MAGAZINE VOLUME 84 NO.1 MAGAZINE DEAR FRIENDS: s I write, the campus is them, the expanse of the campus gives inspiringly and energetically full them room to roam and explore, the quiet of young artists. of the campus gives them occasion to JustA in the last week, for example, I gave a pause and reflect. tour of Sweet Briar House to participants All these young artists are experiencing for in our own BLUR program. These are a summer what we here on campus — and high school students who are creating you as alumnae — know so well already: innovative and interdisciplinary art under Sweet Briar is a special, inspiring and the guidance of faculty and student moving place. The education we offer is interns. Because their projects engage a enriched immeasurably by the fact that it is sense of place — because they in some offered here. manner respond to the specific beauty and history of Sweet Briar — BLUR students But the real value of time spent in this are always interested to learn more about magical place, as generations of alumnae our history and to explore every corner have proved, is that it prepares students to of the campus. I don’t think any other go out into the world and do remarkable tour group has ever asked me so many things. You’ll read in this issue about questions! Candince McMillian’s work in New Orleans and Sally Haas’ work in Haiti, for Another evening I attended a performance example. Professor Tom O’Halloran, like of “The Taming of the Shrew” on the lawn many faculty, travels with his students to behind Sweet Briar House — the first I’ve locations where they can encounter new ever seen that featured a puppet! Sweet phenomena and gain hands-on experience, Briar sponsors the Blue Ridge Summer as this issue’s photo essay demonstrates. Theatre Festival in conjunction with Endstation Theatre Company, whose work Each of these stories tells of people is distinguished by its artistic commitment prepared in this magical place to go out to place. “Taming,” therefore, was staged and improve the experience of people in as if presented by a touring vaudeville other, less fortunate places. Proud as I company arriving in Lynchburg in the am of our campus, I am even prouder of early 20th century. stories like these. On yet another afternoon I greeted Best wishes for the remainder of the families arriving to bring their children to summer. the University of Virginia’s Young Writers Workshop. UVa holds this program on our campus because we provide an unparalleled environment for young Jo Ellen Parker writers. The beauty of the campus inspires SWEET BRIAR COLLEGE MAGAZINE POLICY FIND SWEET BRIAR ONLINE The magazine aims to present interesting, thought-provoking material. Publication of material does not indicate endorsement of the author’s sbc.edu viewpoint by the magazine or College. The Sweet Briar College Magazine Twitter: sweetbriaredu reserves the right to edit and, when necessary, revise all material that it accepts for publication. Contact us anytime. Facebook: sweet.briar.college MAGAZINE STAFF YouTube: youtube.com/sweetbriarcollege Christy Jackson, director of media, marketing and communications Jennifer McManamay, editor/writer Janika Carey, editor/writer Meridith Khan, photographer Aaron Mahler, photographer Catherine Bost, designer Larry Boyd, designer Contact information Office of Media, Marketing and Communications PO Box 1056, Sweet Briar, VA 24595 (434) 381-6262 [email protected] sbc.edu/magazine SWEET BRIAR COLLEGE BOARD OF DIRECTORS Paul G. Rice, chair As a result of a printing error in a fixed Please see sbc.edu/about/board-directors for the full number of copies of the last edition of Executive Committee and board members. the magazine, the colors in alumna Fay Chandler’s painting (“Mirror Image,” 2005, SWEET BRIAR COLLEGE ALUMNAE Board 64 x 48 inches, latex on canvas) varied from Sandra Taylor ’74, president the artist’s original. The image above is Please see sbc.edu/alumdev/current-board for the full board. correct. We regret the error. Printed by Progress Printing Company Contents Sweet Briar Magazine | Summer 2013 Features 24-25 26-31 32-35 36-39 Innovation Through Building Lives Science Takes Flight On a Mission Imagination An alumna constructs National best-seller Sally Haas ’72 has The College celebrates hope in New Orleans. features Sweet Briar found purpose in Haiti. Women’s History Month. scientists. Departments 2-13 16-23 42-80 On the Quad Class Acts Alumnae News Bat Condos, Celebrating NYC Rocks, Class Notes, Missy Takes Integration, CIA Chat, Pannell Scholars, the Lead, Memories of Explore Engineering, Po-e-tree, Maxine, Q & A with President’s Pick, Galactic Commencement Mollie and Sandra, News, Cicada Invasion Reunion Sea Study SBC.EDU | SWEET BRIAR MAGAZINE 1 More than a Pretty Picture READERS MAY RECALL SPENCER BEALL’S image from the last issue of this publication. College photographer Meridith De Avila Khan’s CASE award-winning photograph depicts her in Cochran Library, engrossed in the books spread before her. Beall was working on her Honors Summer Research project, selecting and translating art commentaries by influential French writers such as Charles Baudelaire and Marcel Proust. Now Beall and her mentor, Professor Marie-Thérèse Killiam, have compiled the translations, paired with images of the referenced artwork, into a 353- page Apple iBook, “Painting With Words: Writers’ Transpositions of Masterpieces into Art,” released in March. The commentaries reveal how modern culture has evolved and how social norms, perspectives and tastes have been shaped by famous artworks and by reactions to them. The compilation shows how art has inspired writers to “paint with words.” Beall, who just completed her junior year in Paris, is majoring in French, history and art history, with a minor in medieval and Renaissance studies. She hopes one day to practice art law. Bat Condos Open for Business IN APRIL, PHYSICAL PLANT WORKERS AND naturalist-in-residence Mike Hayslett installed two “bat condos” on the wetland behind the Nature Center. Local bat expert and condo donor Bonnie Miles stopped by to get a closer look at the final result, which will provide roosting habitat for up to 1,000 bats. The Central Virginia Chapter of the Virginia Master Naturalists funded the installation. 2 SBC.EDU | SWEET BRIAR MAGAZINE New MMC Director Named CHRISTY JACKSON IS THE NEW DIRECTOR OF MEDIA, marketing and communications. She arrives from Radford University, where she was leading the university relations office following the retirement of its executive director. Jackson began her career as the public relations coordinator for the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine at Virginia Tech, where she advanced to interim director of public relations and communications in 2009. She holds a Bachelor of Science in communication, with a concentration in public relations and minor in political science, and a master’s in corporate and professional communication, both from Radford. Jackson is a member of the Public Relations Society of America and the College Communicators Association of Virginia and the District of Columbia. D a i VINTAGE ARTIFACTS FROM THE OLD DAIRY ARE NOW r on view at Sweet Briar Museum, along with farm tools from y Sweet Briar’s pre-College days. “ ‘I have lately bought me a Plantation’: A Brief Survey of Farming and Land Use at Sweet D a Briar” opened this past spring in Whitley Gallery and will run y through March 2014. s e R l i ve d SBC.EDU | SWEET BRIAR MAGAZINE 3 Endstation Premieres ‘In Sweet Remembrance’ AN ORIGINAL PLAY ABOUT SWEET BRIAR’S COMPLEX PAST made its first public appearance in March when a cast of actors — including Sweet Briar students and hired professionals — read the entire manuscript to a packed house in Pannell Gallery. Endstation Theatre Company’s Michael Stablein Jr. directed the performance. “In Sweet Remembrance” by playwright Tearrance A. Chisholm was commissioned by Endstation, Sweet Briar and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. The play pays tribute to the significant role of the black community throughout the College’s history. Chisholm, who lives in Washington, D.C., has spent the past four summers researching Sweet Briar’s cultural and historical background to create a play that “explores the landscape of its past, discovers the contours of its present and realizes its future.” “In Sweet Remembrance” will be staged as part of the Blue Ridge Summer Theatre Festival in 2014. In his writing, Chisholm explores the many faces of the African-American experience. The theme of race as a double-edged sword of advantages and shortcomings permeates his works, including “Burning Books,” “Liddy’s Sammiches, Potions & Baths,” “Vulpicide” and “A Month of Sundays.” Playwright Tearrance A. Chisholm Integration at Sweet Briar SPRING 2013 MARKED 50 YEARS since a group of Sweet Briar students, NOV. 2, 1963 AUG. 17, 1964 JUNE 3, 1965 faculty and alumnae asked President Anne Gary Pannell and the board The board of directors The College files a bill Judge C. G. Quesenbery instructs its executive of complaint in Amherst rules against Sweet of directors to seek legal counsel committee to “take whatever Circuit Court to Briar with support from to discover in what way, if any, the legal action may be necessary reinterpret the will. the attorney general restriction laid forth by Indiana Fletcher and appropriate to secure a of Virginia, who urges Williams in her will for the College judicial determination as to the court to uphold the whether we may, consistently College’s original charter. to educate “white girls and young with the charitable purposes women“ was still binding. This request of Indiana Fletcher Williams, began a multi-year, complex journey admit qualified persons to to the College becoming an integrated Sweet Briar College, regardless of race.” institution.