"If I have one regret about my time at Mount Holyoke, it is that I didn't meet you sooner.  Do you remember that day, one year ago, when we first sat down for lunch at Blanchard?  So much has changed since then, for better or for worse, but through it all I have found a true friend in you.  Your kindness, loyalty and integrity have helped me to face the uncertain future with courage.

Holly Regan, because we met, I am a stronger, truer person more capable of loving myself and the world." —Hannah Leffingwell '15

"Penny Gill was my Pasts & Presences professor my first year at MHC. She taught me to think smarter, write better, and to feel comfortable discovering myself as a student away from home for the first time.

By my senior year, after working with her in the Politics Department and taking additional classes with her, I considered her a mentor. She prepared me for my security clearance interview with the State Department and even allowed us to use her office for the very lengthy interview. 

Penny, because we met, I have worked and traveled globally with confidence." —Leslie Green '94

"They say 90% of the learning you do in college is outside the classroom, and I did the majority of that learning on the Student Programs stage crew, under the guidance of Kris Bergbom.

Her interest in us as people, encouragement of us as leaders, and fostering of us as team, made our group into a family. I always looked forward to going to work, no matter who I was working with. 

Kris, because we met, I am a more confident leader, a more collaborative team player, and a more empathetic person." —Marnie Murray '14

"I came to Mount Holyoke confident in my writing and humanities skills, but far from confident in math or science. Numbers felt like a foreign language to me.

One day, during sophomore fall, Marilyn Pryor, the inimitable Chair of the famed Mount Holyoke Biology Department, reached out to me and tried her hardest to talk me into majoring in Bio. I was floored. I did not take her kind offer, but I did start to have a different conversation within my head about my skills. Now I have spent over 20 years in energy commodity trading dealing with complex derivative calculations and technical writing, and I handle million and billion dollar project financings and acquisitions for my construction projects with no fear whatsoever.

Professor Pryor, because we met, I re-imagined myself." —Danetta Beaushaw '88