“I always say, shortly after I was born, I turned right and came here,” Nancy Godwin Baldwin, a 1957 graduate of Sweet Briar College and recipient of the 2007 Outstanding Alumna Award, said recently.

Presented during Reunion Weekend, May 18-20, the Outstanding Alumna Award was established in 1968 and recognizes “alumnae who have given outstanding service to the College in a volunteer capacity.”

Nancy Godwin BaldwinBaldwin retires from Sweet Briar in June after nearly 50 years, the last 20 of which she has spent editing the Alumnae Magazine. During that time, she also worked part time in development.

Over the years, she also has served as assistant director of admissions from 1958-66, and director of admissions from 1966-80.

Baldwin also is a longtime member of the Alumnae Association Board, a volunteer position.

“The work that she has done for us truly has been a labor of love,” said Louise Zingaro, director of the Alumnae Association.

Baldwin retired from admissions in 1980. She was lured back six years later to edit the Alumnae Magazine by Zingaro’s predecessor, Ann Morrison Reams ’42.

She had stayed active with SBC, Reams said, explaining how she knew Baldwin was right for the job. “Especially when you’re connected with the alumnae office, you’re into the whole shooting match.”

Also, Reams pointed out, “Having sold the College to students and parents across the country [as an admissions counselor], she has such a wonderful overview of what the College is all about.”

Sandra Taylor ’74 was sold on Sweet Briar after one of the College’s admissions counselors – called “travelers” in those days – presented a slide show at her Richmond high school. Her mother and father were not. Taylor wasn’t thinking about being one of the only black students on campus, but her parents were.

Following a visit to the school, Taylor discovered her mother and father were a “little more amenable” to the idea. Years later she learned why.

“Nancy [then admissions director] convinced my parents that it would be OK for me to come to Sweet Briar and that she would personally look out for me,” Taylor said. “Now, the plot thickens because my parents were so impressed with my experience at Sweet Briar that they pretty much insisted that my sister [Marsha Taylor Horton ’76] come.”

Later, nearing graduation and unsure what kind of work she wanted to go into, Taylor went to Baldwin for advice. Among her suggestions, Baldwin mentioned that several offices on campus had openings.

“When Nancy finished talking, my new dream in life was to work as an admissions counselor,” Taylor said.

She was on “pins and needles” until she heard she’d been selected for the job. Taylor recounted what happened next.

“Once again, naïve, I think I’m just gonna get my little slide show and off I go. Oh, no. All summer we had what I call the Nancy Baldwin School of Public Speaking.”

Every day the budding travelers were grilled on Sweet Briar until they could speak extemporaneously on the College for some 30 minutes without any “ums” and “wells,” Taylor said. And no one “graduated” until they were all ready.

Taylor, today a senior vice president at SunTrust Bank, has since done a lot of training and public speaking in her career. “The comments were always ‘you’re so engaging, you keep the audience laughing,’ and every time I would get a positive response I thanked Nancy Baldwin.”

Baldwin’s hand print on the College is undeniable.

“Nancy shaped the future of Sweet Briar in many ways through the students she’s admitted,” Zingaro said. “She admitted me.”

Many went on to be doctors, engineers and high-ranking corporate executives. Many of those have made their own marks on SBC as members of the Board of Directors or the Alumnae Association Board.

Some who know Baldwin say she is timeless. No one remembers her with a different hairstyle. She dresses impeccably, with a keen eye for hip animal-themed clothing and jewelry. But she doesn’t mind if students today wear pajamas to class or let their jeans drag the ground.

Every generation is its own, and they get the same respect as all that went before. That constant evolution is one reason Baldwin remained at Sweet Briar.

“It was endlessly interesting,” she said. “Everything that I saw happening seemed good at the time, some proved good, some proved not so good, but there was something going on all the time. I would not have stayed had I been bored.”