The MHC SoCal Digest Issue 1

Written By Sarah Murphy

A Message From The Board

Welcome to the inaugural issue of the Club’s re-designed, re-named newsletter. Please see below for a sneak peak of what’s ahead in this newsletter.

  • Leading Lights: Read about Sehba Sarwar, long time club member, author, poet, and international activist. 

  • Spotlight on Young Alums: Interviews with club members from the classes of 2013, 2016, and 2020 now pursuing graduate studies at  UCLA and USC.

  • Moho Buzz: College specific news that in this issue features the on-campus “Little World Libraries” project and Convocation 2022.  

  • MHC Seen Around SoCaL: Pictures from our club activities this Fall including book discussions, Mountain Day celebrations, and the kick-off event at The Cheech for the Arts and Entertainment Affinity Group.  Here you also will find links to our master calendar of future activities and RSVP forms and relevant club announcements. 

Future editions of the The SoCal Digest will be published quarterly.  Our editor, Sue Chehrenegar (class of 1973) is eager to have your ideas for interviews/ news, so don’t be shy about passing those along. Just email your suggestions to Club President Andrea Lange (class of 1971) at langeandrea92@gmail.com. 

Happy Reading!!

LEADING LIGHTS

Meet Sehba Sarwar, a former international student from Karachi, Pakistan who entered with the class of 1987, but graduated in 1986. She completed her graduate work at the University of Texas School of Public Affairs. Sehba is an internationally published author, activist, mediator, and workshop coordinator. Her prior work with community-based organizations led her in 2000 to establish the arts nonprofit, “Voices Breaking Boundaries,” headquartered in Houston, Texas.  There she started hosting bi-monthly readings which then “ignited (her) determination to produce a series of multi-sensory experiences enriched by open mic, music and dance.” 

Her writings have appeared in the New York Times Sunday Magazine, Los Angeles Times, Asia Magazine, Magazine of Asian Literature, Callaloo, a Journal of African Disapora Arts and Letters, published by Johns Hopkins University and elsewhere. Her short stories are anthologized by Feminist Press, Akashic Books, and Harper Collins India.

She aims to create cross-cultural dialogues on a range of social justice issues including gender, displacement, transnational migration, and human rights. Her novel, Black Wings, was released in 2004 in her home country, Pakistan through Alhamra Publishing, while a second edition was released in 2019 (Veliz Books). The novel explores inter-generational challenges of a mother and her daughter living in the US and Pakistan and their shared need to focus on women’s rights.  

After the release of the latest version of her novel, she toured the United States. And she has served as a panelist/discussant for global focused programs supported by the Ford Foundation and sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts.  She and her family reside in Pasadena.  You can learn more about Sehba through her website: sehbasarwar.com

SPOTLIGHT ON YOUNG ALUMS

Perspectives on Graduate Studies

Claudia Kim (2013 ); Adrienne Picciotto (2016); and Sarah Paust (2020) graciously agreed to be interviewed by our editor and share examples of how MHC prepared them for graduate school and what their expectations are for their own futures. They even offered up some tips to alums thinking of taking the “plunge” to graduate studies!

Claudia formerly an economics major, is now enrolled in a program called “Acting for the Camera”, at the School of Theater. Film, and Television at UCLA. She credits MHC with teaching her flexibility, allowing her to pursue a range of intellectual challenges including an internship with UNICEF. Claudia is looking to grow in her career as an actor.

Adrienne, who had been a film major at MHC, said that helping to write a comedy sketch as part of a class project had provided her with the skills she now needs in her Master’s in Fine Arts studies at USC where she is focusing on film and production. Adrienne hopes to find a career in television production.

At MHC, Sarah pursued an anthropology degree. She is now in her second year of a PhD program at UCLA focusing on Medical and Psychological Anthropology and wants to continue a career in anthropologic studies. Last summer she landed a field study in the Netherlands providing remarkable experiential learning, and she believes her love of research was truly nurtured by her former MHC faculty.

What do these alums love about studying here in California? Sarah has been impressed with the number of academic, technical, and creative groups she has encountered. She would encourage others to remain open to networking/connecting with such organizations through social events they offer. And the weather is really pretty special! Claudia has welcomed access to all kinds of fun opportunities, albeit not having a car, she admits, makes some of this difficult. And Adrienne relishes the area’s creative atmosphere which has helped her with ‘finding (her) own path.”

Thanks to these Young Alums for taking the time to share their perspectives on Graduate School!

MOHO BUZZ

  •  The Little World Libraries: Have you heard about “The Little World Libraries” now installed across the MHC campus? Also known as communal libraries, each of the collections provides international students with books and materials in their native languages. Jean Janecki, the coordinator of “Languages and Culture Commons” located in in the Ciruti Language Center envisioned the idea, and funding comes from Library Information and Technology Services and the Fimbel Makers Innovation Lab. Languages represented in the collection include: Arabic, Korean, Chinese, Vietnamese, French and Italian, Japanese, Russian, German, and Spanish. And the little libraries can be found at Kendall, Pratt Music Hall, Dwight Hall, Eliot House, Prospect Hall, and the Language Center. (Your editor adds - hopefully, there will be future interest  in expanding the language offerings.)

  • Fall Convocation: Rain, rain, go away so  2022 could happen anyway. If you were not aware, the event was canceled because of inclement weather, but the good news, it was rescheduled. Some of you remember Fall Convocation as a rather somber event, but now, it has been transformed into an opportunity to “ highlight community accomplishments, points of pride” and hear about college goals.”  Convocation is a celebration!  Enjoy the photos available here.

MHC SEEN AROUND SOCAL

Take a peek at what the club has been up to. Be sure to join us at our next event! 

Upcoming Events:

Mountain Day in Culver City on October 15!

Mountain Day in Pasadena on October 15!

Sunny weather, fabulous Chicano art, and a great group of alums made for a wonderful visit to The Cheech in Riverside on November 12 to kick off the Club’s Arts and Entertainment interest group event series.

A full schedule of upcoming activities for this interest group is now posted on the website under Affinity Groups- so we hope many of you will enjoy this aspect of the Club in the future.

VOLUNTEER WITH THE CLUB

The club is looking for volunteers for a Marketing/PR board member and additional Regional Connectors. If you’re interested in helping the club, please email: mhcalumssocal@gmail.com

STAY CONNECTED ON SOCIAL MEDIA

Sarah Murphy
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