seismic shift happened about 15 years ago in my scholarly field when public health activities conducted overseas (this typically consists of work on infectious diseases in low-income countries) were rebranded from “international” health to “global” health. It was a momentous shift supported by luminaries in the HIV/AIDS crisis and response, including major donors and the World Health Organization. The shift was more than rhetorical; public health professionals called for more equitable engagement of high-income and low-income partners and pointed out that power dynamics associated with wealth had been working against real progress in human health. Unlike “international health,” which was criticized for taking an “us/them” approach to international engagement, “global health” sought to forge collaborations around our common struggles and our shared humanity. The shift from an “us/them” mindset to an expanded conception of “we” has been life-changing. Study after study in global health provides evidence that collaboration, community-based engagement, and public trust are good for health outcomes, including maternal and child health, vaccination rates, reductions in childhood malnutrition, and the list goes on.

When I came to Vassar in 2017 and heard that nearly half of the students studied in international settings during their four years at Vassar, I was intrigued. What were they experiencing? What were they learning that time on campus could not impart? Students shared inspiring stories with me—stories about experiencing the remarkable museums of Europe, participating in environmental sustainability efforts in Tanzania, and learning about mental health education in Korea, among other experiences. Each story highlighted the differences between here and there—the culture, the weather, the food, and the languages. It all added up to tremendous learning about adapting to new situations and unexpected challenges. Students’ time away was often described as challenging but rewarding, because learning to navigate the differences brought new perspectives, agility, and confidence.

Over my career, I have traveled across the world, but it was when I went to Rwanda with Vassar students to study and teach at the University of Global Health Equity that I gained fresh insight into the nature of global education. We spent the first few days experiencing how different from the U.S. everything seemed. We were preoccupied with all the contrasts, trying to absorb the novel mountain views, the dirt roads filled with animals, the vibrant textiles, the small children carrying heavy containers of water, and so much walking. The many differences were both fascinating and overwhelming.

Yet, as we spent time in the classroom, working and learning together with our Rwandan colleagues as peers, a new sensibility began to emerge. We noted the many ways in which we were more alike than we were different from our partners in Rwanda. We all wanted to engage and learn; we all sought ways to protect human health and the planet’s flourishing. As colleagues, we were curious, caring, funny, scared at times, and lonely at others. We had triumphs about which we were proud, and we experienced disappointments as well; we were all human.

As the journey came to its end, where we once saw differences, we saw commonality. Trepidation had given way to familiarity, and we saw ourselves more fully in each other. For me, this is the magic of international study—to move not only over thousands of miles of air travel, but also from the narrowing and brittle conception of “us/them” to the expansive and resilient “we.”

Vassar President Elizabeth H. Bradley (left) and SUNY New Paltz President Darrell P. Wheeler (right) formalized the new MBA program at The Vassar Institute for the Liberal Arts on September 16.

They made a joint announcement, then signed a memorandum of understanding officially creating the new program. “This collaboration with SUNY New Paltz expands opportunities for our students by combining the strengths of a liberal arts education with advanced professional preparation in business,” Bradley said. “The program provides a clear and affordable pathway for students who want to integrate creativity, critical thinking, and entrepreneurship with the practical skills of an MBA.”

Bradley said the idea for the program arose out of conversations she had with Wheeler at dinners she hosts periodically with local college presidents. She described Wheeler as “a person with a lot of ideas to share. I thought there have to be ways we can work together.”

“For decades, the MBA at New Paltz has helped entrepreneurial students across the academic disciplines unlock the full potential of their education and future career prospects,” Wheeler said. “Our dedicated School of Business faculty have worked tirelessly to ensure this program is flexible for busy students and relevant to contemporary market trends.”

SUNY New Paltz’s MBA program is a three-semester, in-person program with hybrid and online learning opportunities for flexibility. The program offers concentrations in Healthcare Management and Business Analytics, as well as a general MBA option. The School of Business also supports social entrepreneurship initiatives and connects students to the Hudson Valley Venture Hub, a vibrant community of entrepreneurs and investors. The MBA program is accredited by AACSB International, the leading global standard for business education.

Two Vassar seniors who plan to enroll in the program at SUNY New Paltz next fall said they were grateful for the opportunity to combine the liberal arts education they are receiving at Vassar with the practical skills they will gain at SUNY New Paltz. “This shows what institutions of higher learning can do to fulfill students’ needs,” said Justin White ’26, a six-year Navy veteran. “We veterans understand the importance of critical-thinking skills combined with technical expertise.”

Cher Mei ’26, who won a top prize at Vassar’s first-ever Entrepreneurship Competition in 2024, called the new partnership with SUNY New Paltz “an amazing example of interdisciplinary education that will add to the liberal arts education we get at Vassar. It’s something many of us in Vassar’s entrepreneurship program can benefit from.”

Aaron Hines, Assistant Dean for Graduate Business Programs at SUNY New Paltz, said he and others in his department were excited about the program. “Students with degrees in the liberal arts benefit from the MBA experience by learning data-informed decision-making, financial analysis, business strategy, and organizational leadership,” Hines said. “Soft skills they have already attained like communication, empathy, ethical reasoning, and teamwork are in high demand in leadership roles. Our MBA program helps the liberal arts graduate expand and accelerate career opportunities with great organizational impact and high potential earnings. Overall, we aim to prepare our MBA students for purpose-driven leadership in today’s workforce.”

Additional benefits include scholarships to bring tuition in line with in-state rates for non–New York State students and preferential consideration for teaching-assistant positions at SUNY New Paltz for those admitted.–Larry Hertz

The naming honors Evans, his mother Katherine “Kay” Winton Evans ’46, P’75, and his grandfather David J. Winton P’46, GP’75, GGP’05, ’10, and their extraordinary generosity to the College.

In June, Evans committed a $28 million gift supporting the Music Department, campus maintenance, faculty scholarship and research, and a scholarship in his mother’s name. Timed with his 50th Reunion, the gift reflects both a personal milestone and a lasting investment in Vassar’s future.

President Elizabeth H. Bradley reflected on the long history behind the gift, acknowledging Evans’s bond with his late mother and the impact their generosity will have on Vassar students. She thanked him for supporting future generations of students “who have a passion for music that echoes your own.”

Although Evans majored in history during his time at Vassar, his true passion was jazz, a program the College did not offer at the time. Still, he found ways to weave music into his academic work, centering his senior thesis on the history of jazz.

Evans’s family’s estate advisor Sonny Miller spoke about how that kind of multidisciplinary approach remains a hallmark of a Vassar education. The College, he said, has long encouraged students to “bring their whole selves” to their studies and “engage in all of those subjects that mean so much to them.” Evans, he added, went on to build a “storied career in jazz music.”

Evans is endowing two funds outright: the Rowland W. Evans ’75 Student Lesson Fund, which subsidizes student music lessons, and the Rowland W. Evans ’75 Concert Fund, which supports annual concert programming. The remainder of his gift, designated through his estate, will create additional funds for building maintenance and faculty research, and contribute $10.5 million to the Katherine Winton Evans ’46 Scholarship Fund, which his mother established and later expanded with her own estate gift.

Justin Patch, Chair of the Music Department, spoke about the passion that students share with Evans. “Most students who come into [Skinner Hall] are not majoring in music,” he noted. “They’re doing this because they love it and they, like us, see music as an integral part of their education.” He added that the gift will make lessons more accessible, giving students from all disciplines the chance to “work with world-class instructors” and broaden their educational experience through music.

“Skinner Hall was really important to a lot of us who weren’t music majors,” said Anne Green ’93, member of the Board of Trustees and AAVC Board. “The first time I stepped into the Bridge Building, and you could see Skinner fully, I was almost in tears. Recognizing that bridge to the music building is really important.”

Kat Mills Polys ’93, P’29, an AAVC Board member, reflected on the multigenerational nature of Vassar legacies. “It’s just a beautiful thing to hear those stories and feel like it’s a real foundational part of the soil here, and the buildings, and the people, and the experience that people have shared throughout their family,” she said.

After the ceremony, attendees enjoyed lunch and a special concert featuring Evans on piano and members of the Vassar Jazz Ensemble.

Before introducing Evans, Class President Pat Neely ’75 reminisced about running out of Josselyn Hall to make the long trek to Skinner Hall and hearing “a solitary piano player” in the hall’s living room. “And this was Rowland Evans.

“Isaac Stern is quoted as saying, ‘What made Carnegie Hall so special was the spirit of Tchaikovsky, Horowitz, Toscanini, and countless others in these walls,’” Neely said. “What makes the Winton Evans Bridge for Laboratory Sciences so special now is that Rowland and his family legacy will forever be embedded within the walls of the building, both in name and in musical spirit.” —Heather Mattioli

This approach to learning continues to shape lives long after graduation. Alums across the generations say the programs have helped them discover not only meaningful work but lasting purpose. Whether in public service, science, activism, entrepreneurship, or the arts, they credit the multidisciplinary programs with giving them the confidence to build careers driven by passion, flexibility, and a deep understanding of the world.

Her experiences at Vassar and later at Wharton, where she helped create her own major in management and innovation, contributed to the broad perspective she values in today’s ever-changing world.

“I’m a big believer in the multidisciplinary programs because I don’t think the world is defined in these clear boundaries of a department,” she said. “The multidisciplinary perspective is just the way I see the world. It’s in my thought process all the time. I’m such a believer in the programs that I managed to have both my kids drink the Kool-Aid, and they both majored in multidisciplinary programs.”

To give the programs a more collaborative and central home base, the College is planning a total renovation of the building that will transform it into the Center for Multidisciplinary Study as a part of the Fearlessly Consequential campaign. The building will be designed with learning and creativity in mind, giving the multidisciplinary programs a home fit for their unique and cooperative learning mission.

To learn more about how you can support the Center for Multidisciplinary Study, visit go.vassar.edu/multisinfo25.

Eudell comes to Vassar from the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, where he served as Vice President for Academic Affairs. He had previously worked at Wesleyan University as Dean of Social Sciences and Professor of History. Eudell graduated from Dartmouth College and earned a PhD in U.S. history from Stanford University. After the start of his tenure in July, Vassar’s top academic officer sat down for a wide-ranging interview.

—Interview by Kimberly Schaye

The first Signature Program of the 2025-26 academic year, “Storytelling for Change: Shaping and Sharing Inclusive Narratives in Higher Education, Media, and the Arts” posed the question: “How do we tell impactful stories about the things that matter most, and ultimately, strengthen our relationships to each other?” It was convened by Associate Professor of Psychological Science at Vassar Dara Greenwood and Victoria Grantham, Vassar’s Vice President for Communications.

“If we’re going to preserve our humanity and preserve our ability to teach and learn and share stories over the next 20 years, we need to remember how diverse and constitutive of our humanity our attention actually is,” Burnett concluded. “We need to get some new forms of collective action pushing back, and it’s going to take all hands on deck.”

After his speech, he sat down for a conversation with Minerva Tantoco ’86, an early pioneer in AI, holder of four AI patents, and CEO of City Strategies Consulting.

Panelists included Greenwood, who writes a blog for Psychology Today and whose work has been published in numerous other periodicals; Michele Tugade ’95, Professor of Psychological Science on the William R. Kenan Jr. Endowed Chair, whose research has been published in numerous mainstream outlets; and Robert K. Brigham, Shirley Ecker Boskey Professor of History and International Relations, who has published 11 books.Wes Dixon, Deputy to the President and Secretary of the Board of Trustees, who hosts a Vassar podcast Conversations @ the Salt Line, moderated.

Greenwood made a link to practices that she follows in the classroom—having students make meaningful connections between observations in everyday life and research findings. Brigham said one of his books about his personal history as someone who grew up in the foster care system placed a spotlight on this important national issue. And Tugade talked about applying her work on resilience to real-world problems and audiences, citing her work with astronauts to help them cope with loneliness and stress during trips in small spacecrafts.

Telling stories has always been a way humans connect with one another, panelists said. Marcus, whose podcast has more than 25,000 listeners and 7 million downloads from people in 200 countries, said, “I love to tell stories—tragic or happy. They help to bring us together and find comfort in each other.”

Telling stories on a public platform can take its toll on the storytellers though, said Clemetson, whose organization provides The Knight-Wallace House—a place for journalists and others to take a break from their demanding and sometimes traumatic work to recharge and focus on meaningful projects.

Gillis said he believed that injecting humor into storytelling can make both  mundane and disturbing topics more palatable and relatable.

Carina Cole, a media studies major and Editor-in-Chief of The Miscellany News, said the panel was encouraging. “I think there is a lot of fear surrounding going into this profession right now, understandably, but having examples of people who have succeeded in making careers out of storytelling is invaluable. Just being able to see there are still options for people interested in this career path is important.”

In an interactive session titled “Whose Story Is It?” Stacy Bingham, Vassar’s Associate Dean of the College for Career Education, Vassar and Jannette Swanson, Director of External Engagement for Vassar’s Center for Career Education, led attendees in an iterative exercise about the liberal arts and careers.

Greenwood and Grantham were pleased that the varied backgrounds and perspectives of the speakers and attendees had sparked such lively discussions.

“Whether it was from a Poughkeepsie organizer saying that the keynote speaker spoke to her soul, or people tearing up at the theater performances and laughing at Onion headlines, it seemed participants were truly present and engaged,” Grantham said. “I think it’s really important to underscore that stories have the power to move us—in addition to helping us think about things in a different way.”

Greenwood said the ideas sparked at the event would continue to be discussed in other forums. “We saw broad swaths of people connecting with each other and sharing experiences and insights,” she said. “They wanted to keep the conversations going! We plan to follow up with all involved to see where their insights about storytelling and community will take them. Ultimately, the event seemed to tell its own story about how hungry we all are for authentic engagement with each other and with the world around us.”

—Larry Hertz

“What we do at Vassar that very few places do is to provide hands-on opportunities for actually touching the data as an undergraduate,” said Abigail Baird ’91, Professor of Psychological Science on the Arnhold Family Chair, herself a former URSI student researcher who went on to earn a PhD at Harvard. “The irony is that a small liberal arts college continues to provide top-tier training and is preparing students to be in the laboratory at a time when so many larger research institutions have been forced to reduce or eliminate student positions.”

Vassar programs remain strong because they are supported by a host of private foundations, endowments from alums, faculty grants, and other independent donations. Read on for a sampling of the projects.

La Natural Hystoria de las Indias describes the lives of the colonized people, flora, and fauna of the region. It had never been fully translated into English until Paravisini-Gebert undertook the project in collaboration with Michael Aronna, Associate Professor of Hispanic Studies. “It’s been a challenging project because we are really working with three languages—16th-century Spanish, modern Spanish, and modern English,” said Lilli Palmer ’27, the Ford Scholar who took part in the project this year. The first volume of the translated text will be published later this year—in time to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the completion of Oviedo’s work in 1526.

URSI student Otis Wildman ’26 and Associate Professor of Biology Lynn Christenson spent the summer evaluating how climate change is affecting the moose population at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest, a 7,800-acre northern hardwood forest located in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. On the trip, they monitored cameras that captured the movements of moose and other wildlife. When he returned to Vassar, Wildman used specially designed software to map and analyze the data. “My experience was really useful and let me gain some insight from professionals in the field,” he said.

Take a peek into their research.

The students analyzed water samples they collected in a lab back at the College, assessing the prevalence of phosphates, which can serve as key indicators of the river’s health. “Phosphates are present in rocks and plants in the water,” Oteiza explained. Too much can indicate the presence of sewage and other pollutants in the river, while too little can also signal other threats to the river’s ecology. The research showed that the levels have not changed significantly since a previous study was conducted about 30 years ago. “I really enjoyed getting out in the community and meeting people who live along the river who are affected by its ecology,” she said. “This summer’s experience was a combination of scientific research and community interaction.”

Faculty mentors for the project were Assistant Professor of Earth Science and Environmental Studies Deon Knights and Associate Professor of Biology Justin Touchon. Both said they had been impressed with their students’ independence in completing the project. “The students were pretty autonomous, and we gathered a lot of good data,” Knights said.

As an example, team member Asiyah Abbas ’27 said, “All U.S presidents have been men and none have been women. So why is that? Most of it’s because of voter bias and a lot of barriers for women to get into fields like politics. But a child would immediately jump to inborn qualities [of women] and think that this discrepancy is fair, which it obviously is not,” Abbas said.

With the help of a cartoon game-based experiment designed by Peretz-Lange, the students met with hundreds of 5- to 10-year-olds in person and over Zoom to understand their reasoning about fairness. No matter how the research turns out, Peretz-Lange said, the mixed group of student-scientists are already changing the face of the profession for children, who often see science as a male profession—that can discourage girls from wanting to pursue science.

“Basically, we asked ourselves: What psychological resources or strategies can people turn to that would allow them to be more compassionate, especially when they are dealing with many stressors or challenges in their lives?” They asked their URSI students to take that concept and run with it.

Madeline Busam ’26 became intrigued by “self-concept clarity”—the extent to which an individual’s beliefs about themself are clearly and confidently defined. With her professors’ help, Busam designed a survey to measure self-concept clarity and its potential correlation with compassion burnout, recruiting about 300 adult participants through the data site prolific.com.

“We’ve definitely found some stuff that correlates with what I have predicted: That having a higher level of self-concept clarity is going to lead to greater well-being and less compassion fatigue,” said Busam. Baird said she and Morrow will continue to work with Busam, who is one of at least two students in this group likely to be able to publish their studies. “She’s going to see it all the way through with not one but two professors supporting her as an undergraduate, and that’s a wonderfully unusual setup,” Baird said.

“It’s been very helpful and eye-opening for what I want to do after Vassar,” said Busam, who is considering pursuing psychological science in grad school. “I think I’ve been able to get a lot of skills out of it that I wouldn’t have gotten at a big school where your professor might not even know your name. Being able to work on this small a scale, one-on-one, has been really amazing.”

Koppolu, who will continue analyzing the actual outcomes of the players’ gambles during the academic year, said collaborating on a single project with a faculty mentor was an enlightening experience. “It was like I was at one end of a maze and he was at the other, and while he tried to guide me, I had to make a lot of decisions on my own because he couldn’t see what I was seeing.”

Said Ge, “This was truly a collaborative effort, and [Koppolu’s] liberal arts training helped him deal with the challenges he faced independently and iron out most issues himself.” These are abilities that will serve Koppolu well in his post-Vassar life, his mentor predicted.

—Larry Hertz and Kimberly Schaye

Speakers at the event included Brown and Williams; President Elizabeth Bradley; Michelle Walsh, Director of Athletics and Physical Education; members of the Office of Advancement; and donors Philip and Ann White, parents of rugby alum Danny White ’25—a third-generation Vassar grad whose grandmother, Frances Hamilton White, graduated in 1956.

Philip White said he first became acquainted with Coach Brown when Danny was injured during the semifinals of the national Final Four in their sophomore year. “Despite all the demands of preparing for the finals the next day, Tony took the time to call us after the game and talk to us about Danny’s injury,” White said. “We were really impressed that he would spare some time to help put our minds at ease and talk to us not only about the injury but tell us how much Danny had added to the team that year. And more importantly, he told us how much more confident and buoyant Danny had become over the course of the season.”

Later, the Whites approached Brown and asked how they could assist the program, and a plan for renovating the fields was hatched.

Speaking at the dedication ceremony, Ann White said rugby had been a “cornerstone of Danny’s Vassar experience.” She called Brown “the coach I wish I’d had when I was a kid” and described Williams as a volunteer “who won’t let the flame of rugby go out. He’s on the sidelines on weekends and, during the week, he’s mentoring the players for their post-Vassar lives.”

Brown thanked the Whites for their generous gift. “Through your generosity, you have validated this experience, and improved it, and it is a gift that will keep on giving,” he said. “Past, present, and future generations of Vassar rugby players will derive real joy from your gift, be it through pride in such a beautiful venue, the successes of the teams, or a safer student-athlete experience.”

President Bradley presented the Whites with a ball signed by the players. She noted that the women’s team had won the national championship four times and was Vassar’s most successful athletics program. But she added that sports at Vassar are about more than winning championships. “Athletes have to learn how to hustle when they are truly exhausted and to lose gracefully and win gracefully,” she said.

The day concluded with dominant performances by both teams. The men’s squad scored 17 tries and kicked seven conversions to rout Montclair State, 99–10, while the women overwhelmed Fordham, 119–5. —Larry Hertz

here is little that compares with the heady excitement, anxiety, and anticipation of leaving the familiarity of Vassar’s campus to study in a wholly new environment—a place with a different culture, traditions, and, perhaps, language. But it is exactly what 50 percent of all Vassar students choose to do at some point during the course of their undergraduate education. Each year, Vassar’s Office of International Programs works closely with faculty who play a major role in advising and supporting around 300 students, finding which of the 135 programs in 25–30 countries will help further their individual academic and personal goals. To do so, the College creates and oversees many international programs, often with faculty on the ground, and also works in partnership with other institutions to help increase the range of offerings.

“The College’s investment in study-abroad programs demonstrates our belief in the value of global learning to a liberal arts education,” said Kerry Zuccaro, Assistant Dean for Global Partnerships and International Programs. “The more diverse and meaningful opportunities we create with international institutions, the more innovative opportunities there are for students. And it pays off—half of our students take advantage of these opportunities, compared with 11 or 12 percent from other colleges and universities nationally.”

Worcester’s tutorial system came as a bit of a shock to the English major with a minor in film, with students meeting individually with professors who assign readings and discuss students’ weekly essays. Although it took some adjusting, Siegel found he loved the depth of the one-on-one interaction, so much so that he is already thinking about returning to pursue graduate work.“The experience was fully new to me but not as intimidating as I feared,” he said. “It teaches you to get good at arguing, to sell your subject in a persuasive way, to support your own claims. I learned a lot about how to schedule my own time, do my own research. Now I hope to pursue a master’s, hopefully at Oxford or maybe in the U.K., and then maybe work toward a PhD, if I’m lucky, which, coming in, I did not plan on doing.”

The independent nature of the tutorials pushed Siegel to look for ways to connect with other Worcester College students, which he did by joining a rowing team and taking part in a writers’ group. He met other American students through the Institute for Study Abroad, the program’s partner organization, and took the initiative to become familiar with the booksellers and shopkeepers in the city of Oxford, and the easy to access and affordable arts and culture of London, Paris, and Belgium.

“They were awesome, but I was so unsure at the start because they did everything for me,” Butts said. “They made meals, made my bed, cleaned my bathroom, and did my laundry—I’ve been doing my own laundry since middle school!”

Making her way around a large, diverse university with multiple campuses across the city of Amsterdam and traveling solo on weekends left Lee with an appreciation of public transportation and the appeal of different neighborhoods. It also gave her a taste of the kind of city she’d like to live in after graduation.

“When I went to Paris, it was a big challenge to be alone, to sit undistracted with my own thoughts,” she explained. “Once I got past the discomfort of being alone, I felt I had gained another skill to keep in my back pocket.”

Lee was also surprised by the quality of friendships she made in four short months abroad. “Getting to know people outside of familiar circumstances resulted in some lasting friendships, which was surprising,” she said. “Now it’s exciting to be back home and making plans with people across the United States.”

Trinity College in Dublin spoke to senior Talia Fiore’s love of literature, and she chose to spend both semesters of her junior year there to sink into the experience of living independently, with enough time to travel and explore Ireland.

“I had heard that going for just one semester can really feel cut short, and being there for the year really gave me the chance to settle in,” she said. “It was the little things that got me—grocery shopping and other aspects of daily life, including [hearing] Gaelic—that drove home that I was in a place that wasn’t super different, but just different enough.”

Matthew Leone ’27, who is currently studying in Argentina through the Institute for Study Abroad, opted for an internship with Fundación Éforo in addition to his classes. He is working with high school students from Buenos Aires learning about politics and civic engagement. Improving his Spanish was at the top of Leone’s list of reasons for going to Argentina. But like most of his fellow study-abroad students, Leone continues to be up for the challenge inherent in leaving the familiarity of campus life in exchange for the unanticipated growth and insights that come with being open and curious about living in a new culture.

“Going about life as the one who is the foreigner, not a tourist, has given me a whole new level of appreciation for our shared humanity,” said Leone. “Even after just a short time here, what I see are our similarities more than our differences.”

Within days of learning about the wildfires that leveled the Los Angeles communities, Alvin Puentevella ’20 began to assemble a team and seek the funding to launch the nonprofit Building For Neighbors (BFN). His mission: Deliver permanent housing within weeks—not years—to those who lose their homes due to natural or systemic disasters, often in the most vulnerable low-income communities. By reversing traditional recovery inequities and speeding up the process, Puentevella aims to create a model for equitable disaster recovery nationwide.

“Something clicked when the fires happened,” he said, explaining that he could no longer ignore the pull he felt to use his real estate investment and management experience to make a meaningful contribution. “Traditional disaster recovery systems are broken—it takes years to deliver housing. During that time, vulnerable communities dissolve, and low-income families wait the longest for help,” he continued. “We’re building the infrastructure to respond the next day with capacity to build at scale—to preserve communities and restore dignity.”

“People are languishing in trailer homes and selling their land to the highest bidder,” Puentevella explained. “There are plenty of people ready to take advantage of those in crisis. We’re the experts in the middle—between government, builders, and insurance companies—to lead the process and ensure people get the help they need.”

One of the first people Puentevella contacted to help launch Building For Neighbors was his former Vassar rugby buddy, Sam Ruben ’04. The two men reconnected in the fall of 2024 at Climate Week NYC, where Ruben, a co-founder of HyWatts, which deploys zero-emission “Power-Plant-in-a-Box” technology, was a speaker on energy resilience. With a background in 3-D printed building panels, community organizing, and housing systems innovation, as well as a dual-graduate degree in public affairs and business, Ruben introduced Puentevella to others who are fundamental to the success of Building For Neighbors, including building partners with expertise in modular and community-centered construction, venture capitalists, and local architects.

“My main role has been as a connector,” Ruben said, “bringing Alvin’s vision of low-cost, resilient rebuilding to the right people in the community so that it’s done right. These events bring out the best and the worst in people—those who are just out to make a quick buck and those who come together to help, regardless of their differences.”

Other alums have joined the effort to mitigate harm. In their work as wildfire safety educators in their Northern and Southern California communities, where wildfire activity continues to increase, both Susanne Lyons ’79 and Beth Burnam ’77 use their roles to cut across cultural and political differences. Lyons, who retired from a career in finance and as chair of the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee, recently joined Vassar’s board as a trustee and moved from Marin County to Sonoma County in Northern California, where wildfires burned 77,758 acres in 2019. Building on her experience as a block disaster coordinator in Marin and the longtime organizational and crisis-management skills gained during her career, she has worked to certify her community in Firewise USA, a national program that provides communities and neighborhoods with a collaborative framework to mitigate wildfire risk.

Lyons’s first step was to become involved with Communities Organized to Prepare for Emergencies (COPE), which hosts a summer potluck that features presentations by the local fire chief, a representative from their local PG&E utility, and advice about how to save farm animals in the event of fires or floods. She then brought Firewise into the community, which has since become one of 12 areas certified in Sonoma, with a three-year plan and annual reviews to mitigate risks through the modification of building materials and landscaping.

“I got to meet everyone and all their cats and their dogs,” she said. “And when half of our road collapsed this winter due to the flooding of the Russian River, we easily organized a letter-writing campaign to our representatives, which has us on track for repairs within the next few months—not years.”

Beth Burnam was a little surprised when, decades after earning an MBA from Wharton and then working in her family business in the Los Angeles area, she realized she was following in her grandmother’s and mother’s (Vassar ’49) footsteps as a “professional volunteer” (her son is a 2010 Vassar graduate). The remote, rural community in Topanga Canyon outside of Los Angeles where she lived for 25 years is populated by fiercely independent, self-reliant individuals—with minimal firefighting resources. She began to address that situation by writing grants for funds through the California Fire Safe Council, raising a total of $365,000, and implemented local programs to educate and help communities organize wildfire prevention. Now, as a regional coordinator for Firewise USA, she is working with 40 communities in the Eastern Sierra, spreading the word by first setting up tables in front of local shops and then giving Zoom presentations to educate and mentor neighborhoods through the six-month process of becoming recognized Firewise communities.

“This is my passion,” Burnam explained. “Seventy-five percent of the worst fires in California have occurred in the last decade, and 90 percent of the homes that ignite in wind-driven wildfires are by embers that land on wood shingle roofs, get in through vents, and are fueled by vegetation that surrounds a house. Homeowners can make a difference. First responders need us. Our homes don’t have to burn down.”

—Betty A. Marton

For more information on Building For Neighbors, visit buildingforneighbors.org or email alvin@buildingforneighbors.org.

“Having started life as a stateless refugee, Vassar was a milestone along the road to the American dream,” Bennett said in accepting the award. “So it’s deeply meaningful to me to receive this great honor from my alma mater.”

The annual AAVC Spirit of Vassar Award recognizes an alum “who has demonstrated extraordinary and distinguished leadership, contribution, and commitment to serving a community in which they affect positive, transformative societal change.” In Bennett’s case, that “community” is nothing short of the entire world. As founder of both the Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding and the Multifaith Alliance, Bennett has spent decades mobilizing faith communities to confront global crises, bridge divides, and transform conflicts into opportunities for healing and change. During her talk, titled “Mobilizing Interreligious Relations to Transform Conflicts and Confront Big Issues,” she spoke with Vassar’s new Associate Dean for Religious and Spiritual Life, Reverend Callista Isabelle, about how she goes about that seemingly impossible mission in an ever-more dangerous and polarized world.

Isabelle started by asking Bennett to “share some of the early religious and spiritual roots of your life and how they have informed your work in an ongoing way.” The in-person audience at Rockefeller Hall and viewers online immediately became riveted by Bennett’s description of her early years in Hungary and her family’s escape from the Nazis in the 1940’s.

“I was born into a bombed-out apartment, and there was no food. My mother tells me the only thing she could get hold of was beer and sardines, and that’s what I was fed on as a baby,” said Bennett, who also recalled that her mother suffered seven miscarriages. “I think very much about myself as having had an accidental and unexpected life, because between the Nazis and the miscarriages, the odds of my having been born are practically nil, and so that has left me with a lifelong feeling that I owe a debt to the world; that’s driven a lot of my life’s work.”

At Vassar, Bennett pursued an academic interest in religion but majored in sociology, having become energized by the politics of second-wave feminism, the Civil Rights movement, and President Lyndon B. Johnson’s War on Poverty. After earning a PhD in sociology from New York University, she worked as a criminologist, advising New York City’s police department on issues related to women. Also, she said, “as a criminologist, I became very interested in the links between religion and violence, specifically the way that apocalyptic thinking and believing that one has a monopoly on truth, how that ultimately leads to violence.”

In 1982, she married Rabbi Marc Tanenbaum, one of the most influential religious leaders in America. “He introduced me to a kind of outward-facing Judaism that had an enormous impact on me,” Bennett explained, “and he introduced me to the ways in which religious coalitions could be formed to address conflict, to address serious social problems. For example, he helped organize the international rescue effort for the Vietnamese ‘boat people.’” Tanenbaum also built alliances between Jews and Muslims “at a time when this wasn’t being done,” which prompted Bennett to read the Quran from cover to cover—twice. “That helped me to understand what a deeply misunderstood religion Islam is, and the tremendous similarities between Islam and Judaism,” she said.

After Tanenbaum died in 1992, Bennett founded the Tanenbaum Center to continue his work. In 2013, she founded the Multifaith Alliance (MFA) to aid the millions of Syrian refugees displaced by civil war. “I was stunned by the magnitude of the suffering, and it just reminded me so much of what my own family had gone through during the Holocaust,” Bennett explained. “But it was really being a Jew that drove me to do it, because Leviticus 19:16 [states that] ‘Thou shalt not stand idly by while the blood of your neighbor cries out from the earth.’ And I just felt I could not stand idly by.”

Isabelle noted that through the MFA, Bennett was able to mobilize over $660 million in humanitarian aid to benefit nearly 4 million Syrians affected by war—and that the group had recently been able to provide aid to 100,000 families in Gaza. She then asked Bennett how religion can engender healing rather than conflict. “I’m curious what your thoughts are about how we might go about finding common ground in an especially polarized moment. How might we build bridges and understanding even right here at Vassar?”

“I mentioned earlier apocalyptic thinking,” Bennett replied. “One of the problems with religion is that it tends to divide the world into the children of light and the children of darkness. And the children of light hold a monopoly on truth. The children of darkness get dehumanized.” This type of “binary thinking” can progress quickly from dehumanizing speech to physical violence, Bennett warned.

A perfect example of binary thinking, she said later, is “the whole Israeli-Palestinian thing—that you have to be either pro-Israeli or pro-Palestinian, as if they’re mutually exclusive. They’re not mutually exclusive—you can be pro-both; it’s called being pro-humanity.”

Bennett said that liberal arts colleges such as Vassar, which emphasize the development of critical-thinking skills, have a role to play in exposing the fallacy of binary thinking—for example, “that you are either the oppressed or the oppressor, or you are the colonized or the colonizer,” she said. “That doesn’t leave any room for nuance. It doesn’t leave any room for communication, and it ain’t that simple. … The real world is full of the murky middle, and that’s what people have to learn to live with: the ambiguities of the murky middle.”

That’s just the type of education Bennett said she herself received at Vassar. “My education was nuanced, compassionate, and open,” she said. “My commitment to human rights, interreligious understanding, humanitarian diplomacy—all of that began here, and so did my understanding of democracy. The liberal arts and humanities are crucial for democracy to survive.”

Isabelle’s last question to Bennett was, “What have you seen in the last year that gives you hope?”

Bennett reframed the question: “When confronting an overwhelming problem, and that’s what you’re asking about, where you want to have some impact, where you want to create some change, how do you do that?” she asked. “I have a very simple formula that I have applied in all of the settings where I’ve been a change agent, whether it’s policing, criminal justice, the corporate world, or intergroup relations: Find an entry point. Identify a gap that hasn’t been filled. Find something doable with which to fill that gap—and the operative word here is doable—and then stay tightly focused on that doable thing.” —Kimberly Schaye

hen June Ross Marks ’49 talks about her life, Vassar is a key part of the story. She credits her time at the College to her father, who encouraged her to apply. While serving as an assemblyman in Albany, NY, he met a Vassar professor and “decided that I should go to Vassar.”

Though she wasn’t admitted as a first-year student, she transferred from Barnard College for her junior year. She spent her time at Vassar playing tennis behind Josselyn House and meeting new people, both of which supported her career in unexpected ways.

“Vassar really opened doors for me,” Marks said. “When you say you went to Vassar, people are impressed. It’s a great gateway to the world.”

June met her late husband, Alan Marks, on a blind date on the court and soon discovered another love that would shape her career: a passion for tennis wear and a desire to design it for women and children. After purchasing several athletic dresses from designer Helen Bush, Marks asked if she could represent Bush’s business as a seller, and Bush agreed. Not long afterward, Marks launched her own line of women’s and children’s clothing, which became known for its distinctive fabric and craftsmanship.

For 45 years, she managed every aspect of the business, collaborating with “many skilled young homemakers to make the garments” and creating a new line of dresses every year. She also produced her own catalog for many years, with the help of Gretchen Tatge ’55, whom she met at a Vassar luncheon. Throughout it all, Alan, who was in the toy business, remained a steadfast supporter of her endeavors. She only stepped away from the industry after relocating following Alan’s passing.

The Markses were avid world travelers, visiting countries on all seven continents, including Antarctica when June was 80 years old. Their travels included memorable trips to Russia (then the Soviet Union), Israel, and Vietnam, her favorite destination, which she visited again through the Vassar Travel Program.

Today, Marks is living a quieter life, playing bridge and hosting a group of friends on Wednesday afternoons. She has two children, three grandchildren, and a great-grandchild on the way.

“I’ve had a good life,” Marks said.

In celebration of her 60th Reunion, Marks wanted to give back to the College in a meaningful and lasting way. As a devoted Vassar volunteer over the years, she served on the AAVC Alumnae House Committee, attended nearly every reunion (even serving as co-chair of the reunion gift in 1997 and as reunion co-chair in 2004), and represented her class as co-president from 1999 to 2004 before serving as vice president from 2014 to 2018. Wanting to create something more permanent than a one-time scholarship, she established the June Ross Marks ’49 Travel Fund in 2008.

The fund supports student travel, with a preference for trips connected to academic work. Among the projects it has supported: a student from Bangladesh who wanted to photograph fishermen along that country’s coast; a student researching historically vital archives on missing individuals in Germany; a student who accepted an undergraduate research position at a University of Nebraska Medical Center cancer research center; and a student who hiked the Appalachian Trail for the first time, despite never having backpacked before.

Through the June Ross Marks ’49 Travel Fund, she has created a lasting journey for students who, like her, are ready to explore the world.—Heather Mattioli

Breckinridge fled to Britain and began documenting that island nation as it braced itself for WWII. In a letter, she confessed, “. . . It now seems foolish to run away from the most interesting thing I could be doing on Earth right now.” Over dinner, her friend Edward R. Murrow asked her to do a broadcast of her story about an English village preparing for war for Life. Breckinridge was unaware that Murrow had asked CBS executives to tune in. She aced the audition and became the only woman to join the “Murrow Boys.”

Mary Marvin Breckinridge was born on October 2, 1905, in New York City. Her maternal grandfather was tire magnate B. F. Goodrich, and her paternal great-grandfather was John C. Breckinridge, Buchanan’s vice president and the Southern Democrats’ 1860 nominee for president. The second oldest of four and the only girl, she began photographing the sights of her hometown with a Pocket Kodak when she was nine years old.

Breckinridge majored in history and modern languages at Vassar, where she became known as “Bric.” After returning from a meeting of the International Confederation of Students in Copenhagen, she helped found the National Student Federation of America (NSFA), and in 1927 was elected its president. She befriended Edward R. Murrow, who became NSFA president in 1929.

After graduation, Breckinridge considered foreign service but instead chose a more unconventional path. “I enjoyed parties and coming out, but I didn’t want to make a whole life of it.” She went to Appalachia to join her cousin, Mary Carson Breckinridge, who had established the Frontier Nursing Service, dedicated to reducing the mortality of mothers and infants. Mary Marvin learned motion picture photography and lugged her hand-cranked camera through the hills to shoot “The Forgotten Frontier,” a fund-raising film about the service. Gradually, Breckinridge forged a career as a photojournalist.

When Breckinridge began covering the war, Murrow told her to use her full name: “Give the human side of the war, be honest, be neutral, and talk like yourself.” He did not edit her scripts. Cool and self-assured, Breckinridge spoke with a clear, upper-class accent that sounded vaguely British to American listeners. Murrow assigned her to the Netherlands, a neutral country fearing German invasion.

Breckinridge had a dog tag made to identify herself in case of the worst and checked into the Carlton Hotel in Amsterdam. Her broadcasts from Holland were part of the CBS Sunday-night roundup, World News Today. Breckinridge was frustrated by the lack of feedback from America, but cheered by Murrow’s support. “Your stuff so far has been first rate. I am pleased, New York is pleased, and so far as I know, the listeners are pleased. If they aren’t, to hell with them.”

Breckinridge chose most topics herself, but CBS wanted stories to provide the “women’s angle.” She soon grasped that one telling detail could dramatize a scene. She, for example, described the Netherlands’ refusal to plan for military cooperation with the British by analogy. “Holland is wearing her Little Red Riding Hood of neutrality, but she’s a bit scared just the same as she goes through the wood.”

In January 1940, Murrow Boy William Shirer requested leave to visit his family in Switzerland, and Murrow asked Breckinridge to take his place in Berlin. She agreed, and the last leg of her train ride to Berlin was so crowded that Breckinridge stood wedged against a window and found that the arm of her coat froze to the glass. Waiting for her in Berlin was Jefferson Patterson, a Foreign Service Officer at the U.S. Embassy. Patterson, a Yale graduate, had been an artillery officer in World War I. The two had met in Washington, DC, and had begun corresponding. The day she arrived, Breckinridge accompanied Shirer on a long subway ride to a 2:00 p.m. broadcast at the German Radio complex, then back to the Adlon Hotel to dine with Patterson. No cocktails, she explained; she had to attend Hitler’s 9:00 p.m. speech at the Sportspalast, write her script, then return to the studio for a 1:00 a.m. broadcast. Patterson thought, I shall have to move rapidly to keep up with such energy!

Customarily, Breckinridge marked her scripts to indicate delivery speed and emphasis but dropped this practice in Germany to avoid telegraphing her intent to censors. The censors at Völkischer Beobachter, Germany’s most widely read newspaper, which Hitler had purchased in 1920, missed the irony in her conclusion: “The motto of this important official paper is ‘Freedom and Bread.’ There is still bread.”

Breckinridge found time to accompany Patterson on one of his official diplomatic duties, visiting POW camps on behalf of Great Britain and France to ensure compliance with the Geneva Convention. A German officer wondered why new POWs were apprehensive upon arrival. Breckinridge replied they must have heard about the concentration camps at Dachau and Buchenwald.

Before she returned to Amsterdam, Patterson proposed. Breckinridge accepted but requested no announcement. Patterson, fearful she needed time to think it over, visited Amsterdam twice before the German Blitzkrieg plunged west but had to inform his fiancée that marriage would end her broadcast career. State Department rules forbade diplomatic spouses from publishing news or opinions.

Breckinridge’s biggest confrontation with censors occurred on a report about the National Socialist Movement (NSM), the Dutch Nazis. The local censor sent her script to The Hague for approval. When the delay stretched on, Breckinridge threatened to leave the Netherlands if they killed the story. A friend suggested a workaround. She rewrote the piece, prefacing the report with mundane local news. The bombshell came when she summarized her interview with NSM leader Anton Mussert. “I asked him, ‘What would you do if Germany should invade Holland?’ He said he would sit with folded arms.” Although Breckinridge’s story was only broadcast in America, the Dutch government used it to chastise the nine NSM members in the Dutch Parliament.

On May 10, 1940, Germany attacked France and the Low Countries. Breckinridge caught the last train from Amsterdam to Paris, where she joined CBS correspondent Eric Sevareid to report the debacle. Her May 28 broadcast announced Belgium’s surrender, “leaving the … way to Dunkirk open to the German divisions.” Her reports depicted desperate refugees streaming into Paris. “Anxious people waited in the station for train after train, and when their people did not arrive, they’d say to each other, “There’s another train in half an hour. There’s another train in half an hour.” She gave her last broadcast on June 5 and cabled her resignation to CBS. With impeccable timing, she boarded the last train from Paris to Genoa before Italy declared war and closed the border.

Between air raids, Breckinridge caught a train from Genoa to Berlin. On June 20, she and Patterson had two marriage ceremonies, a mandatory civil one beneath a portrait of the Führer at the local registry office and another by a minister at the U.S. Embassy. Attempting to preserve normality despite the war, the couple invited a few friends from the press and diplomatic corps to celebrate, but once people saw the unrationed food Patterson obtained from the U.S. Embassy in Denmark, the wedding party swelled enormously. “At least the champagne held out,” Patterson wrote.

Their brief honeymoon at Lake Eibsee in Bavaria was darkened by news that France had fallen. Patterson returned to the grim task of visiting POW camps. Although Breckinridge was barred from entering and talking to POWs, she still questioned German officers outside. “She was not particularly reticent about interrogating people,” Patterson explained. Breckinridge attempted to restart her career as a photojournalist and wrote a story for Harper’s Bazaar, but the State Department blocked publication.

For the next 18 years, she fulfilled the role of a diplomat’s wife but missed her days as a radio broadcaster. “I liked it more than any job I ever had.”

Michael Williams earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in history at the University of Dayton and has taught social studies and English at the Miami Valley Career Technology Center for the last 39 years.

I am just back from an invigorating time on campus with the AAVC Board and the Board of Trustees. Some of the trees that we all know so well on the quad and near the Chapel, the ones that catch the sun in just the right way, were resplendent with fall colors. It was lovely to be surrounded by such beauty and camaraderie.

We celebrated the rededication of the Bridge building, now the Winton Evans Bridge for Laboratory Sciences, thanks to an extraordinarily generous gift from Rowland Evans ’75. Among his many talents, Rowland is a gifted jazz pianist and performed with members of several Vassar student jazz ensembles during the dedication ceremony. We also honored Philip Jefferson ’83, Vice Chair of the Federal Reserve, a distinguished and highly esteemed economist and devoted Vassar alum, with the AAVC Distinguished Achievement Award, and Sally Clement ’71, P’09, with the AAVC Outstanding Service to Vassar Award, for her remarkable contributions to the Vassar community. Suffice it to say, it was a very special weekend!

As for the theme of this issue of VQ, I cannot count the number of times someone has described their study-abroad experience as “life-changing.”  Whether students have traveled frequently or it is their first experience going overseas, spending extended time immersed in a new culture is life-altering. Alas, the notion of spending an entire year studying abroad is almost a relic, but living and studying overseas for a semester, or even a few weeks, is truly an education—the academic environment, the transportation system, the food, customs and behaviors, the languages, and so many other aspects of daily life are different.

Study abroad is also a personal passion, as it brings together my interests in education and international relations. (Full disclosure: I am a long-standing board member of an independent nonprofit that provides education overseas for U.S. and international students. Vassar is a member of our academic consortium.)

My passion in this regard far predated my involvement with this group, however, as I was effectively a foreign student at Vassar. My family had moved to the U.S. just a year before I came to Vassar. So when many of my friends went overseas for their junior years, I went to Washington, DC, as part of my “international” adventure. Even though I had attended an American school in New Delhi, being in the U.S. and living and studying here was an entirely new experience, one that entailed a great deal of learning in various ways.

I am proud that Vassar is a proponent of international experiences and a supporter of students who wish to study abroad and work around the world as fellows and interns. I am sure many of you have stories from your time overseas, so please share them with your class correspondent for the next issue of VQ!

Until then, I send you all good wishes for a healthy and happy winter season!

Sarah survived Vassar and even learned from the experience. When her mother sent a homemade dress to wear to a party, Sarah borrowed her roommate’s dress instead. She studied hard, aware that she was less well prepared than her friends from private schools. Sarah knew she was at one of the best colleges in the country and was proud to have gotten in. She would make the most of it. Yet, when all the families came up for graduation at the end of her fourth year, it was hard to be one of the two girls in her group who were not invited to a dinner party given by the parents of Ellen Bacon Endicott of Beacon Hill.

One hundred years ago, my mother, Beatrice Chinnock, a senior at Montclair High in New Jersey, decided to apply to Vassar. To increase her chances of admission, Mom spent an extra semester at a private prep school in Summit, NJ. She was the first member of our family to attend college, so getting into Vassar must have been quite a big deal. There were only 273 women in her graduating class because 71 dropped out, probably due to the stock market crash in 1929.

In sorting through her possessions, I found a copy of the 1932 yearbook. She surely treasured the Vassarion as a representation of what she had accomplished. The handsome black cover features an embossed profile of a female warrior from ancient Greece. Turning pages, the theme becomes even more apparent, with Greek-inspired images of vases, dancers, chariots (driven by women, of course), and this statement as a foreword: “The belief of the Greeks in a well-rounded development of the individual is implied in the traditions of Vassar College.”

I couldn’t find her name among those listed in any of the clubs, although there’s evidence that her rooming group was active. Their extracurriculars ranged from Class President to head of the Glee Club. I know Mom felt inferior to these new friends, who had all attended private schools. I’d like to think she spent her free time at the library researching Greece, for instance, because her name is mentioned on a page dedicated to the Vassar Travel Bureau. Indeed, for two years, she organized “The Odyssey Cruise,” which allowed her to enjoy a free summer trip to Europe. That cruise remained among her fondest memories. It must have taken courage for her to shepherd her fellow students across the ocean to a foreign land. During my childhood and adolescence, she never told me about this extracurricular activity of hers. It was in old age that she confided highlights, like her midnight swim in the Aegean.

The 1932 yearbook didn’t reveal any clues to Mom’s character, but it did confirm how thoroughly she enjoyed Vassar. By junior year, she fit right in, overcoming her feeling of alienation. I find her standing in the third row at prom, happily holding the arm of a tall, good-looking date.

After graduation, Mom used the Vassarion to keep track of classmates. She left a squiggle in black ink beside class photos of women to whom she had “sent Xmas cards, 1934.” To some captions, she added married names and recent addresses. To others, she jotted down professions.

Vassar remained a significant influence throughout her life. She corresponded with classmates, and upon retirement moved to Cape Cod, where former roommate Nancy Macdonald maintained a summer house on Slough Pond and classmate Margaret Campbell spent July in Hyannisport. The most precious thing Vassar gave my mother must have been the opportunity to forge friendships with a group of amazing women. She was very proud when I chose to follow in her footsteps and attend the College. How she would have loved the fact that I Zoom twice a month with my own classmates, including one former roommate!