Service and success recognized

Timnah Lee ’02 and Felicia Gomez ’02 present the senior gift at Commencement.

During Skidmore’s Volunteer Weekend—the April get-together for volunteer training, networking, and recognition—a number of alumni and groups were recognized for their activities on behalf of their alma mater. Susan Gottlieb Beckerman ’67 was given her Outstanding Service Award, since she couldn’t attend Reunion the following month. Felicia Gomez ’02 and Timnah Lee ’02, co-chairs of the senior-class gift program, received the Candace Carlucci Backus ’66 Award for their enthusiastic student-outreach work. The program set new records by meeting its eighty-percent participation goal and bringing in thirty-two gifts at the Friends of the Presidents level. To complete the seniors’ success and carry on their scholarship-giving tradition, Susan Beckerman and classmate Beverly Harrison Miller ’67 made up the dollar difference to create a full $10,000 scholarship for a rising senior in 2002–03.

Juleyka Lantigua ’96

And two young alumni were honored as well: Juleyka Lantigua ’96 was given the Palamountain Award for Young Alumni Achievement. A government-Spanish double major, Lantigua won a Hearst Scholarship for study at the Institute for Economic and Political Studies in London and a Fulbright to conduct immigration research in Madrid, where she helped launch a newspaper and a magazine. After earning a master’s in journalism from Boston University, she became managing editor for Urban Latino magazine and columnist for the Progressive Media Project. Her editorials on environmental racism, U.S. invasions in Latin America, predatory lending in immigrant communities, and the absence of Latinos on network TV have appeared in newspapers in the U.S. and abroad. In 2001 Lantigua appeared on PBS’s NewsHour with Jim Lehrer and was named one of the “Ten Latinos Changing the Face of New York” by the New York Daily News. Recognition from Skidmore, says Lantigua, “is like having your family tell you that you are a good sister or niece. It really feels great.”

Jeff Anderson ’93

The Porter Award for Young Alumni Service went to Jeffrey Anderson ’93. A student leader and volunteer, he became an alumni admissions contact in the Boston area, where he worked for Fidelity Investments (he’s currently a Columbia University M.B.A. student). He also took part in club events and career advising. As co-presidents of the Boston club, he and his wife, Michelle Miller Anderson ’92, doubled its offerings and inspired many younger alumni to join in. Currently the alumni board’s chair of admissions, Anderson says, “What keeps me going is working with alumni and faculty who are enthusiastic and passionate about Skidmore.” —MM

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