Profiles of the Alumnae Achievement Award Recipients

Marilyn Crandall Jones '70

"It didn't happen quite the way it sounds," Alumnae Achievement Award recipient Marilyn Jones '70 said of her plan to enter medical school after majoring in art history at Wellesley.  "I started out thinking I was going to be a doctor because both my parents were doctors.  I came here and started in pre-medicine.  Then, I discovered history of art in my sophomore year."  

Jones, who came from a math- and science-oriented high school, had her first taste of art history in college.  In the interest of maximizing her time at a liberal arts college, Jones shied away from the maths and sciences when choosing her major.  Although she went to medical school after college and later ended up as an award-winning clinical geneticist, she did not completely leave art history behind.  According to Jones, art history and medicine have similarities.  The same part of the brain–that which deals with visual pattern recognition—is integral to both disciplines.

Sarah Milledge Nelson '53

"They got the times right, but I don't think they quite got Wellesley right," said Sarah Milledge Nelson '53 of the 2003 film Mona Lisa Smile.  While the typical Wellesley woman may never have memorized her art history textbook before the start of a course, Nelson affirms that her graduation class did largely expect to be "headed for the altar."

And so, Nelson's receipt of Wellesley's Alumnae Achievement Award proves indeed to be a result of the path less taken.  Nelson, who attended Wellesley prior to the establishment of its department of anthropology, majored in Biblical history and did not return to academia until the age of 35, when she entered the University of Michigan's Ph.D. program in archaeology.  Inspired by fellow alumna Katie Palmer, her former high school biology teacher, Nelson made the conscious decision not to "selfishly waste her talents," and followed her graduate degree with a slew of findings in East Asia.

Nelson's most recent work focuses on East Asia's earliest pottery.  "Who were the potters?  Why don't we give potters credit by calling their time the ‘age of pottery,' instead of the Stone Age?" she asks.  These questions are characteristic of her work on gender in archaeology, as the traditionally feminine occupation of potter is often overshadowed by the more industrious images of tools and weapons conjured up by the term "Stone Age."

Most recently, Nelson has served as a professor of archaeology and vice Provost for research at the University of Denver.  Now retired, she continues to live there with her family, who all flew in for Thursday's ceremony.

Susan Rice '67

Susan Rice '67 has never had a plan. "You have to be willing to go where life takes you," she said. It is precisely this mindset that has gotten Rice to where she is today. After graduating from Wellesley with a degree in biology, Rice went on to pursue her love of science. After a successful career as a biologist (she was published in Nature), Rice made a career change and became a college dean, first at Colgate and then at Yale.

She then took an even bigger risk when she became chair of Lloyds, a Scottish clearing bank, even though she knew very little about finance. "I thought I'd see if they'd have me," she said. After accepting the assignment, she became the first woman and first American to head a U.K. clearing bank. Rice says her secret to success is all about not having a plan. "Don't become so fixated on a career route that you fail to see the opportunities to the right and to the left," she said.

Her time at Wellesley was formative, she says, because it taught her how to think. "At the end of the day you forget what you learn in the classroom," she said. But the love of learning new things and sense of aspiration and ambition that she got at Wellesley stuck with her. "That equipped me to go into new situations all the time," she said.

Reena Raggi '73

Reena Raggi '73 is practically sitting in one everyday. Raggi, a recipient of the a 2011 Alumnae Achievement Award, is a federal judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and holds a seat previously held by only one other judge, Amalya Kearse '59.

The courtroom itself has been like a home to Raggi, who spend years arguing in front of the same bench she eventually joined, the Eastern District of New York. She said that this familiarity helped her gain the post, to which she was appointed on the recommendation of Sen. Alfonse D'Amato (R-N.Y.). "All the judges of the Eastern District Bench—all male—were very, very supportive," said Raggi, who cited this support as another reason for her induction.

While still at Wellesley, Raggi was in the Shakespeare Society and the chair of the class junior show—which, she said, was a much more elaborate production in her day than it is currently. When she came back to campus, she had no expectations, only hope that she would see the same enthusiasm she remembered from her own time on campus.

Women's education was a large part of her upswing in self-confidence as a young woman, and Raggi said she hoped that others would gain the same from their experience. "It never hurts to have ‘the plan,'" she said of the five-year plan about which orientation speakers continually warn first years.

She made clear her support for a broad liberal arts education, especially since careers are not necessarily born from majors. "It's important not to study too narrowly," she said, because career plans can change swiftly.