hat will my student do with a liberal arts degree?” It is a common refrain among Vassar parents and loved ones. Some ask it out loud in the large public spaces of Orientation or Families Weekend; others utter their anxieties in hushed tones and only to their trusted peers; but most think it at one time or another and hope all will be well.

The truth is that the vast majority of Vassar graduates (93 percent) have jobs, competitive fellowships, or are accepted into graduate or professional school within six months of graduation. Moreover, according to the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce report in 2020, the return on investment (ROI) of a liberal arts college degree is nearly $1 million over 40 years. This is higher than degrees at most types of colleges and very close to the ROI of degrees from universities with the highest research activity. The study also concluded that although early-career salary levels for liberal arts graduates tend to be lower than for those of more specialized undergraduate degrees, over a career, the salary gains of liberal arts graduates far outpace their counterparts.

Vassar seeks to prepare students not only for a job but also for a lifetime of enriching career(s). With the opening of the Bartlett Center for Admission and Career Education, we are developing “a liberal arts approach to career education.” Concretely, this means the work of a liberal arts student includes not only their academic curriculum but also exposure to longer-term thinking about their capacities and what they want to contribute to the world.

The liberal arts approach to career education at Vassar is tailored to the developmental moments of students. For instance, the first year is about reflecting on the questions “Who am I?” “What are my values?” and “What am I good at?” Although the answers to these queries shift over time, starting early on the path of self-discovery signifies an important—and often overlooked or rushed—part of career education.

Emerging from their first year of college with more sense of themselves, sophomores have new questions: “What’s out there?” “What are the various industries, jobs, and careers to pick from?” Exposure to myriad options and mentors who can give honest answers to those questions is accomplished through programs such as Sophomore Career Connections—when alums from a diverse set of occupations and fields come on campus for a weekend of structured mentoring with sophomores.

More than 90 percent of Vassar students complete an internship before graduation, well above the national average. With greater clarity about who they are as well as what career options are out there, juniors are prepared to make a match, ideally landing an internship or other meaningful experiential learning opportunity to test their capacities in a field where they have interest. Generous grants and fellowships are available for students to support their summer plans, from the Internship Grant Fund and Tananbaum Fellowships to the Thompson Bartlett Fellowships (focusing on STEM and economics) and the Burnam Fellowships (focusing on community-based grassroots and nonprofit organizations), and many more. Vassar also supports students who want to start their own ventures. Our Innovation Lab focuses on maker technology, for example, while the Ellen Rudnick ’72 Student Entrepreneur Fund promotes start-up efforts.

At last, it is senior year. Career education at this stage is about applying for permanent employment, post-graduate fellowships (Vassar remains a top producer of Fulbright Scholars), and graduate schools (86 percent of Vassar’s pre-law and 78 percent of pre-medical applicants are accepted into law or medical school, much higher than national averages). Senior-year career education also includes access to workshops on financial planning, finding housing, salary negotiation, and other practical skills to enable a smoother transition after college.

The different phases of career education may unfold linearly or less predictably for some. Students sometimes walk the well-trodden paths on campus, or they make their own path. Regardless, the liberal arts approach to career education at Vassar seeks to support students in the cycle of self-reflection, inquiry, experimentation, and discovery—a progression that will be repeated, and relished, many times over an enriching career and meaningful life.

Nine years later, Qiu is playing a major role in a new project employing artificial-intelligence technology that she hopes will shed further light on the plight of these women. The initiative, The Eternal Testimony of Chinese “Comfort Women,” is based on interviews with 94-year-old survivor Peng Zhuying that enable participants to ask Peng questions about her experiences and hear her responses in a real-time conversation.

Peng was born in 1929, and when she was nine years old, her town in Hunan Province was bombed by the Imperial Japanese Army during the Japanese invasion, killing her mother and brother and leaving Peng blind. Six years later, Peng was kidnapped and imprisoned by Japanese troops.

The project preserving Peng’s oral history was inspired by Holocaust survivors’ testimonies preserved as part of the Dimension in Testimony program by the University of Southern California’s Shoah Foundation. It is an international collaboration of the “Comfort Women” Justice Coalition (CWJC) in the U.S., USC San Francisco, and the Nanjing Museum of the Site of the Lijixiang Comfort Stations in China. Qiu has been serving as Executive Director of the project since 2020. Lillian Sing and Julie Tang, two retired San Francisco Superior Court judges and co-founders of CWJC, led the fund-raising and initial planning for the project. Many individuals and organizations contributed to the project and Vassar students also provided assistance, Qiu said; USCSF provided the AI technology.

During the 1930s and 1940s, thousands of Chinese women and girls, called “Comfort Women” by the Japanese military, were kidnapped and brought to compounds where Japanese soldiers raped and tortured them.

In October 2020 the project team conducted a five-day interview with Peng in Yueyang City, China. During the process, the survivor was asked hundreds of questions and filmed on a green screen. To ensure continuity for the duration of the interactive experience, Peng wore the same clothing for each day of interviews and returned to a common resting position following each response. 

The recorded answers of the survivor were then preserved in the Dimensions in Testimony system developed by the Shoah Foundation in conjunction with USC’s Institute for Creative Technology and their partners. Natural language processing and speech recognition allow the system to map an automated response that best fits a user’s question. To maintain the authenticity of the interview as a primary source, the filmed images and her answers are not animated, edited, or manipulated in any way. 

“At the time, we were deeply saddened to see the aged survivors of the Japanese military sexual slavery passing away one by one,” Qiu said. “It was also extremely disturbing that warfare continued inflicting damages and suffering around the globe and rape was still used as an instrument of armed conflicts. We felt it’s critical to preserve the experience of speaking to the war victims so that future generations can learn from the traumatic past in a more engaged way and take action to prevent the occurrence of more crimes against humanity.”

Qiu said listening to Peng and reliving the horrors that she had written about before had been difficult for her. “Oftentimes I have to hold back my tears,” Qiu said, her speech cracking with emotion. “But I hope this project and her voice can help the younger generation learn about this kind of brutality.”

“Peng mentioned several times that she probably doesn’t have many days left, and her worst fear is that something like this could happen again,” Qiu continued. “She wants us all to remember history. We really need to learn from the events of past wars.”

The AI project is still undergoing further testing and refining, Qiu said. Currently, Peng’s answers are in Chinese, but they will soon be available in English. Those using the system are helping to “train” the system and improve the AI-generated dialogue.

Qiu and Peng spoke in October when Peng took part in a webinar Qiu organized for the launching of the public beta test for the project. “She was very emotional,” Qiu said, “and at the conclusion of the webinar, she thanked everyone for their support and said, ‘I suffered tremendously during the war. I hope all countries in the world work together for peace. No more war!’” —Larry Hertz

lack theologian Howard Thurman has been widely credited with being a mentor to civil rights leaders Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Bayard Rustin, and Pauli Murray. But Reverend Thurman also played a key role in shaping Vassar’s human rights journey, delivering more than a dozen sermons in the Chapel, many of them before the College had knowingly accepted a single Black student.  

On February 15, members of the Vassar community convened in the Villard Room—and via Zoom—to witness four Vassar students’ tributes to Reverend Thurman. Croix Horsley ’26, Maya Winter ’26, Jarod Hudson ’26, and Katie Varon ’24 had conducted their research last fall while they were enrolled in an Intensive course on Thurman’s Vassar legacy taught by Professor of Religion and Director of Engaged Pluralism Jonathon Kahn. 

Kahn said the presentations marked the first public event of Vassar’s recently established Inclusive History Initiative, aimed at looking more honestly into Vassar’s past. “Looking at Vassar’s history more critically can be difficult and disturbing,” Kahn said, “but Thurman was an activator of activists, and as the semester went on, the students became more energized to tell his story—because we at Vassar must consider not just who we are, but also who we want to be.”

Horsley opened the student presentations by showing a video tribute to Thurman he’d produced for the course. The film chronicled Thurman’s journey from a humble beginning in racist Daytona Beach, FL, to his accomplishments at Morehouse College, where he graduated as valedictorian, and his time at Rochester Theological Seminary. “[Thurman] became a beacon of peace and love and came to learn and preach the power of nonviolence as a force for change,” Horsley said.

Winter’s presentation, “Uncovering Inequity,” consisted of dozens of articles about Vassar’s civil rights issues she had found in the Black press between 1928 and the late 1960s. Winter noted that these stories appeared in papers around the country, not just in New York City. Many of these articles were critical of the College, including coverage of Du Bois’s speech, Winter said. Another article noted that while the College had announced in 1935 that it would be accepting applications from Black students, none were admitted until 1940, when Beatrix McCleary broke Vassar’s color barrier as the first openly acknowledged Black student to graduate from Vassar. (Another, Alice Turner Howard ’39, had been the first to enroll but transferred.) Winter noted, however, that when Thurman brought students from Howard University to Vassar in 1941, the Chicago Defender had reported they had been welcomed warmly. Winter said that while this student exchange had been a positive one, “Vassar was still not doing much to advance social justice.”

“So this ‘hate’ strategy worked—until it didn’t,” Hudson said, alluding to what he had learned by reading one of Thurman’s books, Jesus and the Disinherited. In it, Thurman talks about how the Gospel may be read as a guide for resistance for the poor and disenfranchised, and that Jesus is a partner of the oppressed. Thurman concluded that Jesus’s message was that hatred cannot empower anyone and that only through love can justice prevail. “Thurman talked of love and forgiveness and unity,” Hudson said. “Forgiveness is not passivity, but my anger cannot be directed at my fellow students, only at those who perpetuate Vassar as an elite space.”

Varon said she was struck by one page of the Miscellany News, which carried both a story by Olive in which she praised a Founder’s Day play performed by the faculty and another story about a prize-winning minstrel show performed by White Vassar students. Olive admonished the College for allowing such a performance. “She praised the College, and she criticized the College,” Varon said, “and those who come after her must be grateful to her for pushing Vassar to a greater future.”

Eric Wilson ’76, Co-Chair of the African American Alumnae/i of Vassar College (AAAVC), concluded the program by praising the panelists and saying that he hoped that Reverend Thurman’s example would “move the College forward.”

One special guest at the event, Anton Howard Wong, son of Olive Thurman Wong ’48 and grandson of Reverend Thurman, said he was “blown away” by the presentations. Until he witnessed Varon’s presentation, Wong said, he had not known about many of his mother’s activities and accomplishments at Vassar.

During a question-and-answer session following the presentations, Professor Kahn applauded the students for their work and said he was “struck that the four projects had taken off in such different directions.” He said he hoped the event would spark more conversations on campus about the complexity of Vassar’s history. “I knew the students would be incredible, and they were,” he said. “To forge change, you need a map, and I think as much as anyone at Vassar, Howard Thurman provided that map, and the better map we have, the better we can become.” —Larry Hertz

There was also a panel discussion featuring Marianne Begemann, Dean of Strategic Planning and Academic Resources; Assistant Professor of Earth Science and Environmental Studies Deon Knights, who focuses on water resources; and Professor of Geography Mary Ann Cunningham, who works on sustainable energy solutions.

Associate Professor of Biology Jodi Schwarz, coordinator of the Environmental Research Institute’s Steering Committee, said “A lot of us on campus are working on addressing environmental issues. The goal of this event was to let each other know what we are doing and to spark conversations about how we can connect and collaborate.”

Levitt is one of several students who have undergone training with the Leica Stellaris 8, a next-generation confocal microscope that members of the science faculty say will greatly enhance research opportunities at Vassar and other nearby colleges. The microscope was delivered to the College in December. Training sessions for students and faculty, overseen by the Biology Department’s Science Technology Support Technician David Lewis, are expected to continue throughout the Spring Semester.

Associate Professor of Psychological Science Hadley Bergstrom, who co-wrote the NSF grant application, said he is already using the microscope to study cells involved in memory storage. “It gives us much brighter images with much higher resolution,” Bergstrom said, “and we get the results in about eight minutes, compared to more than an hour with our previous microscope.”

Under the terms of the grant, Vassar is sharing the use of the microscope with science faculty from other local colleges. Megan Dennis, an Associate Professor of Biology at Marist College, was among the first to be trained in its use. “I’ve already begun to use it for my own research, and I plan to bring some of my students over to Vassar later this spring to show them what it can do,” Dennis said.

Nancy Pokrywka, Professor and Chair of Biology, said she was looking forward to using the new microscope when she teaches the course Cellular Structure and Function. “The students work in teams, and I guide them through the use of the confocal to get high-resolution images of Drosophila [fruit fly] ovaries for their projects,” Pokrywka said. “They produce some truly beautiful data, and I look forward to using the new confocal in this fashion the next time I teach the course.”

Bergstrom said he’s certain the new microscope will get plenty of use, noting 12 faculty members in five Vassar science departments had taken part in applying for the NSF grant. “We are all still learning about all the things it can do,” he said. “It will probably take us a couple of years to fully utilize it.” —Larry Hertz

But as is the case with many health threats, the final stages of stamping it out are the hardest, and some of the research needed to support that work is being performed in a laboratory in Olmsted Hall on the Vassar campus. Visiting Scholar Elizabeth Thiele, who holds a PhD in ecological and evolutionary biology from Purdue University, has been performing research on Guinea worms taken principally from Chad, one of the last places where they are posing a threat.

“We get samples of worms collected from dogs, as well as cats, baboons, and humans, and through genetic sequencing, we can gain a better understanding of the parasite’s transmission,” Thiele explained.

The worm, which can grow up to a meter in length, has been common in many parts of the world since antiquity. Some historians ascribe biblical references of a “fiery serpent” to the Guinea worm because, after 10 to 14 months inside the host, an adult female worm emerges through an excruciatingly painful, burning blister it generates in the host’s skin. “While the parasite is not usually deadly by itself,” Thiele said, “it can debilitate its victims—often subsistence farmers and other rural workers, who then find it hard to survive.”

Thiele’s work is part of ongoing efforts of the Carter Center in collaboration with national ministries of health in affected countries and the World Health Organization. Her work at Vassar is funded directly by the Carter Center, a not-for-profit, nongovernmental organization founded by former President Jimmy Carter and his wife, the late Rosalynn Carter.

“There is no medical intervention, such as a vaccine or preventative drug,” Thiele explained. “The primary means of preventing infection is by disrupting the parasite’s life cycle. Emerging worms that are detected by village health workers are removed slowly and in a controlled manner over a length of time that can span days to weeks—this is to protect the infected individual from wound infections or complications and to prevent contamination of local water sources where the parasite’s intermediate host lives. Water bodies suspected to have been contaminated with parasite larvae are treated with a broad-spectrum larvicide to kill the intermediate hosts.”

Thiele and the Carter Center team hope that insights provided by the genetic data, namely a more nuanced understanding of the parasite’s transmission patterns in the remaining endemic countries, can assist local elimination programs with effectively allocating available resources and designing targeted prevention strategies.

The final efforts to stamp out the last Guinea worms have been hampered principally by unexpected infections in non-human animal hosts and by political unrest in the areas where the parasites still survive, but there is reason to believe the parasite can be completely eradicated by the Carter Center’s goal of 2030. “In 1995, during the Second Sudanese Civil War, Jimmy Carter helped to negotiate a ceasefire specifically to allow health workers to access villages endemic for Guinea worm and begin to implement control and prevention programs and provide primary health care,” Thiele said. At the time, it was the longest humanitarian cease-fire in history.

Thiele’s post-baccalaureate research assistant, Morgan Stephens ’23, performs the initial processing and cataloging of the worms that are sent to the lab. Stephens has been working with Thiele since they graduated from Vassar with a degree in biology last spring. “I applied for the job because I’m interested in pursuing a career in public health and wanted to gain some research experience before applying for graduate school,” they said. “Doing this work has been more purposeful than simply going to class,” they added. “I want to continue to do research in grad school on insects and other creatures that harm humans. It matters that this work gets done.” —Larry Hertz

Scientists have known for some time that solar systems are formed from large “proto-planetary disks” that orbit stars. The Webb telescope has provided this team with data from four such disks. During the early stages of planet formation, Salyk explained, icy pebbles about a centimeter in diameter are expected to move from the cold outer reaches of the planetary systems towards the warmer planet-forming regions, releasing water vapor as they heat up. Data from infrared light detected by the James Webb Space Telescope enabled Salyk and other members of the team to observe this transported water vapor in two of the disks—the two that also show evidence for the movement of pebbles. “This shows us that water can move around in planet-forming regions, carried by these pebbles. It was exciting for us to be able to confirm a theoretical idea that required the sensitivity of a telescope like JWST to actually see in action,” she said.

The JDISCS team will continue its work by analyzing dozens more disks in its sample to better understand planet-formation chemistry.

Salyk has secured a Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) grant award for related research in collaboration with a colleague from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The research is in support of a program titled “Building on ALMA: a James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) legacy survey of the chemical evolution of planet-forming disks.” As part of the project, they will combine JWST data and archival data from the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) to study the evolution of chemical abundances across relevant disks. —Larry Hertz

When the results of the race were officially announced a few minutes later, the 14 Vassar runners who competed that day collapsed into a group hug—“We’re a team of huggers,” Reade explained—and a photo of that celebration now hangs on the wall in Schoenegge’s dorm room.

As Head Coach James McCowan and members of the team reflected on that day’s historic accomplishment, they said they had a hunch the 2023 season would be a special one. “I knew I had a strong class of first-years,” McCowan said, “but I’ve learned from experience not to count too heavily on them because the transition from high school to college can be stressful—it’s a big life change.”

The coach said he also knew he had a talented group of sophomore, junior, and senior runners to help guide the first-years, and as he watched the team chemistry develop, he became increasingly optimistic about the season. “Coaching can be about pushing and pulling sometimes,” he said, “but with this group, I didn’t have to do that; it was more about pointing.”

Swaim, who helped the team record its best-ever 23rd-place finish at the NCAA Division III Championships three weeks after the Liberty League race, said she wasn’t surprised by the team’s success. “We talked with [McCowan] before the season started about our expectations, and he let us define our goals,” she said. “We developed rituals that binded us.”

Reade said she and the other first-years felt the positive energy even before the season began. “James let us know what he wanted from us in the summer,” she said, “and by the time the season began, we all just blended right in—it was easy.”

McCowan recalled he had met Acadia Helfand ’27 at an indoor track meet last winter after she had been accepted to Vassar on Early Decision. “I remember making some comment in passing as we parted like, ‘Hey let’s go get a team to NCAA’s,’ and her replying, ‘Well that’s the plan; that’s what I’m coming to Vassar for.’ And I thought to myself, ‘This is gonna be a good crew.’”

What’s next for this history-making team? McCowan is optimistic. “The plan is still to just cultivate that habit, culture, and mindset of high performance, being excellent at what we do, and being great people,” he said. “If we do that, the results will take care of themselves.”

Knigge joined a semipro team in Germany in the summer of 2018, and over the next several years, his career trajectory took a steep turn upward as he gained experience and earned accolades with better teams in Spain and most recently in Germany playing for a team in that country’s top professional league. And in July of 2023, Knigge landed a spot on the USA Volleyball Men’s National team, an unprecedented achievement for someone who competed at an NCAA Division III college. “One of the other players on the national team told me, ‘Man, you’re a D3 legend; no one has ever done what you’ve done,’” Knigge recalled.

He earned immediate credibility that fall as a starter on the USA squad that defeated Canada in the finals of the NORCECA Final Six in Edmonton, Alberta—one of the most prestigious tournaments in North America.

Knigge is a middle blocker on the 30-man team that will send its top 12 players to the Olympics in Paris this summer, and while he is not among top three at his position, there’s at least a slight chance he’ll be called upon if those ahead of him on the depth chart are injured or otherwise cannot compete.

Vassar men’s volleyball Head Coach Richard Gary, who mentored Knigge in his final two collegiate seasons, says he told Knigge in 2018 what a challenge he had ahead of him trying to make pro volleyball a career. Then he smiled and said he also knew that if anyone from a Division III program could achieve that kind of success, “it would be Matt. He’s overcome every obstacle that’s ever been put in front of him.”

Knigge said he knows being chosen as one of the 12 players to compete for the USA in this year’s Olympics is a longshot, but he hasn’t given up the dream. “Competing for my country on the National Team has always been the goal,” he said. “I want to stand on that podium and see my country’s flag flying as I hear the National Anthem.”

Led by coaches Tony Brown and Mark Griffiths and Co-Captains Grace Skakel ’24 and Julie Geller ’24, the Brewers compiled a 7–2 regular-season record before advancing to the finals of the Tri-State Conference championships. The team then posted victories over Coastal Carolina University, Temple University, and the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in its march to the national championship game.

Sophia Bailey ’26, who scored three tries in the semifinal win over the Coast Guard Academy and two more in the championship game, said reaching the national finals was a tribute to the team’s resilience. “Despite adjusting to a team consisting largely of first-year players and others who had changed position, we showed our ability to adapt and had an incredibly successful season,” Bailey said.—Larry Hertz

wo Vassar alums have each been awarded one of the most prestigious and most competitive post-graduate fellowships in the world. On December 7, Aena Khan ’22 was awarded a Schwarzman Scholarship for a fully funded master’s program in global affairs at Schwarzman College on the campus of Tsinghua University in Beijing, China. She will begin her studies in the fall of 2024. Frank Najarro-Izquierdo ’18 was awarded a Schwarzman Scholarship last year and is currently enrolled in the program.

Khan, who was Senior Class President and an editor of the Miscellany News, majored in international studies. She specialized in political science and history but took a number of geography courses, including some that focused on China taught by Professor of Geography and Chair of Earth Science and Geography Yu Zhou. “I learned about environmental issues and urban planning with Yu Zhou,” she said. “[The classes] exposed me to how China functions differently from the United States.”

Khan, who was born in New York City to Pakistani parents, said she became even more keenly interested in the Chinese culture and economy when she returned to Pakistan while conducting research for her Vassar senior thesis. Ultimately, that experience led her to apply for the Schwarzman fellowship. “The country is now the largest recipient of Chinese foreign investment, and what I saw there made me more curious about China’s economy and politics,” she said.

He said he had intended to major in theater or biology, his two passions in high school, when he enrolled at Vassar, but his plans changed abruptly when he took an introductory anthropology course with Professor Candice Lowe Swift “just to fill out my schedule” for his first semester. “That course changed my entire academic trajectory,” he said. “For the first time, I had a vocabulary to understand poverty, inequality, and racial and cultural differences.”

Najarro-Izquierdo got his first hands-on exposure to Asian culture when he accompanied Professor of Anthropology Martha Kaplan on a research trip to Singapore in the summer of 2016. “It was then that I realized that when you’re an anthropologist, the world is kind of your oyster,” he said. “You can study anything and go anywhere.”

Najarro-Izquierdo said he had thoroughly enjoyed his first semester in Beijing. “You can’t really understand China until you’ve been here. Books or videos or other secondary sources aren’t good enough,” he said. “I am learning about a culture with a long history that is globally powerful, and the experience will guide me in the decisions I make about my career and my future.”—Larry Hertz

hen Acacia DëQueer (née Willis) started at Vassar as a film major, intimacy coordination in film—today their passion and vocation—did not exist. By the time DëQueer graduated, the #MeToo movement had sparked a demand to protect actors portraying intimate scenes in movies, and DëQueer had found their calling in the field. Now, five years later, intimacy coordinators are a common presence on movie sets. DëQueer, meanwhile, is an extensively trained intimacy professional with a stack of film credits who has been published in the field’s academic publication, The Journal of Consent-Based Performance. In other words, both DëQueer and their profession have come a long way in a very short time.

When DëQueer (a self-described nonbinary “manic pixie dream girl” who uses they/them/their and the neopronouns fae/fem/faer interchangeably) first got to Vassar, they wanted to double-major in drama and film. Their advisor urged them take advantage of Vassar’s liberal arts offerings and diversify. “I’m so glad I did,” they said. “My time at Vassar was spent learning about the issues that I wanted to show in film. It set the foundation for all my work.”

At first, the goal was to direct. “I’m not saying I don’t ever want to direct,” DëQueer said. “But the reason I wanted to direct was because I wanted to tell stories about gender and sexuality. And suddenly, here was this position [where] that’s all I had to do. No one expected me to do anything else or be anything other than I was. It was perfect from the moment I found it.”

After graduation in 2019, DëQueer was able to acquire some training in the field before COVID drove instruction online, giving them access to organizations all over the world. This industry training, along with what they had learned from courses on women and queer studies and from choreographing for Vassar’s burlesque club (they were Vice President), helped DëQueer quickly launch a career in this nascent field.

While the work of intimacy coordinators has become more well known in recent years, the profession involves more than you might assume. “People perceive us as the sex police,” said DëQueer. In reality, their skills are essential to both the work of the cast and crew on set and the story that ultimately appears on screen. DëQueer is involved in any scene that involves close contact between actors—affection between an adult and child, for example; medical intimacy, such as a character giving birth or having a miscarriage; death scenes—“dying in someone’s arms is intimacy,” they said, “and also hard on your emotions.” Part of their responsibility is the psychological safety of everyone on set—foremost the actors, whom DëQueer helps to negotiate and respect one another’s physical boundaries—but also the crew, as anyone witnessing the portrayal of a traumatic scene could become triggered. DëQueer, armed with mental health first aid training, can offer support.

DëQueer asserts that their career was made possible by their Vassar education. “The film and television theories and history I learned is information I draw on daily,” they said. They got their first job in intimacy coordination thanks to a short film they made in one of Professor Shane Omar Slattery-Quintanilla’s courses. They created their professional website as part of that class; Matthew Mueller, Certified Rehabilitation Counselor, then DëQueer’s advisor in the Office of Accessibility and Educational Opportunity, gifted them their domain name (acacia.gay) for graduation. “[Vassar] supported me and what I do now as an artist, as a social justice advocate, as a person,” they said.

In fact, Vassar was the first place DëQueer learned about consent, from a presentation by a group called Speak About It during first-year Orientation. “It was a light-bulb moment,” they said, and a sort of antidote to the experience they’d had the previous summer, when they experienced their first kiss. When they reported back to their high school friends, “They were, like, ‘Ew, gross, they asked if they could kiss you?’” DëQueer relayed. “[Before I got to Vassar] I had no language to distinguish a consensual encounter from a nonconsensual one. It was the first time I learned that consent was something desirable, or an aspect of intimacy at all.”

In a full-circle moment, DëQueer returned to campus last year to perform with Speak About It during Orientation, providing that same light-bulb moment to students at the start of their college careers.

What else would they like to share with today’s students? “Focus on what your passion is,” they said. “There is a career out there for you that absolutely supports that. I didn’t know mine—mine literally didn’t exist when I started at Vassar, but here I am, living my dream that I didn’t know to dream.” —Bronwen Pardes ’95

Having just returned from trustee and AAVC board meetings, I am really excited about and invigorated by the many brilliant facets of Vassar—the campus, the students, the faculty, the administration, and the leadership—that make it so very special. And the breadth and diversity of programs is breathtaking.

While we were there, the Inclusive History Commission presented an extraordinary program with student research on Reverend Howard Thurman and his legacy at Vassar. Former AAVC President Billie Gaines ’58 introduced the program with her reminiscences of the Chapel and the striking presence of Reverend Thurman, and I hope you might find time to watch it on the Vassar website.

In January, we celebrated the 10th Anniversary of the signature Sophomore Career Connections program. We are grateful to Carol Ostrow ’77, P’09,’15 and her family for their continuing partnership and funding for this amazing program. The Center for Career Education along with Advancement staff organized another stellar gathering for mentorship and networking that has become a cornerstone of the College’s efforts in this arena. This year, we had record attendance with 270 students and 103 alums and parents participating.

Sophomore Career Connections is important not just because it provides a remarkable opportunity for students to meet and engage with alums to learn and build connections, but it also reengages alums with Vassar and our incredible students. We often hear how SCC is what reconnected alums with the College, and how much they value their experience as mentors. So many of you are also involved in other career-related programs throughout the year, and your participation is invaluable and so deeply appreciated.

I must confess to some envy as I learn of the many opportunities our Career Education team offers our students for internships, summer jobs, fellowships, and post-graduation opportunities. They do a superb job of supporting our students in finding next steps throughout their college journey. AND, I would like all of you to know that they also support alums in career changes and searches—and would encourage you to reach out if you would like some advice.

The Bartlett Center for Admission and Career Education will be such a dazzling and significant addition to our campus and a wonderful home for these activities, but nothing is impeding the fabulous activities and opportunities being offered on campus. This is far beyond the Vassar I knew, and the one many of you knew, and I am so very proud of the extraordinary progress we have made and the future that awaits our students.

My very best wishes,

Her joyful extroversion served her well as the Executive Secretary of the AAVC from 1936–1969. During that time, she lived at Alumnae House in what came to be known as “Club 15.” Room 15 was a gathering place. Indeed, wherever Gert went became a gathering place. In a tribute published in the March 1990 issue of the Vassar Quarterly after her death, Susan Getman Abernethy ’63, who had served as Executive Director from 1972–1975, noted that “Gert’s room on the second-floor corner, above the Pub, was where President Sarah Gibson Blanding and her assistant Florence Wislocki ’26 came to relax over Bridge. Issues were aired, information exchanged, lives caught up on, and laughter shared.”

To the many alumnae who came though the College during her time as Executive Secretary, Gert was Alumnae House. As Susan recalled, Gert’s table in the Alumnae House dining room was the center of the action. “Gert sat with her back to the back-terrace window in order to see everyone who entered the room,” she said. “She waved to or got up and hugged alumnae and their spouses and children as soon as she saw them. Everyone across the generations was made to feel welcomed home to Vassar.”

Gert had been hell-bent on changing the perception of Alumnae House from a stodgy place for old ladies to a space where everyone, including current students, would feel welcome. As part of that same tribute in the Vassar Quarterly, Franny Prindle Taft ’42, former AAVC President, noted that, “Going to Alumnae House as undergraduates was one of Gert’s innovations. Before her arrival, it was exclusively for alumnae or for students accompanied by their parents.”

To make the House more attractive to students, Gert urged the College to create a path up from Joss so students could more easily traverse the hill. She even got a beer license that allowed students to enjoy refreshments up at the House—the first step toward creating the Pub. As Franny said, “Gertrude knew full well that if the Alumnae Association seemed like a ‘swell’ place to be, she would be cultivating enthusiastic future supporters. It was insight and instincts like these that Gert brought to the job. Everyone had a wonderful time, building friendships and loyalties.”

Gert’s welcoming presence was especially needed during WWII, when the College, having over-admitted the entering class, asked her to house the overflow at Alumnae House. Constance Dimock Ellis ’38, a Vassar English professor (and later, trustee), recalled that “Gert’s interest in the students and success of their life at the Alumnae House was instant and genuine. She got to know many of them well, and some remained her good friends for years. The student body as a whole, constrained by gas rationing and the unavoidable absence of many young men of their age, soon discovered that Alumnae House was a delightful place to relax, eat, drink, and entertain each other and [as many] of their friends as could manage to get to Poughkeepsie. They crowded the Pub, the terraces, and the living room. Being welcome at the House made a real difference in the quality of undergraduate life at Vassar during the war, and it was Gert’s sympathy and imagination that made it possible.”

According to the Vassar Encyclopedia, the Alumnae Association membership grew from 5,600 to 22,000, and the Alumnae Fund mushroomed from about $10,000 to over $1,000,000 during her tenure. Yet her legacy reflects much more than a growth in alum participation or fund-raising dollars. It was the nature of her warmth, wisdom, and vision that made the Alumnae House a hub for visiting alumnae and their families—and especially a gathering place for students.—Deborah Delavan Bell ’76