Beacons & Seeds MCLA WinteR 2011 Science Research Flourishes at MCLA Reunion 2010 SGA Celebrates 100 Years Beacons & Seeds WINTER 2 0 1 1 contents 1 From the President 2 Science Research Flourishes at MCLA 8 Reunion 10 MCLA Celebrates 100 years of Student Government Association 12 2010 Alumni Association Awards 14 Education Degree Leads to Teaching Career Abroad 15 Class Notes 24 MCLA Golf Classic 25 Donor Profile office of institutional advancement Marianne Drake Ashley Berridge Marc Morandi ’90 Chief AdvAnCement OffiCer direCtOr Of sPeCial events AdvAnCement OPerAtiOns Beacons & Seeds is published twice a year President, mCLA fOundAtiOn, inC. OffiCer And COnferenCe Planning by Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts. Amey Blackburn Spiewak ’09 Devin Kibbe ’11 Brandon Pender ’07 Credits exeCutive AssistAnt tO the intern ALumni relatiOns CoordinAtOr Editor: Jocelyn Merrick Chief AdvAnCement OffiCer Graphic Designer: LAC Design Jocelyn Merrick Feature Writer: Ali Benjamin; direCtOr Of ALumni relatiOns Writers: Sandy Dias, Devin Kibbe ’11, And Annual giving and Kristy McCluskey ’11. alumni association board of directors Buffy Duringer Lord ’98 Pamela Kenny Connolly ’82 Cynthia Barrow Kuliga ’63 Michele Kostka Rugo ’77 President WestfOrd, mA WAre, mA murPhys, CA nOrth AdAms, mA [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Carol Cushenette Corrigan ’76 Beverly A. Low ’84 Alyssa Sporbert ’92 Tony Dolan ’84 AdAms, mA hAmiLtOn, NY nOrth AdAms, mA viCe President [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] ACtOn, mA [email protected] Anthony Dedrick, Jr. ’06 Alison McGonagle ’05 Andrew Zaback ’80 dOrChester, mA Amesbury, mA fArmingtOn, Ct Marjorie Belizaire ’07 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] hyde PArk, mA [email protected] David R. Flint ’78 Michael A. Reopell ’85 Members Emeriti PLymOuth, mA nOrth AdAms, mA Cheryl Starr Boillat ’79, M.Ed. ’97 [email protected] [email protected] Alma Benedetti ’37 nOrth AdAms, mA nOrth AdAms, mA [email protected] Cecelia Hamrock Kennedy ’78 Christine Robare ’94 mAdisOn, NJ stAmfOrd, VT Paul Egan ’67 William J. Caprari ’75, M.Ed. ’80 [email protected] [email protected] essex, mA nOrth AdAms, mA [email protected] [email protected] Laura-Jean Griffin Hickey ’99 actOn, mA [email protected] mcla 375 ChurCh street, nOrth AdAms, mA 01247 888-677-mCLA fAx: 413-662-5260 [email protected] [email protected] www.mcla.edu/alumni //from the president Dear Alumni, this has been an exciting fall semester. enrollment continues to grow, with a large transfer student population joining over 300 new first-year students. This fall’s Admissions Open Houses, where prospective students and their families come to learn more about the College, have also seen a tremen- dous response. The energy and excitement they experience during these visits is part of the reason that over 80% of applicants list MCLA as their top choice. That same energy and excitement was on display during Undergraduate Research Conference of the Council of Public Reunion and Fall Family Weekend October 22 to 24. Over 500 Liberal Arts Colleges (COPLAC) in October. Faculty and alumni and family were on campus for activities that ranged from students from MCLA joined with their peers from five other the Distinguished Alumni Awards presentation, to the annual COPLAC schools in the Northeast to learn from one another Family Carnival, to a reception celebrating 100 years of the Stu- and to build new networks of collaboration. dent Government Association (SGA), to a wonderful Margaret Adding to the excitement here on campus, in late October A. Hart ’35 scholarship concert from violinist (and MacArthur we announced the designated location for the Center for Sci- Foundation honoree) Regina Carter, featuring a terrific a cappel- ence and Innovation, which will be on Blackinton Street next la performance by MCLA’s own Allegrettos. You can see photos to Admissions. Reaching this milestone has been the product of from the weekend in this issue of Beacons & Seeds. great collaboration with faculty and staff in the sciences and from Time and again, as I speak with parents and alumni I hear across campus, as well as with our partners in the state. When we stories of the tremendous opportunities afforded students at our break ground on the site next spring, we will be one step closer campus. Small classes, close working relationships with faculty, to a facility that will advance the College’s role as the Common- and the chance to do field work and hands-on research projects wealth’s public liberal arts college and a vital resource in science, all add up to a first class living and learning community. technology, engineering and math (STEM) initiatives at the Experiences like undergraduate research make a tremen- state level. dous difference in preparing students for study at the graduate Beyond the sciences, we continue to strengthen and expand level and for post-graduate careers, especially in the sciences. our academic offerings at the undergraduate and graduate levels. This issue of Beacons & Seeds explores how MCLA students are We recently launched our newest graduate program, the profes- benefitting from participating in faculty-sponsored research proj- sional M.B.A., a part-time advanced business degree for working ects and how such experiences prepare alumni for careers in the adults. Graduates of MCLA’s professional M.B.A. program will sciences. Read about how undergraduate research opportunities be prepared to grow into and take on leadership roles in their at MCLA prepared three young alums for careers in the sciences chosen fields. and academia on page 2. I invite you to come back to campus to see all the On the heels of our successful Undergraduate Research exciting work being done here as we continue our proud Conference last spring, where over 200 students presented work in fostering academic excellence in a supportive learning posters and papers, MCLA hosted the first Northeast Regional community. Sincerely, Mary K. Grant, Ph.D. President Professor Ann Billetz Professor Tim Jay Science Research Flourishes at MCLA The summer after his sophomore year, Jon Cavanaugh ’10 got his first taste of academic research. Under the direction of Dr. Ann Billetz, professor of biology, Cavanaugh was awarded a fellowship to design and implement a research project studying the neural pathways of songbirds. The experience was transformative. “It was amazing,” said Cavanaugh. “When I entered college, the very idea of research was foreign to me. But that summer, I began to understand not only how it’s done, but that it’s what I wanted to do long-term. After that, I just went for it, full on, and started doing as much research as I could.” By the time he graduated, just two years later, he had worked on five additional research projects. During his junior year, Cavanaugh worked with Dr. Maria Bartini, asso- ciate professor of psychology, on a year-long project studying relational aggression among different groups. In a separate research project, he and Dr. Timothy Jay, professor of psy- chology, studied fluency and swearing. The same year, he did a third project, with Dr. Peggy Brooks, professor of psychology, on the role of napping in memory consolidation. The summer before his senior year, he worked with a faculty member to acquire population data on local bird species. Then, he spent his senior year studying ultrasonic vocalizations of juvenile rats for his senior thesis. He presented each of these projects at the MCLA Undergraduate Research Conference and presented one of them — on relational aggres- sion — at The National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR). Evan Herrmann ’07 Professor Maria Bartini Jon Cavanaugh ’10 Today Cavanaugh is running lab tests for DEKA Research research projects as independent studies. The College supports and Development in Manchester, New Hampshire, a design and these students by offering small research grants, dedicated faculty engineering firm that develops medical device technologies. He mentors, and a dynamic campus-wide undergraduate research plans to enter a graduate program in neuroscience in a year. conference for presenting their work. “The research I did as an undergraduate is absolutely the “One of the things that is so nice about an MCLA educa- reason I got my job. It’s also the strongest part of my application tion,” says Billetz, “is that undergraduates can do research really to graduate school. I’d say what’s equally important, though, is early. Students can engage in research as early as the summer after that it has given me the confidence to know that I could really do their first year. This allows them to do a range of projects over these things and that I’m really prepared for them.” the course of their education; it also allows them to engage in Cavanaugh is one of many students who have found robust long-term research projects. This simply wouldn’t happen at most research opportunities on the MCLA campus. Indeed, undergrad- larger schools.” uate research has expanded dramatically at the College in recent Evan Hermann ’07, a doctoral candidate in the human years; today, students can choose from hundreds of independent behavioral pharmacology department at the University of Ver- study opportunities in many disciplines—the natural sciences, mont (UVM), notes that there is another advantage to doing social sciences, and humanities—and they can design their own w i n t e r 2 0 1 1 n 3 Professor Peggy Brooks Kristin Janschewitz ’04 Professor Tom Byrne Students can engage in research as early as the summer after their first year....it also allows them to engage in long-term research projects. This simply wouldn’t happen at most larger schools. research at a school like and math (STEM) MCLA, the small stu- careers.