The Mount Holyoke News » Features

Dear Abby goes multicultural

Gloria Coon — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 01:24:08 +0000

Seema Nanda ’12 recently started a column, “Seema Aunty,” that will aim to serve specific audiences and address particular ethnic, religious and cultural sensitivities in Brown Girl Magazine.

Tailored for “Young South Asian women raised in the United States,” the advice column allows readers to submit questions and benefit from Nanda’s experience that magazines like Seventeen or Cosmopolitan probably wouldn’t know how, or bother, to answer.

The Mount Holyoke News: What inspired the idea for your column?

Seema Nanda: I like to read advice columns and have been reading them for a long time, to the extent that my mom used to call me Dear Abby when I was a teenager. I came up with the idea because the magazine’s audience is 17-24. I’m in my thirties, so I figured an aunty figure would be perfect.

MHN: Do you feel Brown Girl Magazine does a good job at catering to your ethnic identity?

SN: To some extent it does address things that are different. I have the experience of growing up in a family with similar values and expectations. I’ve already been through this stuff, so I can relate. Plus, the benefit of hindsight and being able to look backward is always helpful when looking at any problem.

MHN: What are some topics you’ve received questions about?

SN: So far, most of it has revolved around maintaining a balance between your family’s expectations and what you want. One girl wrote asking for advice on how to talk to her parents about having a boyfriend who isn’t Indian. She knows she’s doing something her family isn’t going to be crazy about, but she’s also not going to find much help with this kind of thing in Seventeen, or whatever people are reading these days. That’s where I can come in. When she asks me that question, I already know that her parents aren’t going to approve and the kinds of pressures she’s up against. This helps to understand the problem on a deeper level and it automatically puts me in a good position to be able to help her understand how to handle it.

MHN: What issues are closest to your heart?

SN: The hardest thing I remember is trying to communicate with my parents. This is a hard thing for everyone, but within this specific community it can feel even more so. The thing is, there are all these special expectations from all of
these people in your life, plus you’re expected to stick to a set of values. Everyone has this struggle, a balance between expectations and what you yourself want to do. It’s really hard to figure out where you are in the range and where you want to be in that range.

MHN: Have you come across questions that you don’t feel comfortable answering?

SN: There was one girl who asked how she could stay trendy but also dress respectfully enough for her conservative family. I had no idea how to even go about answering that, but I was able to pass her question on to our fashion editor. The staff is great with communication, collaboration and supporting each other so that we can better support our readers. The News had a Mount Holyoke College student turn to Seema Aunty to see what she could offer:

“Dear Seema Aunty,

At an internship last year, I met someone a month before I left. We didn’t really have time to get to know each other very well, but we had a fantastic connection, and would develop it more via email and Skype over the next few months. On somewhat of a whim he came out to visit this year and we had an unbelievably fantastic time. We’re both graduating this year. While we both feel very strongly for each other, it’s a hushed-up mess of what comes next. We keep skirting the issue. I feel like I know I should just be direct and talk to him about it, but I’m worried about the possibility of freaking him out. I want to give the relationship a chance, but I’m worried about letting feelings influence my career path. Is this something I should cut loose and be happy it happened at all? Should I stop being scared and try to keep a good thing going?

Nanda answered:

Dear Anonymous,

How wonderful that you’ve met someone that you like so much! I’m happy to hear this. I recommend a combination of the things you’ve suggested.

First, you must talk to him about your feelings. One thing that I’ve noticed about people is that we want others to intuit what we are thinking. This is an unreasonable expectation. Hearing what you feel may freak him out, but if he’s the guy he seems to be, he is thinking the very same thing you are.

People do freak out and that’s perfectly fine. Most people are scared silly when they meet someone that they feel strongly about. That’s a normal response, on your part and his, and shouldn’t hamper your own actions. Second, I must tell you that the movies are right about one thing. Meeting people that you care about happens less frequently than you would imagine. In one’s lifetime, it is something to behold and savor. Remember to value the feelings you have and the person for whom you feel them.

As for your career path, stay on it. Do what you were planning to do post-graduation. You might think about making a few additions to your pool of applications that would place you in closer proximity to this person. This is something I recommend that he do, as well, if after your conversation you decide to pursue a relationship. You never know what fate has in store for you! I have some friends who had been thinking about getting married and moving. One of my friends worried about this too, saying “How will we find jobs/schools in the same city?” They applied to jobs and universities in some overlapping places and they allowed things to work themselves out. It ended really happily with both of them in Boston doing exactly what they wanted to do.”

Nanda clearly lays out the options for her advice-seeker. Often we already know what we need to do, we just don’t know how to go about doing it. It might have been more pragmatically helpful if Nanda provided more specific tools to handle the problem, like a simple opening line to prompt the conversation with her partner.

The advice given is a reiteration of what the reader has expressed as sources of anxiety, followed by a similar real-life example that ended successfully. The reader seems to already knows what she needs to do, she’s just afraid to do it. And while Seema Aunty isn’t bestowing any inspiring new gems of wisdom, she does give the extra push of confidence and enthusiasm to encourage her reader to take on her problem head-first.

In need of some advice from Seema Aunty? Write to her at staff@browngirlmagazine.com.

Romney’s campaign prospects no walk in the park

Dana Drugmand — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 00:24:27 +0000

After his triumph in Tuesday’s Florida primary, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney took another step forward on the path to becoming ,the Republican Party nominee to run in this year’s presidential election. Had he also won the caucus in Iowa (at first he did) and the primary in South Carolina, this path would have thus far been a walk in the park for him – or more like a jog, as he passes his opponents who opt to take a leisurely stroll.

As Romney continues on the path, he next encounters some folks walking their dogs. One of the dog owners raises her eyebrows in disgust and another one lets out a bellowing “boo!”

Romney may boast about his business with Bain Capital, but his infamous act of making his Irish setter named Seamus ride on the roof of his family station wagon for a twelve-hour trip to Canada seems to be the bane of his reputation among dog lovers, and apparently among dogs themselves.

Romney’s “dog incident” caught fire in the media: liberal pundit Rachel Maddow devoted a whole segment to it on her Jan. 12 show, and New York Times columnist Gail Collins can’t seem to resist referencing it in her columns. Move over Newt Gingrich’s Super PAC, there’s a new Super Pack in town devoted to destroying “Meanie Mitt.”

The Dogs Against Romney Super Pack has its own website, Facebook and Twitter pages, and even its own line of merchandise. What better way to show your canine compassion than sporting a T-shirt with slogans like “Dogs Aren’t Luggage,” and “Mitt is Mean!”? The T-shirts come in dog sizes too, since of course this anti-Romney campaign is all about the dogs.

This whole ordeal provides fresh fodder for Romney’s rivals. The Gingrich campaign released a web video a few weeks ago highlighting Romney’s campaign gaffes and questionable statements, including his justification for his dog’s roof ride as he explained it to Fox News’ Chris Wallace in 2007. The video ends with Romney remarking, “Who let the dogs out? Hoot, hoot!” Following Gingrich’s example, the Obama campaign is capitalizing on Romney’s dog faux pas. On Monday, the day before the Florida primary, Obama’s chief political strategist David Axelrod tweeted a photo of the President and Bo, his Portuguese Water Dog, riding together in the back of a limo; it was captioned, “How loving owners transport their dogs.”

And now the campaign has created – gasp – a Facebook page, “Pet Lovers for Obama,” for the purpose of “showcasing the Obama 2012 spirit of our favorite animals and those of us who love them.”

So what’s next in a political battle that has become so sensationalized it’s already gone to the dogs? We shall just have to wait and see.

Charity: water Q and A with Melissa White ’13

Paula Mugnani — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 17:00:58 +0000

This week The Mount Holyoke News had the oppotunity to interview Melissa White ’13, a Chemistry and Poltics double major, who coordinates the campus project to fundraise for the organization Charity: water to build wells in water-poor areas. She has currently distributed boxes on campus to collect redeemable bottles to donate money to the organization.

The Mount Holyoke News: What is the project about?

MW: My charity: water basically is a non-profit organization that aims to bring water resources and education about sanitation to water poor areas. Originally why I liked this organization is because it takes the ideas of a non-profit and infuses an entrepreneurial spirit into it. It really encourages individuals and the community to create fundraisers and educate on their own through the community. They do this using social media and online resources, which really shows that individuals that they can make a difference to contribute to a cause as big as water issues. I think that’s what’s unique about it and why I originally fell in love with it.

They actually go out into the field, take pictures of the project, they talk to the people, do interview and send you the GPS coordinates exactly where that well is so you know exactly where your money goes into. Literally every dollar of this non-profit is tracked.

MHN: What have you done so far?

MW: So far me and my friend Emily Lindaeur ’13 started doing this project in our freshman year here and it’s evolved a bit to include the Center for the Environment because we would like to make it a more campus-wide campaign. I know Mount Holyoke is a pretty cash-poor campus so we wanted to make sure we were going for our target audience really including the whole campus by doing campaign drives to collect money that way. I have been trying to reach out the other people and we have a table at Pangy Day with a water balloon set up. We’re just trying to get the word out about these issues and fundraise for these wells.

MHN: What is the value of the project on campus?

MW: In America, I think we have the idea that water is a never-ending resource and that it will always be here. But water is really a global issue. I’m from Florida where we have droughts and are constantly fighting over water with Georgia and I think a lot of people are really disconnected from the issue because water is cheap here. Water literally sustains life and I think of having water a human right. We share that common of needing water and that commonality between people all across the globe is a really good connection to other people.

Millions of people are dying and that why charity: water surpasses that political issue to help get water to the people and it helps communities. Women become empowered when they don’t have to walk five miles to get dirty drinking water during which in a lot of cases they get raped or abused somewhere along the way. Politically, I think it strengthens the communities and gives them more of a voice.

Water has so many other issues that intersect with it that if you are interested in education, women’s rights or health, all of these things really come down to water resources in these areas. So simply bringing them water allows the children to go to school instead of collecting water and gives them access to clean water. I know that diarrhea due to bad drinking water is one of the main causes leading to death in the world.

MHN: How do you plan to continue in the future?

MW: We definitely need support from the campus community and so I think that’s the beauty of the bottle and can campaign. A lot of people on this campus drink from bottles that can be redeemed so just simple activities such as saving those bottles that are redeemable in Massachusetts and contacting us helps. I know we definitely want to continue with our Pangy Day presentation and I definitely want to get a Blanchard display in the art gallery. I would like the whole campus to know where the collection bins are and create a higher visibility for the campaign where they can put the bottles in the boxes and really see the impact of their work. Something as simple as putting a bottle in a box can lead to a well in Africa or in Latin America and I think it’s really important for people to see that one small contribution really does make a difference. They can get physically involved in it, not just reading about it or writing papers but working on it right now to influence the future project and impact the lives of the people it’s geared towards.

MHN: What is the project about?

MHN: How does the organization collaborate with donors?

MW: They actually go out into the field, take pictures of the project, they talk to the people, do interview and send you the GPS coordinates exactly where that well is so you know exactly where your money goes into. Literally every dollar of this non-profit is tracked and the man who started it was living on his friend’s couch and it all started with a birthday party. He asked everyone to give donations to the project for his birthday. I think this is an ideal non-profit. It gets you excited about water, it gets you excited about helping people, its not about feeling bad or feeling guilty about what you haven’t done, it’s about getting excited and getting motivated about what you have and what you can do.

MHN: What have you done so far?

MHN: What is the value of the project on campus?

MHN: Isn’t building the well only temporarily solving the problem and not the political issues behind the issue?

MW: Drilling the wells help their (the people’s) environment for agriculture to irrigate their fields better Sometimes the issue is geographic where the water poor areas just don’t have a lot of water. But there are political issues about how they cannot get access to water. Millions of people are dying and that why charity: water surpasses that political issue to help get water to the people and it helps communities. It helps them health-wise, it helps them education-wise and omen become empowered when they don’t have to walk five miles to get dirty drinking water during which in a lot of cases they get raped or abused somewhere along the way. Politically, I think it strengthens the communities and gives them more of a voice.

Future

We definitely need support from the campus community and so I think that’s the beauty of the bottle and can campaign. A lot of people on this campus drink from bottles that can be redeemed so just simple activities such as saving those bottles that are redeemable in Massachusetts and contacting us helps. I know we definitely want to continue with our Pangy Day presentation and I definitely want to get a Blanchard display in the art gallery. I would like the whole campus to know where the collection bins are and create a higher visibility for the

Photo Courtesy of mycharitywater.org

campaign where they can put the bottles in the boxes and really see the impact of their work. Something as simple as putting a bottle in a box can lead to a well in Africa or in Latin America and you can go online and see the GPS coordinates and I think it’s really important for people to see that one small contribution really does make a difference. They can get physically involved in it, not just reading about it or writing papers but working on it right now to influence the future project and impact the lives of the people it’s geared towards.

Anita Kazimi Haidary: A woman with a plan

Sonam Dolker — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 17:00:10 +0000

Anita Kazimi Haidary. Photo Courtesy of Sonam Dolker.

Anita Kazimi Haidary ’14 went back to her home in Afghanistan last summer with a undeveloped goal to start a school, but what she ended up doing was no less challenging. A film and computer science double major at Mount Holyoke College, she now works from her base in South Hadley, Massachusetts to oversee the progress of an organization she founded six months ago half way across the world.

With Noorjahan Akbar, Haidary started a grassroots organization called Young Women for Change (YWC) that aims to address problems that women face in Afghanistan. According to Haidary, the organization’s mission is “to help increase the political, social, economic and cultural participation of women across the country.” This is especially relevant in Afghanistan where culturally rooted patriarchy and the threat of the anti-women Taliban movement still remains. Young Women for Change recently received official non-profit organization status in Afghanistan, as well as its first major grant of $41,000 from the United States Embassy to conduct research on sexual harassment.

During the winter break of her first year, Haidary first became acquainted with Akbar, a music and literature double major at Dickinson College, at a dinner in Northampton, MA. They met the following summer back home in Afghanistan, to move towards forming a women’s rights organization. “We wanted to start by finding women who wanted to work and who are passionate about volunteering,” Haidary said. Their organization’s first meeting, which was advertised through Facebook, brought together 75 women. “So while we were talking about schools, we got to talking about problems, women’s rights and about what urgently needed work.” This rather organic process resulted in an organized march against street harassment, carried out under the banner of “Young Women for Change,” which later acquired a group of 25 dedicated members.

According to Haidary, Afghan women face harassment in the streets ranging from verbal abuse and comments on appearance to touching and physical abuse in crowded areas. Haidary explains this behavior as a symptom of the 30 years of war in Afghanistan, during which female figures were absent from public spaces. “They grew up with the idea of women being at home all the time,” said Haidary. “After the Taliban period, women were back in jobs and society. They internally think why people who are supposed to be at home are out like that.”

On July 14, 2010, 50 women and men marched from Kabul University to the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission holding up signs that read “These streets are mine too,” and “Islam forbids men from insulting women,” and passed out flyers. “We had guys walk with us, which was amazing,” said Haidary. The march, titled “Advocacy for Dignity,” was the first of its kind and received tremendous national and international media attention. The BBC and Reuters were among the news outlets covering the march. “Nobody sees it as a problem, and that is the problem,” Haidary said. The march succeeded in creating dialogue around the topic in the media and made the presence of YWC felt in Kabul. “At that moment, I felt like there are no limits to doing things,” Haidary said.

The recognition of YWC as an official nonprofit organization was a surprise to Haidary not only because of how quickly it was processed, but also because of the hurdles they overcame. “We faced a lot of problems. People wouldn’t hear what we were saying, we were sent from here to there, the bureaucratic stuff,” Haidary said. “I think we were too tough to give up. Our members were just too great. We did everything they asked for, so they had no reason to reject it.” According to Haidary, the volunteers who comprise the organization participate because they realize that nobody else is going to do this work for them. Many who joined YWC did not previously have an activist background. “We are very diverse—from different backgrounds, religions, statuses, but our mission unites us.” She says that what the YWC is “fighting for is not taking off your hijab. We are fighting for choice, equality. If you want to be able to work, you should be able to work.”

Young Women for Change has since produced radio commercials about street harassment, organized monthly lectures and a variety of advocacy and charity work. It has also incorporated men into the movement through the formation of a Male Advocacy group under the YWC umbrella. In November, professional researchers with YWC trained volunteers on qualitative research methods so they could work at 36 universities to conduct the first large scale study ever on sexual harassment in Afghanistan.

Even with her passion for activism, Haidary hopes to add media and filming to her list of activities. Besides working on a short documentary, she enjoys hosting her weekly world music show at WMHC radio called “We Play it All.” She balances these hobbies with her classes, YWC work and a job as a technology assistant at the college’s library. It doesn’t stop there: she finds every opportunity to share Afghan culture with the campus and engage fellow students in her cause. Haidary can be silly and talkative, but her seriousness and ‘no fuss’ work ethic aids her in juggling her roles. She is a woman with a plan, and rarely is Afghanistan not a part of it.

Ada Cohen discusses ancient cosmetics and femininity

Annie Lattner — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 04:11:26 +0000

Flipping through the glossy pages of mainstream magazines for young women, one can observe the numerous eyeliner and lipstick advertisements aimed at enhancing a woman’s natural beauty. Makeup companies guarantee a woman’s success and confidence if she wears their brands. The reader is enticed with slogans such as “Because you’re worth it,” “Easy, breezy, beautiful. CoverGirl” and “Maybe she’s born with it. Maybe it’s Maybelline.”

One might wonder how long ago this culture of makeup and its influence on women began. Marking the 135th birthday of the Mount Holyoke Art Building, a lecture on Tuesday Nov. 15 focused on the influence of women’s makeup in Ancient Greek and Roman culture. Professor of Art History at Dartmouth College, Ada Cohen talked about how remaining Greek and Roman artifacts show the female social norms and represent the ideal women in Ancient history. The lecture, “Making Up a Woman in Ancient Greece” addressed larger ideas of how femininity is presented in society in light of the historical images.

For Cohen, part of the fascination with this concept is the contradiction of the material itself. One of the most persistent ideas of makeup is image deception. French makeup companies in the 1950s encouraged women to use subtle, natural looking makeup to cover up facial imperfections. By dyeing or curling hair, darkening eyebrows, painting eyelids, lengthening eyelashes and blushing cheeks, women were guaranteed to enhance their natural charms. But did the makeup that ancient women used define femininity? “Wearing makeup is almost constituent to female-ness, but why should this be so?” Cohen asked. She noted that in Roman culture, “real women can be said to implicate themselves in a system by which they beautify themselves and to be implicated in a system that conceals, disguises, derides and silences them.” It becomes evident that a lot hinges on makeup.

The use of cosmetics in ancient Greece was a common practice and a social convention that was depicted on pots and jars. Although there was no real explanation for the application of cosmetics, it has always been associated with women, often as an art of painting the face. Cohen asserted that cosmetics are not essential to survival but constitute human culture. Makeup was used not only to enhance woman’s appearance but also define status in hierarchical culture.

Roman artifacts uncovered in the 1940s provided more evidence that women from the ancient world used makeup to be more feminine. Greek evidence of makeup came in the form of pyxides, little bowls containing white or red substance in chunks of makeup powder, which women applied on their bodies and faces. The makeup was later identified to be white lead, made synthetically with egg and acidic vinegar. The majority of makeup ingredients: lead, alginic and mercury are now known toxins.

Today, makeup continues to define woman’s image and with the advent of science, beautification has expanded to plastic surgery. The American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery reports 11,456 cosmetic procedures in 2006 in the United States alone. Despite the centuries that have passed, women in the modern world continue to use makeup to define femininity in their never ending quest to achieve perfection.

Earth Insights: Lessons from Oz

Dana Drugmand — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 04:07:12 +0000

Last spring I spent a semester abroad with the School for Field Studies (SFS) Tropical Rainforest Studies program in North Queensland, Australia. The following piece presents a few of the environmental lessons I learned from the experience.

Lesson 1: On cyclones and climate change

Australia recently passed groundbreaking legislation on a carbon tax that will make the country’s top 500 most polluting companies pay for each ton of carbon emitted. The tax, which will take effect starting in July of next year, is a progressive step for a nation that is the developed world’s highest per capita emitter and one that will likely see some of the earliest impacts of climate change. Devastating, “biblical” floods swept across the state of Queensland in late December 2010, inundating an area the size of France and Germany combined. At the other extreme, a severe drought gripped much of the continent during the past decade, with the drought conditions especially threatening the Murray Darling basin—the Australian equivalent of the U.S. Great Plains breadbasket.

This year alone natural disasters have been happening all over the world, and Australia is no exception. Severe Tropical Cyclone Yasi, a Category 5 storm, made landfall on the North Queensland coast early morning on Feb. 3, 2011, completely destroying the coastal community of Mission Beach. Yasi hit the area with enough intensity to be labeled afterward as the worst cyclone to impact Queensland in living memory. The IPCC Fourth Assessment Report indicates a general trend of decreasing cyclone frequency but increasing cyclone intensity as the climate warms.

Five years prior to Yasi, in 2006, Category 5 Cyclone Larry tore through the Tropical North Queensland area. Cyclones are not uncommon occurrences in the region, but the advent of two Category 5 cyclones within five years apart is unusual, and would be unlikely even under the most severe climate change scenarios. It might be assumed, therefore, that the direct experience of these severe cyclones would have some effect on people’s attitudes towards climate change, particularly their concern and willingness to respond to the issue. But, results of my directed research project with the School for Field Studies (SFS) Australia program found that direct experience of a severe tropical cyclone, and experience of the most severe cyclone impacts, does not significantly influence people’s concern for climate change or their willingness to engage in climate change mitigation efforts. This is disconcerting, considering that the public’s perception of climate change as an intangible issue is often cited as a barrier to initiating a behavioral response. If direct, tangible experience of the potential effects of climate change, like a severe tropical cyclone, does not affect people’s willingness to respond to the issue, what will?

Lesson 2: On cassowaries and conservation

My semester abroad last spring with SFS took me into the heart of what is known as the Wet Tropics, a World Heritage designated area marked by pockets of rainforest, some of the oldest on Earth. At the Center for Rainforest Studies, located in a part of the Wet Tropics called the Atherton Tablelands, my fellow classmates and I studied topics ranging from the incredible faunal diversity of this rainforest ecosystem to rainforest restoration techniques to cyclone resilience.

The Wet Tropics area contains the most biodiversity of the entire Australian continent, including many plant and animal species that are endemic to the region’s rainforests, meaning they are found nowhere else on Earth. The habitat of these unique rainforest dwellers, such as the Lumholtz tree kangaroo and the Southern cassowary, is already high fragmented, and is threatened with shrinking further due to pressures from climate change and land use competition. Protecting the remaining patches of rainforest is thus critical to the survival of Australia’s endemic species.

A cassowary at the Port Douglas Wildlife Habitat. Photo Credit: Dana Drugmand

The cassowary, a large, flightless bird, has become a symbol or a “mascot” for conservation efforts in the Wet Tropics region. Mission Beach has one of the highest cassowary population densities, and in the wake of cyclones Larry and Yasi the cassowary played an important role in building social-ecological resilience in this coastal community. My SFS group visited Mission Beach about two weeks after Yasi had hit to help a local conservation group, called Community for Coastal and Cassowary Conservation (C4), clean up the damage on its property and recover and rebuild parts of its nursery, which grows rainforest tree seedlings to be planted as part of broader reforestation scheme. Although we unfortunately did not catch a glimpse of the majestic bird, we learned about the significance of the cassowary in terms of community cyclone resilience in Mission Beach and as a focal point for rainforest restoration projects.

We conducted research on carbon sequestration for one of these restoration projects at a site on the Tablelands called Thiaki Creek. We also got hands-on experience in rainforest restoration by participating in community tree plantings, which are run by a group called TREAT (Trees for the Evelyn and Atherton Tablelands). In getting down and dirty planting trees, we were able to contribute to the conservation of the incredibly diverse and highly fragmented tropical rainforest, which provides both vital habitat for wildlife and the essential ecosystem service of carbon storage.

Creating the next generation of women leaders in Asia

Paula Mugnani — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 04:01:48 +0000

At Mount Holyoke, one of the most valued features is the liberal arts education that encourages students to think critically and analyze all perspectives of their disciplines in a diverse and tight-knit environment. Beyond the College campus, Mount Holyoke belongs to a greater network as one of the Seven Sisters colleges that share the values of women’s colleges and the liberal arts. In keeping with these ideologies, the Asian Women’s Leadership University (AWLU) was created. It is currently set to open in 2015 as a women’s university in Malaysia to educate the next generation of women leaders in Asia.

The project was first founded by three Smith alumnae, Barbara Huo ’03, the president of the project; Mona Sinha ’88 and Hoon Eng Khoo ’73, and has now expanded to include an international team, academic partners and an advisory committee. In their careers and travels post-college, Huo, Sinha and Khoo realized that the college education they received was not readily available to women in Asia. “I realized that there were many driven, ambitious, smart and capable young women for whom attending a school like the Seven Sisters could make a dramatic difference in their life trajectories,” Huo said. “At the same time, I realized that most of these young women that I had met in my travels in Asia did not have the opportunities to attend such an institution and that a regional alternative could extend the opportunities available at the Seven Sisters to more women in Asia.”

In general, the current Asian education system emphasizes specialization in a career path, as opposed to the liberal arts approach, which encourages students to take courses in a variety of disciplines to acquire well-rounded knowledge. “We see that in Asia, the education is very geared toward the professional degree and there is less focus on developing broader leadership and associating programs,” Sinha said. “To be a global leader you have to have a very wide range of skills so there seems to be this need for leadership institutes that focus on skill-building through the study of liberal arts.”

The demand for liberal arts education in Asia is evident in the large volume of applications to Mount Holyoke and other liberal arts institutions. “Liberal arts education as understood at the small, four-year, academically selective institutions in the U.S. is a model that is increasingly in demand by students from Asia,” Huo said. “Admissions offices at these schools in the U.S. have witnessed significant increases in the number of international applicants but have a limited in-take. At the same time, many students and parents in Asia are beginning to realize that interdisciplinary study and a well-rounded education offer significant value—in terms of fostering general intellectual capacities but also in employment outcomes.”

Although the program will be primarily for Asian students, women from all parts of the world will also be welcome to foster a diverse educational community. The curriculum, opportunities and basic structure of AWLU will reflect the core experience found at the Seven Sisters. “Like the Seven Sisters, AWLU will be a women-only private institution, will have highly selective admissions, will feature on-campus housing, instruction in English language, small class sizes and a challenging academic environment,” said Huo. “AWLU will also offer a range of career, writing and tutoring resources for students, as well as financial aid and scholarship programs. Like the Seven Sisters, AWLU will encourage an active co-curricular culture with club activities, performing arts, sports teams and service organizations. AWLU shares similar institutional objectives with other women’s colleges around the world such as expanding educational access for women and fostering women’s leadership.”

Lynn Pasquerella, president of Mount Holyoke College, currently serves on the Advisory Committee, and believes Mount Holyoke and Smith College have much to offer the university. “Both Mount Holyoke and Smith provide models of excellence with respect to delivering an excellent liberal arts education,” Pasquerella said. “There is no better preparation in a world that is globally interdependent and which rapidly changing technology means rapid obsolescence. Fostering the next generation of women leaders by creating access to academic excellence is integral to our mission.” Pasquerella has met with the board in Hong Kong about developing the project, and plans on further collaboration in the future. “I can imagine offering the types of services we are providing to Effat University in terms of consulting with respect to delivering a liberal arts education and students services at a women’s college,” Pasquerella said.

In addition to the Advisory Committee and the administrative team, the AWLU has received support in the form of student campus representatives who raise awareness about the university and have collected 25 dollar donations. The Mount Holyoke student representatives, Fardina Fuad ’14 and Alexis Myers ’14, are working to increase awareness by presenting at the VariAsians program and inviting Huo for a discussion session. “Mount Holyoke students—bright, independent, ambitious women should be excited about this project as this opportunity provides other women from other parts of the world this experience that shapes who we are today and who we will be in future—a thriving, challenging and empowering experience that we are all privileged to have,” Fuad said. Myers, who is also one of the chairs of the Asian Students Association on campus, considers the AWLU an addition to the Seven Sisters. “I think it is really important for women to be educated and surrounded by other motivational women,” Myers said. “I believe it is crucial for there to be a place where women can be educated in Asia in order so that they may become leaders within their own communities, in part because of the space and environment Mount Holyoke has given me.”

Whether as an eighth sister or another liberal arts university for women, the AWLU plans to move forward as an institution that will create the new generation of women leaders in Asia. “It’s very rare that one gets the opportunity to build something from the ground up,” Sinha said. “I think that some of the academic partners are excited about having the opportunity to be creative about the curriculum, keeping the core of the liberal arts education at heart.”

Clubs on campus: Society of the Art Goddesses

Paula Mugnani — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 22:23:47 +0000

Photo by Ellen Alvord

“A lot of our storage collection is paper, because paper does not like to see the light of day,” said Linda Best, Collections Manager of the Mount Holyoke Art Museum as she punches in the number code and opens the doors to the art storage room. Inside are many rows of sliding painting frames, racks that keep the paintings straight and in the air, as if on a normal wall. Portraits of people and landscapes by long-gone art masters are suddenly exposed to the soft white light of the climate controlled room, which deviates only five degrees in either direction from the normal room temperature of 70 degrees Fahrenheit. Most importantly, Best explains, the relative humidity is kept at five percent, since paint from a masterpiece could peel off the canvas if the humidity fluctuates too much.

On tables next to gloves and various tools, works of art lay waiting like medical patients, some in need of better frames and others in need of more serious repair. The 3-D art collections are maintained upstairs on large metal shelves, including ancient Greek vases with sinewy figures and black sculptures from the early America continent.

Amidst all these resources, the Society of Art Goddesses represents the student body’s dedication to art and the museum collections. “We were started about eight years ago through the museum and have since evolved into a self-sufficient club which partners with the museum to bring more of the student body into the museum,” said Maureen Millmore ’13, Art History and Economics double major and co-chair of the club.

Unbeknownst to much of the College community, the Museum has 15,000 art pieces, with only three percent of the collection on display for visitors. The majority is stored to preserve their condition, but is available for organized events, for classes to supplement their courses and students who are interested in incorporating the works into projects. Even if the collections are not immediately available to the casual museum visitor, the works are visible on an online collections database made available by the Five College and Historic Deerfield Museum Consortium.

Apart from weekly meetings, the Art Goddesses regularly go on museum trips, go to art shows and host museum events. With 100 members on the email list and a regular ten-member board, the club has been reaching out to the College community to encourage museum visitation and foster an appreciation for art. “We do a lot of things related to our campus museum like a behind the scenes tour of storage and discussions of objects in the collection with each other,” said Victoria Schmidt-Schueber ’12. “We also have guest speakers from the art history department and museum staff, trips to nearby museums and movie nights.”

Although many members are Art History majors, the club encourages students from all disciplines to join and explore their artistic interests, whether in the collections or museum trips. “When I came in as a first year, I was looking for clubs related to arts,” said Schmidt-Scheuber. “I liked that the Goddesses do work related to the campus museum and museums in general. I also liked that the club is not just for Art History majors; it’s for anyone with an interest in or passion for art.”

To encourage more participation, the club members remain open to feedback and connections with art enthusiasts outside of the campus. “We try to bring art to the campus at large, through events and opportunities to travel and to meet other students interested in art,” said Millmore. “I’m very interested in encouraging meetings to be a forum through which members can bring up new and different ideas about events and activities we could do as a club and a campus.”

One of the most popular events the Art Goddesses host is Spa Night, the club’s top fundraiser that invites a Greek theme into the museum, with members and attendees dressed in togas and various beautifying services are provided to students, including facials, waxing, massages and pedicures. This year however, the club has a new project in celebration of the museum’s anniversary. “We usually organize our annual fundraiser, Spa Night, but this year we are changing things up a bit!” said Millmore. “We’re hosting an event for the museum’s 135th anniversary in November, and we will be coming up with a new and different fundraising event in the spring.”

Additionally, the club has begun organizing Sketchbook Project through the Art House Co-op, a worldwide initiative in which the club members will fill a sketchbook with art and have it published in a Limited Edition art book series and added to the book collection at the Brooklyn Art Library.

For the future, the Art Goddesses plan to continue to be active in the community and museum, creating the connections between student initiative and art. “I think that this club is a great place to learn about all kinds of art, as well as a place where different and interesting ideas for art projects and events are always welcomed,” said Millmore. “It is the only club on campus that tries to bring artwork of all kinds and eras into the grasp of students, whether they are art history majors or not. The Society of Art Goddesses isn’t a museum club exclusively, it is more of an open space where art can be studied, discussed, experienced, and made by anyone.”

Tabellas Restaurant: a farm to plate experience

Megan Dean — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 17:30:24 +0000

Illustration by Paula Mugnani '13

As a college student, I find myself not eating out much. It happens on occasion—mostly for a friend’s birthday—but it’s never a spontaneous event. As a senior, I’ve been finding out that I am missing a lot by not occasionally indulging in a night out to eat and that there are tons of restaurants in the Pioneer Valley that I need to try before I graduate in the spring.

Last Saturday evening, I ventured out to Tabellas Restaurant in Amherst for my best friend’s 21st birthday. Classy yet casual, Tabellas prides itself on providing a farm-to-table dining experience. Their ideology, included in the back of the menu, boasts that “locally grown organic vegetables, dairy and cheese, humanely raised/slaughtered meats and eggs constitute 80 percent” of the meals served. Needless to say, I was excited. My friends and I each ordered a separate dish plus a few appetizers to share, with promises of making sure that everyone would have a chance to taste everything on the table.

Words cannot describe what I ended up eating that night. To start, the four of us shared a cheese plate consisting of Camembert cheese from Blythedale Farm in Vermont; Ayr cheese from the Crawford Family Farm in Vermont, with organic concord grapes and organic sourdough bread El Jardin Bakery in Holyoke, MA and a plate of Tabellas’ own cilantro lime chickpea fries. Yes, chickpea fries. They were so soft and fresh, practically melting in my mouth. The cheese and bread were also delicious and the different flavors of the sharp cheeses and sour bread complimented each other instead of clashing.

The main dishes consisted of pan-seared Bella Farms duck breast with a local honey glaze over Westminster’s Farm organic root vegetable hash and mashed potatoes; Misty Knolls humane-certified chicken breast stuffed with organic Karl Family Farm dried zante currants and VT Cheese Company chevre over roasted heirloom potatoes; risotto made of Stoff Farm wild mushrooms, caramelized Red Fire Farm organic leeks and Parmigiano-Reggiano; and rabbit leg with mashed potatoes. All of the meat was cooked perfectly; each bite was full of spiced flavor. I had never had rabbit before and it was quite interesting—definitely a strong and rustic flavor, but quite good nonetheless. The risotto was soft and the cheese and mushrooms added sweetness.

Dessert was Karl Family Farm organic pear-infused crème brulee and cassis-infused Fair Trade dark chocolate mousse. The mousse was so thick, smack-dab between the texture of pudding and a chocolate cake. The crème brulee was full of sugary sweetness.

Honestly, it was quite hard to describe the blend of tastes. The thing that made the biggest impression was the freshness of the ingredients and the flavor. Everything tasted fresh and good, a guilt-free eating out experience that treated me not only to a wholesome meal but also a great feeling about supporting local farms. Tabellas makes a point of letting you know where your food comes from, almost giving you a tour of the local food farms in the area without requiring you to leave the comfort of the restaurant dinner table.

I do have to warn that Tabellas is not the cheapest place to eat, most likely because everything is so fresh and locally produced. However, if you are looking for somewhere different to eat that is a bit more upscale with a food experience that is almost spiritual, it is definitely worth it as an off-campus treat.

Tabellas Restaurant
28 Amity Street
Amherst, MA
www.tabellasrestaurant.com

Earth Insights: Environmental Governance and Rio+20

Dana Drugmand — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 17:00:47 +0000

In June of 1992, tens of thousands of people, including 172 states, over 2,400 representatives of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), 8,000 delegates and 9,000 members of the press gathered in Rio de Janiero, Brazil for the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development. The Rio Earth Summit, as it is informally known, was the largest environmental conference in history and the largest formal gathering of heads of state. Sustainable development had emerged onto the mainstream global agenda, with resulting documents “The Rio Declaration” and “Agenda 21” outlining principles and an action blueprint for achieving sustainable development. Additional outcomes of the conference included a “Set of Forest Principles,” the Convention on Biological Diversity, and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). It was a landmark event in the history of environmental protection.

What has happened since then? The state of the environment has not gotten much better. Environmental degradation has actually gotten worse. Biodiversity loss is accelerating. We are now losing species at 1,000 times the natural rate. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), one out of every eight bird species, one out of four mammal species, and one out of three amphibians are threatened with extinction. Half of the world’s forests are now gone. Overfishing has resulted in the decline of 90 percent of the oceans’ large fish species. Atmospheric CO2 levels continue to rise. These problems do not exist in isolation; there are related social issues. Billions still live in poverty, chronic hunger affects nearly one billion people worldwide, and the gap between the rich and the poor has widened.

The political enthusiasm for tackling environmental and developmental challenges that was on display at Rio in 1992 has eroded over the years. “I could definitely see the growing distrust toward international negotiations,” said Yiting Wang ’12, an Environmental Studies major who has been involved in the international environmental process through programs abroad and in environmental policy. James Gustave Speth, former dean at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies and founder of the World Resources Institute, has called global environmental governance “an experiment that has largely failed.” Despite a proliferation of conferences, negotiations, and treaties over the last 20 years related to environmental matters, commitments to following through on actions have been absent.

Clearly there has been an implementation gap. It is relatively easy for a head of state to agree to abide by a certain environmental regulation, but actually enforcing the policy is another matter. This suggests a lack of effective monitoring strategies. Another reason for the implementation gap is that greater priority tends to be given to pursuing trade and economic interests. “The current economic situation also has a lot to do with the delivery of these promises,” Wang said. Finally, there is an overall lack of political will. The U.S. has not demonstrated much leadership in the international environmental arena, refusing to sign the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Kyoto Protocol. There has been increasing recognition that the global environmental governance system is fragmented and has not been entirely effective.

Reassessing this institutional framework will be one of the major discussions taking place at the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD) in June 2012. The conference, to be held once again in Rio de Janiero, marks the 20th anniversary of the first Rio Earth Summit. The main objective of “Rio+20,” according to the 2012 UNCSD official website, is “to secure renewed political commitment for sustainable development, assess the progress to date and the remaining gaps in the implementation of the outcomes of the major summits on sustainable development, and address new and emerging challenges.” The two major themes of UNCSD are 1) a green economy in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication, and 2) the institutional framework for sustainable development. The latter theme entails evaluating the current environmental governance organizations and institutions and discussing options for reform. One proposal is to create a “world environment organization,” a new UN super-organization for dealing with environmental matters.

Earlier this month, on Oct. 6, Jacob Scherr, Director of Global Strategy and Advocacy for the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), gave a lecture on Mount Holyoke’s campus called “The Race to Rio+20.” Scherr identified the challenges we are presently faced with. After recapping some of the pressures on the planet, he expressed the notion that humans are pushing up against planetary boundaries. Thus, as Scherr put it, “we are running out of time.” He acknowledged the lack of strong leadership by governments and the prevailing skepticism about the international process. Yet, he did highlight some opportunities presented by Rio+20, such as the potential for social media to reach and engage billions of people like never before. He also outlined a list of “potential deliverables,” or smaller-scale targets that could be discussed at the conference, such as eliminating inefficient incandescent light bulbs and phasing out fossil fuel subsidies.

According to Environmental Studies professor Catherine Corson, “the most important issue that Rio needs to address is consumption in the global North, particularly the United States.” Corson, who specializes in global environmental governance, is currently teaching an Environmental Studies seminar, “Science and Power in Environmental Governance,” that focuses on Rio+20 and the long road that has led to it. She wants students to know about Rio+20, which, she said, “is anticipated to be the decade’s most high profile environmental event.”

Why is Rio+20 so significant? “Like the 1992 Rio summit,” Corson explained, “the ideas, power relations and institutional mechanisms that emerge from it will have a tremendous impact on future international environmental policy and practice, as well as on our lives more generally. Your generation will shape, through events like this and related policies, how we, as a global community, address issues like consumption, waste, environmental degradation and increasing inequality.”

Yiting Wang said she is hopeful for Rio+20 to turn into the Earth Summit of our generation. “It offers some hope and opportunities to review the pitfalls of the past 40 years of international environmental governance, reset the agenda and allow new actors to emerge.” One of these new types of actors is youth. Wang has served as International Youth Coordinator for the China Youth Climate Action Network (CYCAN) and has attended climate change conferences in Copenhagen and Cancun. She has already attended some of the preparatory meetings for Rio+20 and intends to follow through with her participation next year at the actual conference in Rio. “Increasingly, these international negotiations have been a platform for the youth movement to make a presence, solicit resources and expand influence through both direct political action and civic diplomacy,” Wang said. “This is also why I personally still continue to involve myself in the process, despite all other frustrations.”

Anticipation for the Rio+20 conference is already building here on campus. Students who are possibly interested in attending the event should talk to Wang or Corson, as they are looking to organize a “Mount Holyoke delegation. The Miller-Worley Center for the Environment is also sponsoring several lectures as part of its theme on international environmental governance. The next lecture is coming up on November 10 and will feature James Gustave Speth.