Celebrating Ada Comstock
Scholars
It takes the traditional student more than 120 credit
hours and some four years to earn a Smith College bachelor’s degree. But there
are some students, like Mary Pinney ’80, for whom the march to graduation can
take decades.
Originally a member of the class of 1958, Mary Pinney
entered Smith in fall 1954. The daughter of a Smith alumna, class of 1932, she says, “I
always knew I wanted to go to Smith, and I loved being there.”
However, she was also in love with her high school
sweetheart, and after marrying him during her junior year, she left Smith, “in
good academic standing, but not expecting that I would ever return.” Nevertheless,
six children and 20 years later, she returned to Smith to finish her degree, commuting
each week from New Jersey and staying on campus from Sunday to Wednesday.
“It was a glorious two years,” she recalls. “There
were moments of quiet desperation, when I thought I would never make it, but also
many moments of tremendous satisfaction and joy as I realized I could still think
and write and achieve academically.”
Pinney went on to earn a master’s degree and
complete all of her coursework, except for her dissertation, for a doctorate at the
University of Pennsylvania. Eventually she became an associate dean at Rider University.
It has been 30 years since former Smith president Jill
Ker Conway founded the Ada Comstock Scholars Program, the first college program to
offer older women the opportunity to resume their education. This fall, Ada alumnae
were invited back to campus October 7-8 to commemorate the program’s
successes.
The program’s milestone is cause for celebration.
Alexandra Kutik ’00 of San Francisco, California, says it was good to reconnect
with the Ada community, both alumnae and current students. “Our primary common
cause is to transform our lives. The celebration was a very powerful reminder of
the commitment we all made.”
Before entering the Ada program, Kutik had a long career
in nonprofit management, but positions in top management eluded her. “My goal
upon graduation was to head a small nonprofit,” notes Kutik, “and that’s
exactly what I did, serving as executive director of the Randall Museum Friends.
I believe that the confidence gained during my very successful academic years helped
me to achieve this professional goal.”
Mary Pinney ’80 would agree. But there is another
unanticipated benefit of her Ada experience that she likes to point to: a friendship
among seven women, all Smith graduates with ages spanning some 21 years, who have
formed a close bond since attending Smith. “Over the years, as our lives have
evolved, we have shared laughter and tears, food and drink and most of all love,” Pinney
notes. “Our children have grown; grandchildren, none of whom existed in 1980,
have grown; three of us have lost spouses; all but one of us is now retired. Through
all of the ups and downs of our lives, our friendship has remained a vital constant.”
Go to www.smith.edu/ada for more information about
the program. |
