NON-PROFIT COLBY-SAWYER ALUMNI MAGAZI Office of Advancement ORGANIZATION Colby-Sawyer College U.S. POSTAGE 541 Main Street PAID New London, NH 03257 LEWISTON, ME PERMIT 82 C LBY-SAWYER CHANGE SERVICE REQUESTED ALUMNI MAGAZINE ▶ The Pike Triplets Have Arrived –a college three-for-all NE ▶ The Spell of Wilderness –Jamie Trombley ’11 finds herself in Oz ▶ In the Splash Zone –the water world of Jennifer McGee ’93 ▶ Connecting Generations –Haystack is here! ▶ Blue Planet Turning Green –alumni taking action SPRING 2009 S PRING 2 0 0 9 EDITOR BOARD OF TRUSTEES David R. Morcom Introducing a New Colby-Sawyer Anne Winton Black ’73, ’75 CLASS NOTES EDITORS Chairman Tracey Austin Tradition… Mike Gregory Richard Dulude Vice Chair CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Colby-Sawyer College Kelli Bogan Suzanne Simons Hammond ’66 Ryan Emerson Executive Secretary Mike Gregory David R. Morcom Pamela Stanley Bright ’61 Kate Dunlop Seamans Alice W. Brown Kimberly Swick Slover William P. Clough III Thomas C. Csatari VICE PRESIDENT FOR ADVANCEMENT Karen Craffey Eldred ’86 Elizabeth A. Cahill Joan Campbell Eliot ’67 Christine Biggs Ferraro ’65 Alumni DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS Thomas C. Galligan Jr., ex officio Kimberly Swick Slover Eleanor Morrison Goldthwait ’51 October 2–4, 2009 Fall Festival William E. Gundy DESIGN AND PRODUCTION G. William Helm Jr. October 2–4, 2009 Lisa Swanson George Jamieson www.colby-sawyer.edu/ Second Story Design Erik Edward Joh alumni/fallfestival.html Manchester, N.H. Joyce Juskalian Kolligian ’55 Robin L. Mead ’72 PRINTING A. John Pappalardo P’10 Penmor Lithographers David B. Payne Come for the Lewiston, Maine Mark A. Peterson P’08 William S. Reed weekend, or Richard N. Thielen come for the day. Jean M. Wheeler Join us for a weekend celebration Daniel H. Wolf of good friends and family, favorite faculty, and spectacular fall foli- HONORARY LIFE TRUSTEES age on the beautiful Colby-Sawyer David L. Coffin P’76 campus. Don’t miss this opportunity Peter D. Danforth P’83, ’84, GP’02 to reconnect with your friends and classmates, and to celebrate your college William H. Dunlap P’98 For more information, lodging memories while creating new connections to the Colby-Sawyer community. options, and to sign up for e-mail LIFE TRUSTEE EMERITA updates, please visit Mary Trafton Simonds ’38, P’64 The weekend will feature many activities www.colby-sawyer.edu/ for all to enjoy! alumni/fallfestival.html ADDRESS LETTERS AND SUBMIT ARTICLE IDEAS TO: Class Reunions Campus Tours Academic Workshops or contact the Offi ce of Alumni David R. Morcom, Editor Alumni Athletic Events The Fall Festival 5K Fun Family Publications Office Relations and Annual Giving Activities Varsity Athletic Matches Alumni Awards Ceremony Colby-Sawyer College (603) 526-3722 541 Main Street Alumni/Faculty Art Show Athletic Hall of Fame Induction [email protected] New London, NH 03257 Ceremony and much, much more! © Copyright 2009 Colby-Sawyer College Phone: (603) 526-3730 E-mail: [email protected] Reunion celebrations will take place for the following classes: 1934, 1939, 1944, 1949, 1954, 1959, 1964, 1969, 1974, 1979, 1984, 1989, 1994, 1999, 2004. C LBY-SAWYER ALUMNI MAGAZINE FEATURES The Pike Triplets Have Arrived 11 Born within minutes of each other 19 years ago, the Pike triplets are now part of the Colby-Sawyer family. The Spell of Wilderness 14 Jamie Trombley ’11 traveled to Australia for a challenging adventure. She returned home a different person with a new life path. On the Cover: Jennifer McGee ’93 is seen during a training session with Kaylee, a bottlenose dolphin. In the ‘Splash Zone’ 18 Jennifer is the lead keeper of the Jennifer McGee ’93 is at home Marine Mammals Department at the in the water world of marine Brookfield Zoo, a 216-acre facility run mammal training. by the Chicago Zoological Society just outside of Chicago, Illinois. Having recently celebrated her 12th year with the Brookfield Zoo, Jennifer oversees Connecting training sessions and live-audience Generations performances for dolphins, seals and sea lions. Through History 22 Haystack, the college’s new digital archives, links Colby- Sawyer’s past and present. Blue Planet Turning Green 26 Nancy H. Taylor ’67 and Jennifer White ’90, each in their own ways, are spreading the green message to help improve our planet. 360 Degrees of DEPARTMENTS Responsibility 28 Colby-Sawyer Matters 2 There’s a lot more than meets the eye to the important job Sports Round-up 30 of keeping the Colby-Sawyer community safe. Class Notes 37 SPRING 2009 1 Maurissa Abecassis Selected New Hampshire Professor of Year A ssociate Professor of Social Sciences and the real decisions that affect the and Education Maurissa Abecassis practical lives of parents and children. was named the 2008 New Hampshire I feel my greatest strength is in helping Professor of the Year by the Carnegie my students find what they are most Foundation for the Advancement passionate about and expanding their of Teaching and the Council for sense of possibility.” Advancement and Support of Education Professor Abecassis earned a Ph.D. at (CASE). The honor is one of the most the University of Minnesota’s Institute prestigious to recognize undergraduate of Child Development and a B.A. with teachers and their influence on the Honors at the University of Winnipeg. lives and careers of their students. She has been a post-doctoral fellow Professor Abecassis, who joined at the University of Massachusetts/ Colby-Sawyer in 2000, designs and Amherst since June 2004, where she teaches classes in psychology and child is working toward clinical re-special- ization. Since completing clinical development. Her areas of specialization Associate Professor of Social Sciences and Education include child and adolescent develop- course work, she has been responsible Maurissa Abecassis says that her students are what ment, normal and atypical social and for treating clients at the university’s she’s most proud of in her career. “It’s a gift to know and teach them,” she adds. emotional development, and child and Psychological Services Center and has family social policy. completed a practicum in neuropsychol- “What is most meaningful to me is ogy at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Deborah A. Taylor, academic vice that this award honors not only one’s Center. president and dean of faculty at Colby- work in the classroom, but also what Professor Abecassis’s teaching skills Sawyer, said Professor Abecassis has devel- one tries to achieve across time,” says were previously recognized when she oped a collaborative teaching style which Professor Abecassis, referring to the received the New Hampshire College emphasizes that the responsibility for research and clinical work that informs and University Council’s Excellence learning is shared by teacher and student. her teaching practice. “I try to find in Education Award in May 2008, and “Maurissa’s goals are—in her teaching methods that link theoretical Colby-Sawyer’s highest faculty award, words—‘to plant seeds’ and ‘foster material to real life situations and help the Jack Jensen Award for Excellence in minds’ rather than simply deliver students see the link between policies Teaching, in May 2007. information, and she aims to promote engaged learning in students,” said Vice President Taylor. “Students in her courses report that she structures her CSC Fun classes so that they must grapple with, In the fall semester of 2008–2009, Fact think critically about, and apply what 173 of Colby-Sawyer’s they have learned. She carefully cali- 977 students made the brates the amount of material in her Dean’s List, which requires a classes, rigorously connecting theory, 3.5 GPA or higher. research and practice. She simultaneously encourages an informal, comfortable, playful classroom context for learning.” 2 COLBY-SAWYER ALUMNI MAGAZINE Kenyan Professor is First Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence In 2008–2009, Colby-Sawyer College earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees hosted its first Fulbright Scholar-in- at Punjab University in India. For his Residence, Isaac Nyamongo, an asso- doctoral thesis he investigated experi- ciate professor and director of the ences of malaria patients in southwest Institute of Anthropology, Gender and Kenya to understand the effects of their African Studies at the University of attitudes and behaviors regarding their Nairobi in Kenya. Dr. Nyamongo is a health and medical treatment. medical anthropologist with expertise Malaria is endemic around the Lake in ethnology and research methods who Victoria region and along the coastal focuses on public health issues in Africa. areas of Kenya, where residents often As part of Colby-Sawyer’s Environ- develop a level of immunity to the mental Studies Department, Dr. disease. The high altitudes and cooler Nyamongo spoke to classes on such sub- climate of the Gusii Highlands, where jects as HIV/AIDS and the environment, Dr. Nyamongo grew up, had tradition- his international travels, and environ- ally kept the incidence of malaria low, mental issues in Kenya. In the spring but in the last two decades, due to semester, he taught a Wesson Honors global warming and a host of other Isaac Nyamongo, associate professor and director of the Institute of Anthropology, Gender and African class, Health, Sickness and Healing in human-mediated changes, malaria has Studies at the University of Nairobi in Kenya Africa. He also addressed the larger encroached on populations with little college community about President immunity to the disease. affect their condition.” Obama’s Kenyan roots and the Kenyan “Because of that lack of immunity, Dr. Nyamongo’s research findings people’s strong interest in his journey to malaria’s effect on these people is devas- have been used by a non-governmental the presidency, and the issues of public tating; they are not protected,” he says. health organization, Medical Emergency health and environmental conservation “I wanted to understand how percep- Relief International (Merlin) of the in Africa.