Alumnae/i Association of Vassar College (AAVC) Award Presentations

Thank you, President Bradley. Good afternoon, everyone. I’d like to give a special shout-out to all the first-years. You and I have something in common: This is your first Convocation as Vassar students, and this is my first Convocation as President of your alumni association, the AAVC. Those initials stand for the Alumnae/i Association of Vassar College. It’s a group of almost 40,000 people who attended Vassar. It will grow even larger next May, when the seniors who are here today in their caps and gowns receive their diplomas.

My name, as you’ve heard, is Steve Hankins. I’m a member of the Class of 1985. I’m a parent of two graduates, Maggie and Phoebe, from the Classes of 2013 and 2017. I’m a Vassar brother. I’m a Vassar son. I’m a Vassar grandson. I’m a Vassar great grandson. And I’m a Vassar cousin to a member of the Class of 2022! Here’s the interesting thing I’ve learned from all these Vassar connections: each one of us experiences Vassar in our own way. The same holds true for you: each one of you is writing your own chapter in Vassar’s rich history.

That history, of course, also goes back generations to the founding of Vassar. Vassar was started with a gift—by Matthew Vassar—in 1861. Since then, Vassar has been sustained by its alumni and friends to grow, prosper, and to offer me—as well as each of you—all of the freedom and opportunities that come with a Vassar education. Each of you, in turn, will be responsible for sustaining the College for the students who follow you. Without this generational cycle of receiving and giving, none of us would be here today. And to remind ourselves of our place in the great history of the College, we like to say in the alumni association Always Vassar/Vassar Always—or in Latin, simply, Semper Vassar.

Today, we honor two Vassar graduates selected by the AAVC Board for recognition and celebration of their achievements, achievements that exemplify our College’s ideals. In conjunction with the awards, honorees are invited back to campus, to be in residence for the day. I hope that you attended at least one of the fascinating presentations this year’s winners gave earlier this afternoon. There will be additional opportunities for students to meet with the winners informally after this ceremony.

It is now my distinct privilege to introduce today’s honorees.

The AAVC Young Alumnae/i Achievement Award is given in recognition of an alumna or alumnus who has graduated within the past ten years—and whose personal and professional achievements already have had a significant impact within their chosen field.

Xiaoyuan (She-yao Yu-An) “Charlene” Ren earned her BA in physics from Vassar, graduating with the Class of 2013. She went on to earn a dual master’s degree in environmental engineering/technology and policy at MIT. Her graduate research focused on identifying water-monitoring and governance bottlenecks in rural India.

Inspired by that, with the help of China Youth Climate Action Network and an MIT class, four years ago Charlene used her persistence and entrepreneurial gifts to start MyH2O, a water-quality information network in China. Since its founding, MyH2O has built a network of more than 30 university water-testing teams and collected over 2,000 water data points across 800 villages in 23 provinces throughout China. The group’s—and Charlene’s—long-term goal is to make a safe and clean environment a possibility for everyone in China, through systematic management and community participation.

Charlene takes particular inspiration from the idea of giving back as part of one’s lifelong journey. She is also a strong advocate of women becoming more visible in the STEM field and in environmental activism. To that end, she has helped organize the annual International Youth Summit on Energy and Climate Change for several years.

At a very young age, Charlene Ren has already proved herself to be both a change agent and a disrupter. She is truly an inspiration not only for all of our alumnae/i, but also for our current students.

I would now like to ask Sharon Davidson Chang, Class of 1984, a fellow Vassar parent, and Chair of the AAVC Board’s Alumnae/i Recognition Committee, to join me on the stage. Charlene, on behalf of the AAVC, Sharon and I are delighted to present you with a very well-deserved AAVC Young Alumnae/i Achievement Award.

The AAVC Award for Distinguished Achievement is presented each year to an alumna or alumnus who has reached the highest level in her or his field. While demonstrating exceptional talent, application, creativity and skill within a certain career, this individual must at the same time exemplify the ideals of a liberal arts education, and have used her or his position of visibility, power or leadership to better the human community and serve the wider goals of society.

Lynn Povich, a member of the Vassar Class of 1965, has spent more than 40 years in the news business. After graduating from Vassar with a degree in modern European history, she began her career in Paris, as a secretary in the Paris Bureau of Newsweek. At a time when there were very few women in journalism at all, she subsequently returned to New York and became a researcher for the magazine, rising through the ranks to become a junior writer.

But, then, she found her upward trajectory blocked. All of the writers and reporters hired by the magazine were men. Women were barred from even applying for those positions—because that was Newsweek’s policy.

So, in 1970, Lynn Povich made history by leading a group of well-mannered, largely apolitical women who had been raised in the 1940s and 1950s to stand up for their rights, by filing a class action lawsuit against Newsweek, charging management with “systematic discrimination” in their hiring and promotion practices. They won—a success that led to many other, similar legal actions, including against The New York Times. Newsrooms were never the same, and all of us, women and men alike, have benefited from that.

Lynn went on to become the first woman Senior Editor in Newsweek’s history. She became Editor-in-Chief of Working Woman magazine in 1991, and in 1996, she joined MSNBC.com as East Coast Managing Editor, overseeing the Internet content of NBC News and MSNBC. She is a recipient of the Matrix Award for Magazines, and serves on the Advisory Boards of the International Women’s Media Foundation, the Women’s Rights Division of Human Rights Watch and the CUNY Graduate Center Foundation Board.

In 2012, Lynn published a book about the landmark case that had changed so much for women in media with the provocative—and still timely—title, The Good Girls Revolt. As The New York Times commented, “If ever a book could remind women to keep their white gloves off and to keep fighting the good fight, this is the one.” Lynn herself has said, “This is a book for my generation and for our sons and daughters. It is part history and part current events. Women have made a great deal of progress but equal rights, like civil rights, have yet to be won.” In 2016, her book inspired the web series Good Girls Revolt, which aired for a season on Amazon Prime.

In the best Vassar tradition, Lynn Povich is a trailblazer and pioneer, who was way ahead of her time and instrumental in making women’s voices heard in mainstream US media. She paved the way for future generations of women to take stands against harassment and discrimination. It’s also safe to say that her courage and actions continue to have ripple effects that benefit our society all the way to today.

On behalf of the AAVC, and everyone here, Lynn, thank you for leading the way. Sharon Chang and I are honored to present you with The AAVC Award for Distinguished Achievement.

Let’s have one more round of applause for our honorees. Thank you. And Semper Vassar.

Photos: Karl Rabe/ Vassar College