine. It may be of interest to you. Matt Levine ’60 her “first sporting bet” about my male Finally, what a neat set of images of Los Altos, California coaches because you could not even the international students wrapped in get the late, great Chet McPhee to pose their flags … it said it all! MORE ON ROOSEVELT MARKER, “sans smile. Just sayin’.” Jonathan Stolz, M.D. ’65 COACH ON THE COVER Robert S. Herbst ’80 Williamsburg, Virginia As a member of the Class of 1980, I, too, Larchmont, New York was not aware of any tradition about Editor’s note: To read Stolz’s commen- not stepping on the Roosevelt marker. Editor’s note: James Kirschner ’75, who tary, please visit commons.trincoll.edu/ As a history major whose senior thesis as a Trinity student held a part-time Reporter, and to read more about him, was on the Spanish-American War, I job assisting then-college photogra- see page 46. did find it cool, however, that President pher David Lowe, told us that the winter Roosevelt had visited the college. I 2019 cover photo (above) looked famil- KUDOS ON QUALITY OF was also glad to see that my friend and iar. Kirschner, known to his friends as LAYOUT, COLOR fraternity brother [and letter writer] F. “Kirsch,” said he either took the photo While I completed the [reader] survey, Michael Gould is alive and well [Letters, or developed it for Lowe in the college I did so before looking through the fall 2018]. darkroom in the basement of Williams print version of The Trinity Reporter, As far as the question of Coach Memorial. Now chief strategy officer at which I received this afternoon. Hitchcock’s cover photo, my remarks the YMCA Retirement Fund in New York If I would alter any of my comments, were intended to be about sport, not City, Kirschner also identified cover sub- it would relate to the graphic layout/ sexism. In the 35-plus years that I jects Eileen Bristow Molloy ’75, center, color quality of this edition. The dra- have been coaching youth sports, I am now a retired teacher living in Rhode matic multipage effects, the color not always reminding the boys and girls Island, and Jim Finkelstein ’74, left, only in the “Welcoming the World” whom I coach to smile. Not only does now president and CEO of FutureSense piece (which delivered a message that everyone have more fun when everyone and president of FutureSense Holdings went far beyond the graphics), and is smiling, but there is evidence that in California. For more on Finkelstein, the “heroic” treatments of the photos smiling improves sports performance. please see page 52. 2 THE TRINITY REPORTER ALONG THE WALK News from the Trinity community Tennis ace Evert on campus To kick off Women’s History Month— which this year coincided with Trinity’s celebration of 50 years of coeducation—women’s tennis great Chris Evert joined Trinity Field Hockey Head Coach Anne Parmenter on March 1 in Mather Hall’s Washington Room for a wide-ranging conversation about the evolution of women’s roles in sports and in society. Evert also met in a small-group setting with members of the Bantam men’s and women’s tennis teams and other student-athletes. Evert, whose professional tennis career began in 1972, reached 34 Grand Slam singles finals—more than any other player in the his- tory of professional tennis. Ranked No. 1 in the world for five straight years, Evert retired at the 1989 U.S. Open and in 1995 was unanimously inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame. Today, she serves as a tennis analyst for ESPN; publishes Tennis Magazine; co-owns the Evert Tennis Academy in Boca Raton, Florida, where she is active in coaching and mento- ring student-athletes; and raises funds through Chris Evert Charities to improve the lives of at-risk chil- dren and families in Florida. She also is chairperson of the Board of Directors of the USTA Foundation, which works to change lives through tennis and education. Parmenter, who recently com- pleted her 18th year as Trinity’s head ↗ field hockey coach, was inducted For more on Evert’s into the National Field Hockey visit, including a video Coaches Association (NFHCA) Hall recording of the event, of Fame in January 2019. please visit commons. trincoll.edu/Reporter. PHOTO: SHANA SURECK SHANA PHOTO: ALONG THE WALK Changes in Three faculty academic members retiring The 2018–19 academic year marks the retirement of three Trinity leadership College faculty members, listed below. DENISE N. RAU flora. Schneider authored two Senior Lecturer and Laboratory books and published nearly 100 This spring, President Joanne Berger-Sweeney Coordinator in Chemistry papers while on the faculty at announced some significant changes in the Office of Denise Rau retired as the organic Trinity, many of these with his the Dean of the Faculty, the result of outstanding pro- lab coordinator and instructor for undergraduate research students. fessional opportunities for two administrators. Dean general and organic chemistry In 1995, he won the Charles A. of the Faculty and Vice President for Academic Affairs lab. Her career focus always Dana Research Professor Award Tim Cresswell has been named the Ogilvie Chair in was on teaching. She earned a followed by the Thomas Church Human Geography at the University of Edinburgh. B.S. in chemistry and a Ph.D. Brownell Prize for Excellence in Melanie Stein, dean of academic affairs and professor in inorganic chemistry at the Teaching in 1996. In 2016, he University of Massachusetts was awarded the Trustee Award of mathematics, has been named dean of the School of Amherst and went on to teach as for Faculty Excellence. Schneider Humanities and Sciences (H&S) at Ithaca College. Both an assistant professor and then is retiring from teaching but plans Cresswell and Stein will begin their new roles on July 1. as an associate professor at Saint on continuing his phylogenetic President Joanne Berger-Sweeney, in an announce- Joseph College in West Hartford. research in retirement.