Grads

On November 13 the MALS alumni board held a celebratory lunch at the Hanover Inn in appreciation of retiring members Colby Bent (MALS '82) and Arnold Castagner (MALS '70). Both Colby and Arnold have been active members since the board was founded. In fact, the board members are not sure they will be able to manage the June graduation reception without them and are hoping they continue to show up to provide training in the years to come.

The Saratoga County Historical Society announced the receipt of a Get Set grant to fund the assistance of museum specialist Susan Carroll Dineen (MALS '93). Susan will help evaluate the educational programs at the Brookside Museum in Ballston Spa, New York. This past fall the museums programs included the Brookside Harvest and the Native New York events. Susan is currently the director of education at the Adirondack Museum in Blue Mountain, New York.

Another MALS alum in the news is Joni B. Cole (MALS '95). Joni, with Dartmouth alum Bindi Rakhra and Tuck graduate Rebecca Joffrey, has compiled and edited This Day, Diariesfrom American Women (see excerpts on page 50). Joni came up with the idea for a book after a particularly difficult day of her own. She started wondering about other women across the country and was certain they were doing the important work of the world while she was busy surviving. With a background in teaching community writing workshops, Joni believes that everyone can write. She set out to find how other women were managing and chose the diary format so that the details of an "ordinary" day could be captured in a woman's own voice. Joni and her friends contacted more than 500 women of different ages, occupations and circumstances in varied locations. They assigned them an ordinary Tuesday to record the events and feelings in their lives.

In Joni's words: "Writing in the moment, which is what we asked the diarists to do, also helped these women capture all those details that revealed how their 'ordinary' days were anything but ordinary." Joni and her collaborators found it very difficult to edit their material into a 300-page book. They would like to continue their project as a series of books, offering an historical perspective by presenting the daily concerns of American women through particular points in time. For more on this project, visit their Web site: www. thisdayinthelife.com.

thisdayinthelife.com

Dr. Frank Switzer (chemistry '87) recently spoke at the 226th American Chemical Society National Meeting in New York. Franks talk was "Project SEED: My Career Catalyst." Project SEED (Summer Enrichment Experience for the Disadvantaged) was founded 35 years ago to provide mentored summer chemical research experiences for economically disadvantaged high school students and has served more than 7,000 participants. Frank is currently an associate professor of chemistry at Coker College, in Huntsville, South Carolina, where he joined the faculty in 1996.

175 Greensboro Road, Hanover, NH03755; (603) 643-3789; m.jane.welsh.adv98@alum.dartmouth.org