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UPHOLDING TRADITION: O'Connor,
the group's most famous alumna, will speak at
the centennial.
Keystone/Getty Images |
the freshman was 16 years
old and “scrawny,” says her RA (or head
sponsor, as they were known in the ’40s). “She
was from the boonies, out there on the ranch,”
recalls Jean Coblentz, ’47. “We had a list
of people we thought might have trouble adjusting. But
when the first-quarter grades came in, her name went
off the list.”
It turned out that Sandra Day O’Connor, ’50,
JD ’52, adjusted to Stanford life just fine. In
the intervening years, the associate justice of the
United States Supreme Court has become the most famous
alumna of Cap and Gown, Stanford’s women’s
honor society. On March 5, she will be the keynote speaker
at the group’s centennial event, “Women
of Stanford: A Celebration.”
Stanford’s oldest continuous student organization,
Cap and Gown has grown from a handful of women meeting
under available trees to a group of more than 70 students
and thousands of alumnae. The honor society, which accepts
applications annually, inducts juniors and seniors with
high grade-point averages who have demonstrated leadership
and contributed to the community. Applicants also submit
essays about women who have been influential in their
lives and experiences that have inspired them. The organization
occasionally taps female faculty and staff as honorary
members. Cap and Gown has established five scholarship
funds for undergraduates and soon will announce a $375,000
Centennial Scholarship.
At the March 5 program that Coblentz and others have
planned, speakers will discuss Jane Stanford and what
life was like for women during the University’s
first half-century, and look to future roles that women
in the Stanford community may undertake. Results from
a survey will reveal perspectives of alumnae across
the decades on accomplishments, challenges, relationships
and children.
“We hope women will walk away from this day feeling
proud to be part of something very big, with some specific
lessons about how to meet our goals and make a difference,”
says former alumnae board president Ellen Petrill, ’77,
MS ’78. |
