Why my alma matter makes me happy
Apr. 20th, 2005 05:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dancerjodiI just read through our recent alum magazine. There was a nice interview with these two women http://www.simmons.edu/about/news/releases/2005/398.shtml and an appeal for funding to allow more women from Afghanistan to come to the school and study.
I also found out who Teresa Carterette was! At graduation in 97 I received an award, the Teresa Carterette Award for Professional Promise (or something like that). I had no clue I was getting it until seeing it listed under my name in the graduation booklet. I guess its "presented annually to a senior in the psychology department who as made a consistent and valuable contribution.". Neat!
Ms. Carterette got a degree in social anthropology from Chicago U and then did fieldwork for 2 years with the Denendeh people in Canada's Northwest Territories. Then she got her Ph.D. in mathematical psychology from Indiana University in 1960. She came to Simmons in 1964, a year later established the first experimental psych lab at the college and laid the foundation for its curriculum. She directed the department's internship program and in 1970 brought the first digital computer to the campus, introducing psych students to computer-controlled experimentation. There's a great picture of her with a group of people in 1961 as a part of the "IBM data processing class" whatever that means - its her with `about 30 or so men, the caption reading how it "reveals both her professional interests in quantitative science and her fearless rejection of convention".
I never got to meet Ms. Carterette since she retired from Simmons in 1990. She died last fall. Its great to finally know some more history of the department (and its quite flattering to know who that award I got back then was based on, and that they saw something in me similar to Ms. Carterette).
I also found out who Teresa Carterette was! At graduation in 97 I received an award, the Teresa Carterette Award for Professional Promise (or something like that). I had no clue I was getting it until seeing it listed under my name in the graduation booklet. I guess its "presented annually to a senior in the psychology department who as made a consistent and valuable contribution.". Neat!
Ms. Carterette got a degree in social anthropology from Chicago U and then did fieldwork for 2 years with the Denendeh people in Canada's Northwest Territories. Then she got her Ph.D. in mathematical psychology from Indiana University in 1960. She came to Simmons in 1964, a year later established the first experimental psych lab at the college and laid the foundation for its curriculum. She directed the department's internship program and in 1970 brought the first digital computer to the campus, introducing psych students to computer-controlled experimentation. There's a great picture of her with a group of people in 1961 as a part of the "IBM data processing class" whatever that means - its her with `about 30 or so men, the caption reading how it "reveals both her professional interests in quantitative science and her fearless rejection of convention".
I never got to meet Ms. Carterette since she retired from Simmons in 1990. She died last fall. Its great to finally know some more history of the department (and its quite flattering to know who that award I got back then was based on, and that they saw something in me similar to Ms. Carterette).
