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A Day in the Life of ....
by Meg McKean
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Ilse Meiler, our 2016 Harriet Fitzgerald Scholarship winner and a member of Smith College's class of 2020, wakes before dawn on every weekday to rush down to the Connecticut River where she sees the sun rise almost daily.
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Ilse is a coxswain on the Smith crew team, rapidly acquiring technical knowhow and a loud voice to yell commands to the rowers. When the weather is unsuitable for rowing, Ilse goes with the whole team to the gym to work out with weights. The team practices every morning before classes begin, so Ilse starts her day of classes thoroughly energized.
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I met Ilse on the Smith campus in March 2017 so that I could talk to her about her experiences at a women's college. We met in the lobby of Smith's new engineering building and then explored the campus together, had coffee in the Campus Center, ate lunch in Tyler House with her friends, and visited her own digs in Lawrence House where we also met two of her housemates who were in charge of science tutorials.
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Ilse is flourishing at Smith, discovering how much she loves math and science, and tackling new adventures. Here she recounts her first day of class:
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"When people ask me what is so marvelous about attending a women's college, I like to recount my very first class, on my very first day at Smith. I distinctly remember my 8:30 am Introduction to Discrete Mathematics course. I had arrived fairly early, and just before class started, I remember turning around to look at the room. Our class had about 35 students, all women, including our Professor. I remember how influential this moment was for me. It was the first time that I truly realized the power of attending an institution that was designed primarily for women's education."
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Ilse went on to explain that at the beginning of the semester, students mumbled answers to the professor's questions, frightened of being wrong, but by December they were all answering questions loudly and clearly – even if they were wrong, which was just fine! The women's college setting makes students fearless, willing to be bolder, to take risks, and even to be wrong.
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Ilse has also found that the learning environment is more collaborative. The math department is built around a common room lined with blackboards where students can ask for help from others, kibitz on each other's ideas, and arrive at solutions together. At least in Ilse’s experience, the notion that women can be mutually supportive and cooperative in pooling talents and sharing the benefits, rather than aggressive and destructive competitors, appears to be solid fact. She is delighted with her decision to attend a women’s college.
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From the President
by Betsy Gordon McCrodden '66
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When both of my daughters elected to go to women’s colleges, but not my alma mater, I would say to folks, “I lost the battle, but I won the war,” believing that for them attending an all-woman’s college was the better route for their academic and social development. Women’s colleges may not be for every young woman, but I knew my daughters would get the attention women deserve and need. Moreover, I would not have to worry about Saturday afternoon football games or Thursday night basketball games and what went on at those events.
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This year the daughter of one of our Board members has elected to attend a women’s college. Kristin Hodges’s daughter, Mary Lizzie, is now at Sweet Briar where, Kristin reports, she is happy with all aspects of campus life. As most of you know, thanks to dedicated alumnae, Sweet Briar came back from the brink of extinction and is slowly building itself into a fine woman’s college once again. A Lynchburg alumna of Randolph-Macon Woman’s College, who attended a gathering for presidents of local colleges, reported that Sweet Briar’s new president blew the socks off the crowd and got a standing ovation.
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Women’s colleges, like all small liberal arts colleges, are struggling in an age in which people seem to believe college is all about preparing for jobs. We need to continue to support colleges that prepare people to think - so that whatever jobs come along in the future, graduates are capable of working them. Good for Mary Lizzie that she understands this.
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Why I Support TSI
by Ellen James Ramsburgh '68
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A recent interview on my local radio station reminded me once again of why I support The Sunflower Initiative. The interview was with a businesswoman who has started “Femology,” an all-women co-working space. This new workspace is a response to the continued misperception that women are less competent than men, less likely to be considered good risks for startup capital, and still affected by the wage gap. It will provide a place where women can teach and learn, collaborate, be mentored, and mentor others. While Femology was a new term for me, neither the origin of the word nor the concept were. To quote, “Femology is the philosophy of women living, working, and thriving in a collaborative society.”
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Well, I thought to myself, that sounds like a woman’s college to me – something I was fortunate enough to experience fifty years ago. Obviously, the need for a place where women collaborate, learn, teach, mentor, and are mentored is as relevant today as then.
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- Even though only 2% of women elect to attend a women’s college, women’s college graduates comprise 20% of women in Congress, 20% of Fortune's Most Powerful Women in business, 30% of Business Week’s Rising Stars of corporate America, and 33% of women on corporate boards.
- Women's colleges are not only relevant, they are critical for the development of women leaders in all fields.
- Women's colleges provide a challenging, supportive, developmentally powerful learning environment.
- Where women are more engaged, they hold more leadership positions and develop higher critical thinking skills than their peers at co-educational institutions.
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There are many other reasons I support TSI and I imagine that readers of this newsletter share them with me: my own experience at a woman’s college, rich and nurturing; the accomplishments of classmates and graduates of my alma mater; affirmations from our scholarship recipients of the richness of their experiences; the amazing stories of young women who apply for our scholarship; and the leadership of the women who founded, support, and continue to expand the horizons for young women of today through The Sunflower Initiative. Our support for TSI pays double dividends: it supports young women who recognize the value of a women’s college and it supports the colleges they attend, where women are “living, working, and thriving in a collaborative society.”
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