The MHC SoCal Digest Issue 5
A Message From The Board
We want to take this opportunity to wish everyone a happy holiday season, and we look forward to an exciting year ahead. To usher in 2024, we are pleased to announce our new College President, Danielle Holley, will be visiting here in Southern California on January 17th for an evening event. Communications from the College’s Alumnae Association are providing registration information and event details to you. Please attend to show our support for our alma mater!
Now here’s your sneak peek into this edition of the Digest with a focus on alums involved with health and wellness.
Meet Dr. Elizabeth Short (1963), Dr. Susan Stone (1996), Physician Assistant Brigitte Buehler (2010), and Registered Nurse Rebecca Sweet (2010).
In “Moho Buzz”, learn more about the College’s pre-health career advising process for undergraduates.
“Seen Around SoCal” this issue captures the Arts and Affinity Group tour of the Japanese American National Museum in Little Tokyo; our Outdoor Activities Walking Clinic in Santa Monica with Personal Trainer Malin Svensson; and Mountain Day Celebrations up and down the Club’s expanse!
“SoCal Club News” describes features available on our Club website – an exciting new “Group Chat” launched this Fall in conjunction with “The Gates”, a special Resource Page for alums new to SoCal, and a link to a recently recorded Zoom session with Dr. Jaime Grillo of the College’s Career Center and Kate Sawicki of the College’s Alumnae Association titled “Career Connections”.
Happy Reading!
LEADING LIGHTS
Dr. Sarah E. Stone
Meet Sarah Stone, M.D. who started on the road to becoming one of our Leading
Lights in 1996, when she graduated from Mount Holyoke. She then went on to earn her medical degree from the Warren Alpert Medical School at Brown University. Sarah works as a hospitalist, taking care of people throughout their hospitalizations. She has been with Sharp Rees-Stealy Medical Group for 17 years, and Co-Chairs their Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee. She has a particular interest in health equity.
Sarah explained how her experiences at Mt. Holyoke shaped her decision to pursue a career in healthcare. She appreciated that the liberal arts program allowed her freedom to explore many subjects, while still able to complete her pre-med requirements. She also enjoyed the rich science opportunities at Mount Holyoke, and particularly remembers Dr. Sheila Browne’s organic chemistry class, where Dr. Browne shared her excitement about science in general and organic chemistry in particular.
Mount Holyoke allowed Sarah to pursue a non-traditional premed undergrad experience. Sarah majored in English, spent her junior year abroad, and took a wide variety of courses. Being able to explore multiple possible career paths made her feel completely confident when she chose medicine. She also took an EMT course over January term through the 5 College Program, and worked on ambulances while she applied to medical school.
Sarah is still ridiculously excited about medicine and science. She loves taking care of patients in the hospital, and enjoys being able to learn more about pathophysiology every day. She had done research on prevention of venous thromboembolic disease in hospitalized patients, and co-authored a paper on the topic, as well as a paper on pulmonary embolism during pregnancy.
She took care of hospitalized patients throughout the Covid pandemic, and notes that even through the darkest time, she was able to fight for her patients’ lives while learning about a new disease process. When asked to share advice for MHC students that might be considering medical or dental school, she said: Go for it! Medicine is never boring!
Dr. Elizabeth Short
Meet Dr. Elizabeth Short (MHC Class of 1963), Emerita Professor Medicine and Genetics. She attended Yale Medical School then remained at Yale for 2 years of medical residency and (her) genetics fellowship. She had a third year of genetics at University of California San Francisco, served as Chief Resident in Medicine at Stanford and joined their faculty as a Professor of Medicine and Genetics. Later she also taught at Georgetown as a Professor of Clinical Medicine and Genetics. During 1982 in Washington DC, she served as Vice President for Faculty and Research at the Association of American Medical Schools, then as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at the US Department of Veterans Affairs. She returned to California when (her) husband was asked to become President & CEO of City of Hope. Asked what she appreciated most about her medical practice, she commented “I valued the academic milieu, the opportunity to teach and my clinics”.
So how did her MHC experience influence her decisions to pursue medicine as a career? Dr. Short reflected: ” I had always wanted to be a physician. I designed my MHC courses to fulfill the minimal medical school entrance requirements so that I could take as many liberal arts courses as possible. I majored in Philosophy, especially theory of knowledge, logic and philosophy of science. I took as many humanities courses- art history, Latin, and literature-as I could fit in.” As a strong proponent of a liberal arts education, her time at MHC taught her to “reason rigorously, make a concise statement of facts, argue/debate clearly, use databases, document evidence, and take good notes.”
SPOTLIGHT ON YOUNG ALUMS
We had the privilege this issue to interview Brigitte Buehler (pictured left), a Physician’s Assistant with the Venice Family Clinic, and Rebecca Sweet (not pictured), a Registered Nurse Case Manager at Hoag Hospital. Both are MHC 2010 graduates! We asked them how they navigated their coursework at MHC, what drew them to their current work, what advice they would give current students, and what challenges each faces working in the complex health care field.
Brigitte encourages pre-health students to take courses that match their interests, taking advantage of a chance to try anything. She admits regretfully with her own choice of courses, that she did not design her own major. But as an environmental science student, it left her some time to be involved in exploring food scarcity and environmental issues in the immediate Springfield area and influenced her interest in obesity and diet. Rebecca pursued a Biology major, but knew “I didn’t want to do Pre-Med. Many of the biology courses aided in my pursuit of a nursing degree”, and she also “minored in English (specifically writing) which has helped tremendously with charting responsibilities she has today.”
Brigitte’s own medical history, having earlier in life undergone a series of operations, has strengthened her passion for the role of physician assistant. That gave her greater insight into the need for better patient-doctor communications. As a physician assistant, she works with children with medical problems related to diabetes.
Rebecca’s passion for hospice nursing “allows me to use the critical thinking that Mt. Holyoke honed in me. It is more autonomous than working bedside at a hospital. I cherish the opportunity to spend as much time with patients as they need to ensure they have quality of life at the end of their lives, as well as being a support to families.”
As for challenges, Brigitte mentioned the extra work that insurance agencies require especially around submitting her progress notes. For Rebecca “oftentimes our patient’s/families elect services very late in their disease process, and they unfortunately pass very shortly after their admission. “ She adds – “hospice is a wonderful service and she wishes that more patients/families had a chance to fully experience all that it has to offer.”
MOHO BUZZ
Highlights from On-Campus Events
How is pre-health career advising occurring on campus right now? To learn more we turned to The College’s Office of Health Professions Advising. They work with individual students as well as groups of student majors to explore a range of opportunities including “dentistry, genetic counseling, human medicine, medical physics, nursing, occupational therapy; optometry; pathology; pharmacy; physical therapy, physician assistant, podiatry, public health (biostatistics, community health, epidemiology, environmental health, fetal health, and more); research; veterinary medicine”. Students are encouraged to explore relevant courses both at MHC and within the college consortium. About 10.5% of MHC graduates pursue post-graduate education for health professions, and the College’s Career Development Center assists close to 80 applicants each admissions cycle. Alums should also know that these same Pre-Health Career mentoring services are also available to those of you who might be contemplating career changes!
MHC SEEN AROUND SOCAL
Westside Mountain Day
Santa Barbara Mountain Day
MHCers took a tour of the Japanese American National Musuem to learn more about Japanese American history and lunch in Little Tokyo. Did you know there were three Japanese American women who attended MHC during the war who were released from the camps to get a college education? One of them is Michi Weglyn who was instrumental in helping get redress and reparations in 1980s. She wrote the pivotal book, Years of Infamy: The Untold Story of America’s Concentration Camps, which was published in 1976.
Outdoor Activities Walking Clinic in Santa Monica with Personal Trainer Malin Svensson
Club News
The Board is pleased to announce our SoCal club and the Peninsula club (Bay Area) were chosen by the Alumnae Association to test a new Group Chat function associated with the College’s digital networking tool, “The Gates”. This platform provides “… an opening to the worldwide Mount Holyoke community” and as a virtual space, “…allows students and alums to easily connect, build relationships, and exchange information.” Hopefully many of you are already registered on “The Gates”, but if not, just go to: https://thegates.mtholyoke.edu/ Once registered you can then join the “Group Chat for the SoCal Club” which launched this Fall on our site. Let’s get the conversation going! Our first Chat thread offers up questions on how artificial intelligence is impacting your workspace! Just Click on the Group Chat link here to post your comment and share your experiences with AI in your organization and check out some additional resource links on the topic.
Did you know that each month the Board sends a welcome letter to alums who have moved into SoCal? Since last March, we have added close to 50 new members. Check out the special Newcomers page on our website.
In October, the SoCal Club in collaboration with the Peninsula and San Diego Clubs participated in an extremely informative Zoom webinar to build connections with the new Executive Director of the College’s Career Development Center, Dr. Jaime Grillo, and the new Associate Director of Digital Engagement in the Alum Association, Kate Sawicki. The session designed for multi-generational alums focused on career transitions, AI in the professional workplace, networking, the “Big Quit” and other current workspace issues.
Gifting to Champion our Moment(tum)
Alums are enthusiastic about the SoCal Club’s future. And with the assistance of fabulous volunteers, we can proudly report accomplishments to date. But there is much more to do to ensure we are self-sustaining in the future.
Did you know: MHC does not provide financial assistance to local Clubs? Therefore, the SoCal Club’s capacity to organize events, secure venues, engage speakers, communicate, build out the regional concept, and provide members with assistance for fee- based events rests with you!
Please make a gift at any of these levels: -$500- $100- $50-$25
The SoCal Club is a 501(c)(3) tax exempt organization. All gifts may be tax deductible to the extent that the laws provide. If your employer provides opportunities for matching gifts as part of charitable initiatives, please let us know by contacting mhcalumssocal@gmail.com.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!!!
VOLUNTEER WITH THE CLUB
SoCal Club Volunteer Opportunities: Seeking a Director of Marketing/Public Relations to join the Board! Let us know where your passions for volunteering might intersect with the Club’s future needs!