Alyson Booth ’13 on her horse Dom, who spent three years at Sweet Briar. “I like to think he has earned his undergrad degree also,” says mom Debbie.

“Alyson has gained so much from her time at Sweet Briar, it feels right to give back and make sure that Sweet Briar can continue to provide students competitive programs and resources,” says Bill, who made a career in point-of-sales marketing and retired after working for Coinstar during its startup phase. “[She] has benefited from the generosity of those who came before her, so getting involved and contributing to the Annual Fund is our way of giving back.”

This month, Alyson is graduating with a B.S. in biology and a minor in chemistry. She’s already been accepted to the veterinary program at Ohio State University, where she’ll start in the fall.

Alyson’s journey began during her junior year in high school. As a participant in the College Bound riding program in Gainesville, Fla., she met Sweet Briar riding director Mimi Wroten, who told her everything about the College’s equestrian program. After a campus visit, Alyson was ready to disqualify all other colleges from her wish list.

“Alyson’s passion is horses,” Debbie says, adding that her daughter has been riding since she enrolled her in a spring break riding camp in elementary school.

“When it came time to choose a college, she wanted to attend a school that would provide her the opportunity to continue riding.”

Sweet Briar was the only school Alyson applied to — despite her initial aversion to the idea of attending a women’s college.

“I remember suggesting Sweet Briar to her when she was a sophomore in high school,” says Bill, who had visited the campus when he was a student at Washington & Jefferson College in Pennsylvania.

Natalie (left), Bill, Alyson and Debbie Booth at Alyson’s high school graduation.

“I had a fraternity brother whose girlfriend attended Sweet Briar. They got in a fight and he convinced me to ride with him to visit her over a weekend. … If someone had said to me back then, ‘Someday, you will have a daughter and she will attend Sweet Briar with her horse,’ I would have told them they were crazy.”

While growing up just 30 miles apart in the Pittsburgh area, the Booths didn’t meet until they were both working for the same supermarket vendor, but in different cities. A corporate training program in California brought them together.

Two children and many years later, Debbie continues to work in marketing, now for the personalized digital media company Catalina, where she has been for 19 years. Last summer, Becca Davidson ’13 interned at Catalina and stayed with the Booths while Alyson was away with “Vets in the Wild” in South Africa.

“We had done this once before with a UVa student who was a friend of Aly’s sister Natalie, so we were totally open to doing it again when one of Aly’s friends expressed an interest in exploring a career in human resources,” Debbie says. “Aly suggested she reach out to me. After speaking with her, I encouraged her to send me her resume and I sponsored her candidacy for the Catalina Summer Internship Program. When she was accepted, we invited her to stay with us for the summer.”

Debbie hopes more parents will open their homes — and internship opportunities — to Sweet Briar students.

“Many parents may be able to offer a similar opportunity and just have not thought about it. It’s a rewarding experience for the student and for the host family.”

Alyson, in turn, has benefited from the generosity of many Sweet Briar parents in Virginia, who took her in during holidays when she couldn’t make it home.

To Debbie, “that says a lot about the SBC parent community.”

Through their involvement on the Parent Steering Committee, the Booths have connected with many other Sweet Briar families, and every time, they find a lot in common.

“In all my encounters, the parents have shared similar, positive SBC experiences and consistently place a deep value on the women’s college education and experience,” Debbie says.

Alyson during the “Vets in the Wild” program in South Africa last summer.

Both Bill and Debbie know that Sweet Briar was the right choice for Alyson.

“The family atmosphere, the collaboration and support of the professors and the support of alumnae are all examples of what makes Sweet Briar such a special place,” Debbie explains. “Aly was appropriately challenged and supported by professors [who] believed in her and provided her strong advice and guidance.”

They’re especially grateful for the many opportunities Alyson was offered in preparation for vet school. The summer between her freshman and sophomore years, she interned at a Sweet Briar alumna’s small animal practice in the Lynchburg area, and her pre-vet and senior research advisor, biology professor John Morrissey, encouraged her to participate in the “Vets in the Wild” program. Each opportunity has brought Alyson one step closer to fulfilling her lifelong dream of becoming a veterinarian.

For as long as the Booths can remember, “Aly was bound and determined to get into vet school,” Debbie says. “She was accepted at five schools — three abroad and two in the U.S. … We are thrilled and truly blessed.”

But it’s not just about academics. Alyson has grown on a personal level, as well, something Bill is keenly aware of.

“Alyson has flourished. Her self-confidence has grown, she has a deeper understanding of who she is; she is more independent, she speaks up. She’s developed gumption. She has also has taken [the] initiative to try new things, such as participating in cross country. I have seen her become a leader rather than a follower.

“Last but not least, she has developed deep friendships that will last forever.”

Alyson, for her part, is glad she made the choice to attend Sweet Briar. That her parents have been there to support her every step of the way means a lot, she says.

“It was important to me because they got to be a part of my college experience in positive ways, other than just helping me pay for school.”

— Janika Carey

Connie Guion in the chemistry lab in 1908.

First in a series

When something is in front of us every day, it’s easy to take for granted, to forget why it’s special or what it means. The name of Dr. Connie M. Guion comes to mind. Sweet Briar’s science building is named for her, as are three endowed scholarship funds, a named professorship and one of the coveted all-College awards given to a senior at graduation.

The award is earned for “excellence as a human being and as a member of the College.” Lauren Alkire won it in 2012, but knew little about its namesake until she researched Guion.

“I knew that she had been a chemistry professor, and a little bit about her involvement with a few clubs on campus — but nothing really notable,” Alkire said from Britain, where she’s studying for her master’s at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Occasions such as Women’s History Month allow us to reflect on yesterday’s pioneers, as well as contemporary happenings that history will ultimately record. In that spirit, this remembrance of Connie Myers Guion is the first in a series of stories this month related to the 2013 theme, “Women Inspiring Innovation Through Imagination: Celebrating Women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.”

Revolutionizing healthcare

When Guion Science Center was dedicated on April 22, 1966, President Anne Gary Pannell introduced her, saying Guion’s life epitomized her belief in women’s education.

“She stands as an ideal of the goal toward which every woman must aspire — to educate herself to the limit of her abilities and contribute her talents to the betterment of society wherever she finds herself.”

Pannell could cite ample evidence for the statement, including that Sweet Briar’s new science hall was the second building to bear her name.

Dr. Connie Guion in front of the New York City hospital wing that bears her name. Courtesy of Medical Center Archives of NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell.

A few years earlier, the new outpatient wing of the New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center was named the Connie Guion Building — a first for a living woman doctor. It was the new home of the Cornell Pay Clinic, which she had helped establish in 1922 and later led as its chief.

The clinic revolutionized outpatient care for New York’s poor and working-class residents, creating a model that was implemented across the country and is evident today.

By then, Guion was already noted for shaking things up, with characteristic wit and common sense. In 1918 at Bellevue Hospital, she challenged the long ambulance shifts required of her as an intern, and succeeded in getting them changed from 24 to 12 hours.

“I think it is inhuman to make interns hang on the back of an ambulance 24 hours at a time,” she told the superintendent, according to a profile in Look magazine (“The amazing Doctor Guion,” Sept. 12, 1961).

He told her it had been that way for 100 years. “Well,” she said, “the century’s up.”

During the internship, she began teaching at the Cornell University Weill Medical College, where she had graduated at the top of her class. Guion taught in addition to running a private practice in New York, which she maintained into her late 80s. She became the nation’s first woman to be promoted to full professor of clinical medicine in 1946.

No place for old-fashioned notions

Of course, all that happened after she made her first impression on Sweet Briar as a chemistry and physics teacher from 1908 to 1913. The Lincolnton, N.C., native had delayed medical school to help put two younger sisters through school, as an older sister had helped her. She was the ninth of 12 children. According to Look, she did not learn to read until age 10.

Always an adventurer, Guion reveled in Sweet Briar’s newness. She saw it as a 20th-century college with “no place for old-fashioned notions,” according to former president Betsy Muhlenfeld, who noted that Guion wrote glowingly to her Wellesley classmates, “Imagine working in a place not tainted with precedent but open to conviction on every point.”

She also appreciated founding president Mary Benedict’s determination to make the school viable without compromising her vision for its mission. When Benedict arrived in June 1906, there were four impressive new buildings — but only two faculty members and one student enrolled for the coming fall.

In a 1959 Founders’ Day keynote address, Guion said, “How simply Mary Benedict could have answered all the problems that confronted her — both financial and academic — had she decided to build here a stylish boarding school where girls could be prepared to cook, to sew, to paint, to become musicians, linguists — in short to be accomplished young ladies and promising wives. This she would not do because she believed that Indiana Fletcher had higher ideals for the education of women.”

Despite Guion’s affinity for forging new paths, she nonetheless contributed to the College’s revered traditions, organizing clubs such as the forerunner to Paint ’n’ Patches and helping to set up the athletic program. She also founded the bookstore in 1909, handing Benedict a check for $16,000 from its profits when she left for New York four years later.

Guion’s affection for Sweet Briar lasted until she died in 1971 at age 88, and she would again dedicate herself to its welfare. She helped lead a campaign to establish the Mary Kendrick Benedict Scholarship in 1945. She became an overseer in 1950 and was made a life member of the board in 1956. At the time, she chaired the development committee responsible for directing the Half-Century Campaign for $2.5 million and creating the annual giving program.

Her private practice in New York appears to have been fortuitous for Sweet Briar. Guion counted among her clients Rockefellers, Astors and John Hay Whitney — names that are associated with significant gifts to the College, such as the Guion-Whitney Professor of Physics chair.

When she died, the Vincent Astor Foundation gave $5,000 to establish the Connie M. Guion Endowed Scholarship Fund and as numerous small gifts poured into the College in her honor, they were added to the account. This year, seven students received scholarships from it.

A well-traveled path

Although Guion’s time at Sweet Briar was short, she recognized that she and her colleagues were building something special. She saw it among the students, about whom she wrote, “Everywhere I was conscious of a spirit of ownership or a better word is partnership, a spirit of jealousy for this growing young college.”

Laura Lee Joiner ’96 attended medical school on an Army scholarship and served until 2007. She attained the rank of major and earned several citations including the Combat Action Badge and two Army Commendation Medals.

If memories of Guion have faded, her path is nonetheless well-traveled by Sweet Briar women such as Dr. Laura Lee Rihl Joiner ’96. Joiner was her class valedictorian and the Presidential Medalist, among other honors. She attended medical school on an Army scholarship and served until 2007.

As an ob-gyn, Joiner has devoted her career to women’s health, often working with underserved groups — the Iraqi Women’s Initiative while deployed, treating women vets and finding the care they need in the Veteran’s Affairs system built for men, and directing a clinic for lower-income clients. She also held numerous teaching positions, and recently left the University of Alabama to work in private practice.

And she is raising three children.

Joiner admires Guion’s pluck — and appreciates it. “She would have been unusual in her time,” she says. “It is because of trailblazers like Dr. Guion that women are so readily a part of medicine today. … I have met no resistance during my career to the idea that I could not only be a doctor and an Army officer, but also a wife and mother.”

Alkire, too, is grateful to women like Guion. “Her dedication to the school and determination in her professional life have paved the way for so many women to succeed,” she says. “It’s also served as a great source of encouragement.”

— Jennifer McManamay

Hank Yochum (from left), Jill Granger and Arlene Vinion-Dubiel are part of the Sweet Briar team leading a collaborative STEM teacher education program. Behind them math and science teachers workshop new lesson plans.

Sweet Briar’s STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) teacher development program is the subject of the first in a new online video series produced by PBS’s “NewsHour.” The series highlights kindergarten through high school science and math teachers who are using innovative teaching methods.

The lesson featured in today’s story is part of a 19-month project led by Sweet Briar in partnership with Lynchburg College.

Baker, a chemistry major, created the blog as an Anne Gary Pannell Merit Scholar, through which she receives funding to support the project. She is one of nine Sweet Briar students to earn the scholarship this year. Initiated in 2010-2011, the program rewards exceptional first-year students with the opportunity to explore an area of interest during their sophomore year. The Class of 2014 was the first to complete projects under the program.

Ashley Baker ’15 during her Thanksgiving break visit in Philadelphia

Pannell Scholars receive a merit award applied to their tuition and funds to support any research or travel associated with their project. This year’s themes reflect a diverse group of scholars — topics range from researching the castle of Versailles, bilingualism in education or the history of Western European swordsmanship to conducting workshops in engineering and exploring a medical career in Guatemala.

What unites many of these projects is that Pannell Scholars are motivated by something beyond their own curiosity. Baker is no exception.

“I was inspired to pursue this project because so many of my non-sciencey friends say they’re ‘bad’ at math or science, and therefore, haven’t studied those subjects,” she said. “There are so many cool things I’ve learned as a hard science major that I wouldn’t know if I hadn’t taken advanced science classes, and I want to share those interesting tidbits with people who won’t have the opportunity or time to take those courses.”

Baker’s interest in creative writing helps her to turn complicated reactions into easy-to-grasp, entertaining lessons, as do the many images and videos she uses to illustrate her blog. There are clips of Bill Nye the Science Guy on static electricity and magnetism, there’s a rap video on how to make pancakes, and then there are photos of Baker at an apple orchard and in Philadelphia during Thanksgiving break. In order to “learn how to better present technical information to the public in an interesting and effective manner,” Baker visited several of the city’s science museums, including the Chemical Heritage Museum, the Franklin Institute, the Academy of Natural Sciences and the Mütter Museum.

So far, Baker has enjoyed the experience, and she says she might continue her blog next year to “inform those around me about the neat things I learn.”

“I learn a lot while writing, so it’s beneficial for me as well as those who read it,” she added.

Blogging about science has also brought her one step closer to figuring out what she wants to do after college.

“Chemical education is a field that interests me, and I may eventually pursue a career that deals with informing the public about scientific research.”

In the meantime, Baker is working on finishing her own education — one chemistry class at a time.

“The courses have been really challenging, but Sweet Briar is a friendly environment that has allowed me to grow throughout these challenges, rather than be encumbered by them,” she said.

“It’s a great place.”

— Janika Carey

Image courtesy of Alexandra DiFeliceantonio

Alexandra Gold DiFeleceantonio ’08 is the lead author behind a recent study that explains why we can’t stop eating chocolate — among other things. The study, undertaken by scientists from the University of Michigan, was published in the journal Current Biology and is featured in an article in the Smithsonian’s online magazine and at scientificamerican.com.

The question they asked was: What is it in our neural system that prevents us from knowing when we’ve had enough? To find out, the researchers measured enkephalin levels in rats. Enkephalin is an opium-like chemical naturally occurring in the neostriatum, an area of the brain supposedly related to craving.

In the first step, the rats were offered unlimited amounts of M&Ms, while their enkephalin levels were monitored. When they started to eat, enkephalin levels surged. In the second step, the researchers injected synthetic enkephalin into the neostriatum to determine whether the chemical might actually cause the rats to eat more. The results were astonishing. With the stimulation, the rats ate twice as many candies as they did before.

“They ate the equivalent of a 150-pound human consuming seven pounds of M&Ms,” said DiFeliceantonio, who is a Ph.D. candidate in biopsychology at the University of Michigan.

But there was more to find out.

“We then asked whether the injection was making the rats just want to eat more or actually making the M&Ms taste better.”

Through a test in which lip-licking is used as an indicator, the researchers found that while the rats ate more, they didn’t like the M&Ms any more than before.

“So, enkephalin in this area is a purely motivational signal saying, ‘Eat more now!’ ” DiFeliceantonio explained.

“This means that the brain has more extensive systems to make individuals want to over-consume rewards than previously thought,” she said in the Smithsonian article. “It may be one reason why over-consumption is a problem today.”

Alexandra Gold diFeliceantonio ’08 is a Ph.D. candidate
at the University of Michigan.

The study may also explain some of the underlying mental reasons behind other addictions, the magazine notes.

“It seems likely that our enkephalin findings in rats mean that this neurotransmitter may drive some forms of over-consumption and addiction in people,” DiFeliceantonio said.

She began the study two years ago in collaboration with several chemists, as well as pharmacologist Omar Mabrouk and his mentor, Robert Kennedy, who measured the enkephalin levels using mass spectrometry. Kent Berridge, DiFeliceantonio’s current mentor and dissertation advisor, is the final author of the study.

DiFeliceantonio was accepted into the psychology program at the university immediately after graduating from Sweet Briar in 2008 with a double-major in psychology and Spanish. She will complete her Ph.D. next spring and is looking for a post-doctoral research position.

— Janika Carey

There’s the Lower Lake they used to swim in during the summers, and the campus gardens Sue adores. Part of the money is going toward preserving Sweet Briar’s natural and landscaped environment.

An avid gardener, Sue cultivates her love of nature in their home, as well. The Piephos’ living room is like a botanical garden, with a variety of plants climbing almost to the ceiling, and giant windows framing the greenery outside. The house, designed by local architect Hal Craddock in 1990, sits in a field above the lake. Local river stone embellishes the fireplace in the living room, which was built to face the fireplace in the historic boathouse.

While the connection between the two structures was Craddock’s idea, the Piephos put a lot of thought into the design of their home, as well. Making sure that it fit into the existing landscape was one important aspect. Utilizing its environment was another.

“[We wanted to] bring the outside in,” Sue explains, and she’s not just talking about plants. The living room windows face south, thus allowing for plenty of light and the use of solar energy. “The quarry tile and southern exposure of the solarium gives not only a delightful environment for my plants, but low energy bills in the winter. On a sunny day in mid-winter, the house gets warmer than our thermostat setting, and it is fun to feel like you are in the Caribbean on sunny days.”

All over the house, stacks of books rich with travel destinations, history and literature in foreign languages bear witness to the world outside of Sweet Briar. Not surprisingly, the Piephos have decided to reserve some of the endowment for international scholarships. It’s also a very personal connection: Their love story began at sea.

“We met on a boat going to Europe, between sophomore and junior years in college,” Sue says.

Sue stayed with a German family for six weeks to advance her knowledge of the German language, while Lee road-tripped across Europe in a Volkswagen convertible. They later met up in Paris and London.

“The experience in my case was transformative,” Lee says. “I learned a vast amount about people and cultures.” For Sue, this was her second time abroad; she spent ninth grade at the International School in Geneva, Switzerland, and traveled through Europe at that time.

The Piephos have since traveled to various places around the world, including Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Greece, Sweden, China, Central America, the Caribbean and the Middle East.

“We can appreciate how much you gain from going to another country, and I think you look at your country in a different way after you’ve been abroad for an extended period of time,” Sue says. “I think it’s an experience we want students to have — both foreign students coming here and Sweet Briar students going abroad.”

Another project dear to the Piephos’ hearts is the planned addition to Sweet Briar’s library. For many years, Cochran has served as an extension of Lee’s own library at home. A former English professor with a focus on Shakespeare and Renaissance culture, Lee still uses it frequently for his research, but also donates his own books to it.

“Historically, I’ve been a big supporter of the library,” he says. “It probably comes with the discipline. I’ve always thought that libraries have a special place. A library is and should be a cultural center of a college.”

Lee, who is the only professor to have won the Student Government Association’s Excellence in Teaching award twice, came to Sweet Briar in 1969 and retired from teaching in 2005 — two years before Sue stopped teaching chemistry.

When planning how to divide up the endowment, it was clear that the sciences should receive part of it, too. The discipline had grown up with the Piephos over the years.

“When I first came, the expectation for women in science was minimal,” says Sue, who started teaching in the early 1970s. “Most Sweet Briar students hadn’t had much science or math in high school. They didn’t have to take chemistry; eighty percent of students had never had chemistry, and fewer still physics or calculus.”

Today, most high schools require students to take classes in chemistry and other sciences, and the curriculum at Sweet Briar is much more investigative than it used to be. Sue was instrumental in introducing an intermediate lab course for juniors during the early 1990s.

“That really opened up our curriculum … now, there’s a lot of hands-on experience students can get,” she says. “I think science is a tough nut to crack at the big universities and the crazy thing is, these universities have the big graduate programs, but they themselves have surprisingly few majors so they have to recruit grad students from liberal arts colleges.”

Sweet Briar is one of them.

“We really put forth some excellent grads,” Sue says, and she also knows why.

“I think they get to know the faculty, and the faculty give them a lot of encouragement, but we don’t let them shortcut, we make them really do the work. We really expect a lot from the students. There’s sort of a can-do attitude here.”

Both Sue and Lee went to small liberal arts colleges themselves, Sue to Smith College and Lee to Kenyon College.

“We believe in liberal arts colleges, and we made that decision pretty early on in our lives,” Lee says.

But it’s not just the College’s academic and natural landscape they feel connected to. It’s the whole package. The community, they both say, is like family. And how could it not be, after spending most of their lives here? It’s a place that has nurtured them with its beauty, inspired through its intellectual community and provided lifelong friendships across the disciplines. It has given them the space they needed to do their research, and the luxury to focus on quality rather than quantity. It has allowed them to think outside the box.

“The College gives you an incredible amount of freedom to define both what you teach and your research,” Sue says. “We’ve seen the College really make a difference in people’s lives.”

At Sweet Briar, Sue and Lee had the freedom to shape their programs’ futures. Sue helped reform the sciences; Lee was instrumental in shaping the European civilization program (the foundation for the Medieval/Renaissance minor) and also started the film minor at the College. None of this, they say, would have been likely at a big university. Working at a small liberal arts college, they’ve been able to interact with everyone in the community on a personal level, including the students, many of whom they’re still in touch with.

“It’s always a pleasure when alums come back and you see what’s happened to them,” Lee says. “They wind up being interesting women. Sweet Briar turns out individuals.”

Sue agrees. “Sweet Briar is pretty darn unique.”

Contact: Janika Carey

The evening’s events begin with a 5 p.m. lecture by Nancy Mills, professor of chemistry at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. The lecture, which is open to the public, will be held in Heuer Auditorium at Guion Science Center.

Mills joined Trinity’s faculty in 1979 and specializes in organic chemistry. She has a Ph.D. from the University of Arizona and a Bachelor’s degree in chemistry and American studies from Grinnell College.

“Dr. Mills’ professional experiences in chemistry have focused on supporting an exciting and dynamic research program in which undergraduates have played a key role,” Jill Granger, professor of chemistry at Sweet Briar, wrote in an e-mail. “Her service to the Council of Undergraduate Research underscores her commitment to the education of chemistry students through research experiences.”

Mill’s lecture — the only public event that evening — will be followed by a dinner, new member initiation and a dessert reception.

The following students will be initiated into the Lanthanum Chapter of Iota Sigma Pi:

Sweet Briar College:
Rebecca Adams
Logan Fitzgerald
Jenna Wasylenko
Casey Pacheco
Madeleine MacIntire

Randolph College:
Aliyah Barrett
Elizabeth Robinson
Rebika Shrestha
Amy Thruston
Archana Datta