Winter 2005 Feature

PMC Reaches Out to Boston’s Women Leaders

“Pine Manor College is one of the best kept secrets in Boston…the time has come for the community to realize the treasure that we have. It is doing important work, and its story deserves to be heard.”

View photos from reception.

In the first of a series of coordinated receptions, PMC welcomed more than 60 of the Boston area’s most prominent women leaders at a reception in the Founder’s Room on February 17 to introduce them to the College and inform them about the College’s mission and successes over the past decade.

The event was hosted by a special committee of 23 representatives of government, media, the corporate sector, banking and finance, nonprofits, and educational institutions. See invitation below.

Faculty members and students greeted guests and introduced them to various aspects of PMC, including the Internship Program, community outreach program, the new biotechnology and nursing programs, and various collaborative efforts of the College. Guests got further information and talked in depth with both faculty and students at booths and tables.

Carol Fulp, vice president of Community Relations for John Hancock Financial Services and member of the host committee, welcomed the guests. “Pine Manor College is one of the best kept secrets in Boston,” she said, “and the time has come for the community to realize the treasure that we have. It is doing important work, and its story deserves to be heard.”

“That’s why we asked you here this evening,” Fulp concluded. “Pine Manor College needs our help to get the word out. Take some time to look around. Get the measure of the place, and help celebrate the accomplishments of this learning community.”

President Nemerowicz then discussed a UCLA study with nationally normed longitudinal data about student development from first year through senior year. “The data showed that our students arrive here with significantly less confidence in their social and intellectual abilities and less sense of their own ability to make positive change in the world, but by the time they graduate their scores are higher in these dimensions than women graduating from all other academic institutions,” President Nemerowicz pointed out.

“We have always maintained that a Pine Manor education is truly transformational—now we have the empirical data to back up our claim.”

At the conclusion of her remarks President Nemerowicz asked the students to come forward, introduce themselves, and talk about their Pine Manor experiences. Senior Paige Clark of Mattapan, Mass., a dual Social and Political Systems and English major, encapsulated the message and brought the house down when she said, “I came to Pine Manor College as a girl, and I’m leaving as a woman.”
Vicki Donlan ’71, publisher of Boston Women’s Business Journal, concluded the formal portion of the evening by saying how proud she was of her alma mater and called on those present to spread the word about the College, to serve as volunteers and mentors, and to provide opportunities for Pine Manor interns and graduates.

Guests were then invited to view the exhibit of works by L’Merchie Frazier in the Hess Gallery—catalogued, curated, and hung by PMC students—and to meet both the artist and the students involved. Frazier is the Director of Education at the Museum of Afro-American History in Boston. Her work is represented at the Smithsonian Institute, the American Craft Museum in New York, the University of Vermont, and in private collections.