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October 2, 2001
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
WHEN JULIA CHILD COMES TO
SMITH, STUDENTS PLAN
TO TURN THE TABLES AND COOK FOR HER
Child Will Be Alumna-In-Residence
At Smith Oct. 10 - 12
Editor's note: Some aspects of
Child's visit to Smith will be closed to reporters in order to
allow students uninterrupted time with her. Child will be available
for interviews and photos 9:30-10:30 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 11,
at the Smith College President's House, 8 Paradise Road. Contact
at (413) 585-2190 or lfenlason@smith.edu to arrange to attend.
NORTHAMPTON, Mass.-Students at Smith
College, alma mater of famed television chef and cookbook author
Julia Child, will have the chance to trade stories of undergraduate
life with Child when she visits the campus Oct. 10 12 as
an "alumna-in-residence."
During her visit, Child will be hosted by the 73 students in
Laura Scales House. House President Davy Kong, a senior, says
Child is expected to join them for several lunches, teas and
dinners in the house (some courses cooked by students) and to
join students in their classes. She will also participate in
other social events and gatherings with members of the Smith
community.
Child, who graduated from Smith in 1934, will be accompanied
on her visit by her friend Pat Pratt, a 1951 Smith graduate and
a neighbor of Child's in Cambridge, Mass. Pratt is a landscape
architect.
Now in its fifth year, the alumna-in-residence program provides
opportunities for Smith students to meet and socialize with alumnae
in informal settings and to engage both the famous and not-so-famous
in discussions of their careers and life choices. Previous alumnae-in-residence
have included award-winning author Madeleine L'Engle, actress
Mimi Kennedy, romance novelist Barbara Keiler (a.k.a. Judith
Arnold), filmmaker Maria Maggenti and Voice of America journalist
Edie Smith.
The residencies are largely informal and unscripted--but often
seem to end up involving food. In 1997, students surprised L'Engle
by baking her a cake when they discovered her visit to campus
coincided with her birthday. In 1999, visiting bagel moguls Lisa
and Abigail Slater, founders of the Toronto-based Hot Bagelworks
Bakery chain, commandeered the Washburn House kitchen to put
on an improptu bagel-making workshop. Kong and her fellow Scales
House residents have a number of culinary plans afoot and seem
undaunted by the prospect of cooking for one of America's most
renowned chefs.
Dean of the College Maureen Mahoney, originator of the alumna-in-residence
program, points out that, while it has an educational component,
the main emphasis of the program, for students and their guests,
is "fun." And ultimately, Mahoney observes, "It's
the person who makes it come alive."
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