Those Great Commencement Speeches

I always enjoy this time of year in which we celebrate the successes of our students, friends, and children, through various graduation ceremonies.

Some graduations, both high school ones and college ones, are still taking place and it is fun to follow the various commencement speakers, the coverage of their speeches, and even to learn from some of them.

Although I am back in Sweden, I am still following many graduation events and speakers and trying to capture any pearls of wisdom.

The reporting on commencement speakers starts several months before the actual graduations and this year I especially enjoyed the list of Most Notable Commencement Speakers for 2014 compiled by Business Insider. Alright, I am a bit biased since both UMass Amherst's speaker, Governor Deval Patrick, made the list as well as my husband's undergrad alma mater's, Lafayette College's, which featured the Prime Minister of Jamaica, Portia Simpson Miller. The fomer mayor of NYC, Michael Bloomberg,  also made the list and has been quite busy, just recently having given a provocative speech at Harvard. He is also the scheduled commencement speaker for Williams College.

Interestingly, two originally scheduled female commencement speakers, former Secretary of State Condi Rice, and the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde, who were to speak at Rutgers University and Smith College, respectively, ultimately, because of demonstrations, never spoke at the commencements. Bloomberg at his commencement speech at Harvard assailed the lack of suppiort for the diversity of ideas at universities, and even pointed out what happened at my alma matter, Brown University, when his former police chief, Kelly, tried to speak there a few months ago.

And, when it comes to great high school commencement speakers, just the other day, the 2014 Deerfield Academy graduation took place. When my daughter graduated from this outstanding school I could not resist blogging about it and posted a lot of photos. Even former President Bill Clinton made a suprise appearance in a video.  The 2014 Deerfield Academy commencement speaker was H. Rodgin Cohen, a renowned financial lawyer. Interestingly, on a USAir flight to Washington DC a few years ago,  I sat next to "Rodge," if  I may. I had noticed this very well-dressed gentelman wearing a bowtie in the boarding area for our flight at Bradley Airport and, honestly, I was hoping that he would be seated to me. (I tend to have amazing seatmates on many of my flights, and this was another one of those cases).  I got the window seat towards the front of the plane and Rodge sat right next to me in the aisle seat. Before long, a conversation ensued, with business cards exchanged. When he told me that he was a member of the Deerfield Academy (DA) Board of Trustees and had gone to Harvard (including Harvard Law), we talked almost nonstop. He even mentioned Ms. Carole Pennock, the Head of the lower school of The Bement School, who had also served on the DA board (and was a wonderful influence on my daughter and her cohort when they went to Bement).

Mr. Cohen is the senior chairman of the top law firm Sullivan and Cromwell. And his financial regulatory expertise  in major financial crises was even featured in the HBO film, *Too Big to Fail."

Well, would you believe, now, every year since our meeting on that flight, I receive a Season's Greeting card from Mr. Cohen!  His DA speech is now posted and it is inspiring - the importance of being quirky and bonding with even Lehman Brothers thrown in!

I have given 3 commencement speeches, thus far, one at the Isenberg School, and two, in Sweden. In preparing these, it was a great opportunity to reflect, to acknowledge, and also to give back. Thanks!

For anyone interested, links to my speeches, and other writings, including those in the popular press, can be accessed here.

Congratulations to all the graduates!

Summer Scenes from Old Deerfield and its Great Schools - The Bement School and Deerfield Academy

Yesterday, my daughter, who is a college student and is on a short break before returning to college, saw several of her friends from western Massachusetts with whom she had attended The Bement School in Old Deerfield.  First, they had dinner at the Thai restaurant in Greenfield and, then I suspect, got a bit nostalgic, and returned to Bement in the evening.

When she got back home I asked her whether she was happy that she had gone to school at both Bement (from kindergarten through 9th grade with graduation) and Deerfield Academy (10th through 12th with graduation) and she responded that immensely so.

Just last weekend, on a beautiful Sunday we drove to Deerfield and I took the photos below of  Bement, the historic Main Street, and Deerfield Academy.

At Bement, my daughter not only learned French and developed the love of reading and writing and art, as well as of science and math, but also learned how to skate, how to ski, and how to swim. Recesses were outdoors and physical ed could involve sleigh riding in the winter or hiking and sports in the spring. She also learned how to play field hockey which she continued to do when she "crossed the street" to matriculate at Deerfield Academy. There she had teachers that mesmerized, challenged, instructed, and that made a life-long impact. Both at Bement and at Deerfield Academy respect and kindness mattered as well as a sense of community and team spirit. Plus, she remembers fondly the wonderful meals served including the sit-down dinners.


It was also great to see that the Deerfield Inn had reopened after being devastated (along with neighboring farms, and other buildings and land) during and after Hurricane Irene and the once in a 500 years flood  two years ago. Both Bement and Deerfield Academy were affected by this natural disaster and through the resilience of their communities have recovered and are thriving.

This week, my daughter will be seeing friends from Deerfield Academy.

For the Love of Education -- Chinese in US Private Schools and Deerfield Academy

The month of March is when applicants hear of decisions as to their school acceptances, whether by high schools, especially private "prep" schools in the U.S., many of which are elite boarding schools, as well as colleges and universities.

Three years ago, I was speaking in Vienna, Austria, and my family had joined me. We had revisited Innsbruck, Austria, where we had lived when I was on a Fulbright, and then traveled by train to Vienna where I was speaking on global supply chains at the Vienna University of Economics and Business. While in that gorgeous city, my daughter received notices of admittances to two private schools in the U.S. She was going to be a day student wherever she went since we live in Amherst, Massachusetts and there are enough good schools in the area.

When we returned to the U.S., as I was showering, she checked the mail and there was the letter of acceptance from Deerfield Academy (DA). Having attended the wonderful Bement School in Old Deerfield from kindergarten through 9th grade, she had learned how to swim at DA and had even had track meets and field hockey games there. Moreover, she had attended the DASAC arts summer camp there.

We visited again all the schools that she had been accepted to, and the second visit day at DA (one of these took place again last Friday at which my daughter was a day student representative panelist) , among other experiences, people, and data, convinced Alexandra that DA was the school for her.

She has loved the education that she has received and the friends that she has made at DA.

The Atlantic has an article on how the Chinese from the mainland have discovered U.S. private schools and Deerfield is singled out in the article, along with the mention of the admissions director, Ms. Gimbel. Even in elementary school at Bement, my daughter had female classmates who were from China and Korea.

The article, written by Helen Gao, who is herself a Deerfield Academy graduate, is titled: "How China's New Love Affair with U. S. Private Schools is Changing Them Both." In the article, a Chinese mother, Zhang, hopes that her early efforts will lead to a good life for her son, which she believes lies in America. She mentions the country's more leisurely lifestyle and its comprehensive healthcare system. But its greatest promise, she says, is the culture of fairness, which rewards diligence and talent first. "In China everything is based on connection. Things like getting a promotion depend on too many factors. In America, as long as you work hard and deliver results, you will distinguish yourself."

Not only are U.S. private schools now international magnets and, one must remember, that there is only so much capacity in them, but the US colleges and universities are as well.

I do not envy the hard-working high school student with all the challenges today and pressure to succeed and all the competition, which has become international. When students with 8 AP courses and grades of 5 on all such exams get rejected from elite colleges, I truly wonder.

But then again, it is, ultimately, what you accomplish after you receive your education that matters and the mark that you leave on the people, your community, and the world.

Next Friday, one of my doctoral students, Min Yu, who is from China, will be defending her doctoral dissertation on time-sensitive supply chains at the Isenberg School of Management at UMass Amherst. She is an outstanding student and scholar with an exceptional work ethic and generosity of spirit as well as kindness and thoughtfulness -- all of which will serve her well as she assumes a faculty position in the Fall.

Third Service Trip to La Suiza Orphanage in the Dominican Republic Through the Bement School

There has been much written lately that teenagers are not willing to take positive risks and are not willing to travel. I beg to differ.

I believe that this generation is socially conscious and willing and wanting to help out others in need. I also believe that, if given the opportunity, and if they find the resources, teenagers today will travel to help out in communities less fortunate.

I am now in my second week in Gothenburg, Sweden and am marveling at the wonders of the society here.

My daughter, in the meantime, has returned from her third service trip to help out at La Suiza, which is a boys orphanage in the Dominican Republic.

She first traveled to La Suiza with her fellow 9th graders three years ago, as part of an initiative started at The Bement School, from which she graduated. She returned there last year, as a student at Deerfield Academy, and as part of a Bement alum trip.

The above photos she took this past week and, yes, that is a tarantula. The Bement alums painted the alphabet at the orphanage and engaged the children in many activities but most, importantly, they shared with those who have very little, their smiles and gave them the attention that they sorely need. There are now about 50 boys at the orphanage.

Along with her good friend, my daughter, Alexandra, has helped to raise money for books and to pay the librarian at La Suiza so that the library does not stay shuttered. I knew that having her go back again might be risky but she wanted to see the good that was done through raising additional funds. Her reflections on the trip last year, with information on the bracelet initiative to raise funds, can be found on The Bement School website.

When she returned from La Suiza this past Friday (after almost 3 hours getting processed at the JFK airport) she said that each time she goes back the experiences are even more special.

The human connections made last a lifetime.

The Resilience of New Englanders

Although my heritage is European and I was born in Canada, I consider myself very lucky to be living in such a historic part of the US, that is, in New England.

Indeed, when not living in such great places as Sweden and Austria and even Cambridge, Massachusetts or traveling far and wide, Pioneer Valley of western Massachusetts, with such great towns as Amherst, Deerfield, and others, has become our home.

Since our daughter has gone to elementary school at The Bement School, in Old Deerfield, and is now at Deerfield Academy, located just down the street from Bement, both in a truly historic and beautiful part of Massachusetts, we have come to know many families from New England (and even across the globe since Deerfield Academy is primarily a boarding school).

What has struck me most after Hurricane / Tropical Storm Irene hit New England last Sunday is how the neighbors and communities pulled together (with some great help from the National Guard I might add and local emergency responders plus electric power folks from far and wide).

After the torrential rains had subsided, a neighbor's son showed up at our door with a chainsaw and chipper ready to clean up our front yard on which two big trees had fallen. We appreciated his offer but declined since he is a minor. A local crew showed up on Monday morning to do the job and we were just thrilled. A DPW worker arrived yesterday in his free time to chop up the logs and piled them into his pickup truck to use as firewood (a win-win situation since he gets fuel for the winter and this cost us nothing and we enjoyed talking to him).

I have written about and posted photos of Deerfield after Irene and what has been called a once in 500 years flood. The cleanup operations continue and Historic Deerfield will reopen tomorrow (but the lovely Deerfield Inn will remain closed for an unknown amount of time).

One day after the flooding, my daughter was back at her summer job as a tour guide at Deerfield Academy and this week, despite the flooded fields and neighboring farmlands, gave tours to prospective students and their families not only from California but from as far away as Korea and Turkey. She did not show the flooded areas, which today, 5 days after the hurricane, remain covered in thick, gooey mud.

Her elementary school, The Bement School, had had to have families evacuated and a gorgeous new dorm has had to have its flooring entirely replaced and other damage recovery done. The head of the School, Ms. Shelley Borror Jackson, wrote a wonderful, poignant message of how the flood surrounded her home and the waters filled the basement and moved up the stairs. Her message can be read here. A neighboring school, The Eaglebrook School (you may not know but the present King of Jordan went to both Eaglebrook and Deerfield Academy) provided refuge for both the Jacksons and some other evacuated families.

Our neighbors just north of Deerfield, from Greenfield to Brattleboro, Vermont, and further up sustained much damage and it will take years for Vermont to recover and to repair its devastated roads and bridges whose destruction isolated communities before help, ranging from hikers to state troopers to military in Chinook helicopters arrived to deliver necessary water, food, and medicines to stranded folks.

And the good news arrived, in the form of an email message today, from the President of Historic Deerfield that said:

Just in time for Labor Day Weekend, Historic Deerfield museum will again welcome visitors to its world-class collections and historic houses on Sat., Sept. 3 at 9:30 a.m. The reopening marks a return to some semblance of normalcy and a chance to refocus on the fall season at hand after seven days of forced closure to the public due to infrastructure damage caused by flooding from Hurricane Irene.

"Now that we can guarantee the safety of our visitors and our collections we will gladly reopen," said Philip Zea, President of Historic Deerfield. "We're very grateful for the heroic efforts of staff, volunteers, and vendors who have helped us prepare for and recover from this crisis."

Visitors will find almost all museum offerings intact. The two exceptions will be the continued closure of the Sheldon House and the Channing Blake Meadow Walk.

A Once in 500 Years Flood -- Hurricane Irene and Photos of Deerfield

It seems that Manhattan managed quite well during and after Hurricane or "Tropical Storm" Irene. My 92 year old uncle, who lives in mid-Manhattan, and who has survived two World Wars and saw the towers crumble on 9/11, called me today to check on us in western MA. He said that the subways are running in NYC and he has been back to work (what an amazing generation his is) and was disappointed that Lincoln Center canceled its performances this past weekend because of Hurricane Irene.

Western Massachusetts and Vermont continue to feel the impact of Irene with many towns in the latter completely isolated due to flooded roads and downtowns. Power is still out in parts and bridges have been closed and await inspection, if they are not destroyed.

Amherst made it through relatively unscathed. We lost two trees in our front yard and so did some neighbors but the flooding in neighboring towns has been horrendous.

Yesterday, after taking detours to get to work at Deerfield Academy, where my daughter is working as a tour guide this summer, the scenes of flooding were horrific.

Above I have posted some photos of areas of Deerfield Academy in Old Deerfield one day after Irene hit this past Sunday.

Amazingly, there was even a group of National Guardsmen with a Humvee guarding a road off of Old Deerfield, which leads to farmland. Disaster recovery experts were at work plus even families at the Bement School had to be evacuated as well as several ones at Deerfield Academy (even by boat).

A UMass Amherst geoscientist, Professor David F. Boutt, who is an expert on this part of very historic Massachusetts, said that what happened is a once in hundreds of years event.

Tough to see so much of the beautiful landscape under water as well as the farms with corn and potatoes and pumpkins.

We wish all those affected by Irene a timely recovery.

In addition, even the Deerfield Inn suffered flooding and will be closed for several weeks (and this is a busy time with the schools in the area opening up and with the leaf-peepers soon to arrive).

More photos of Deerfield under water can be accessed here.

This morning we received the press release below from Historic Deerfield.

Flooding from Hurricane Irene Causes Museum, Inn Closings

Historic Deerfield Plans to Reopen on Thursday, Sept. 1;

Deerfield Inn and Champney's Restaurant & Tavern Closed
Indefinitely

Due to extreme flooding from Hurrricane Irene, Historic Deerfield is closed to the public through Wednesday, August 31, 2011. The museum plans to reopen on Thursday, Sept. 1, 2011 at 9:30 a.m.-although three historic houses at the flooded north end will likely remain closed. The Deerfield Inn and Champney's Restaurant & Tavern will be closed indefinitely.

"This kind of severe flooding is rare in Deerfield," said Philip Zea, President of Historic Deerfield. "Luckily our advance preparations on Friday and Saturday helped ensure that the museum houses and collections remained safe."

Not so fortunate was the Deerfield Inn, which sustained major flood damage to the first floor of its annex and to the basement of the main building. It may be several days before the waters recede enough to allow investigators to gain access to these spaces to assess the damage and begin the process of rebuilding. In the meantime, guests have been relocated and reservations are being cancelled for the next two
weeks.

"Our goal is to reopen the Inn as quickly as possible," said Susan Martinelli, Vice President for Busiess Affairs at Historic Deerfield. "We will not know the full extent of the project until the investigation is completed."

"Aside from the Deerfield Inn, we had water fill the cellars of three buildings," added Zea. "But rivers keep old habits and the Deerfield River has flooded for ten thousand years when the Connecticut refuses to take her water. That's why these fields are so fertile."

Historic Deerfield (www.historic-deerfield.org) plans to reopen on Thursday, Sept. 1, for tours from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. For more information about Historic Deerfield please call 413-775-7214. For more information on the Deerfield Inn and Champney's Restaurant & Tavern, please call 413-774-5587.

Click here for some helpful hints, from scientists, on how to deal with flooded homes!

Photos from the Bement School Alum Service Trip to the Dominican Republic

As promised in my earlier post, above are photos from the Bement School alum trip back to the Dominican Republic to help out in La Suiza, which is a boys' orphanage. This was my daughter's second trip there, having been there originally as a ninth grader, two years ago.

As you can see from the photos above, helping out at the orphanage and visiting the local school which girls also attend was transformative. The mural that the alums painted will be a lasting reminder of this service trip.

Sad to say, though, the founder of La Suiza died a year ago and his daughter, who ran this orphanage suffered a stroke, so the support for this special place, which houses and feeds boys without any other homes, may not be sufficient to keep it going. The cook there is expecting her fifth child any day now which only complicates matters. At least for a week, the children received much love and attention from a very special group. There is talk about trying to start a nonprofit organization to provide the financial support that is sorely needed to make sure that the children there get the basics that they desperately need. The spirit of the children in the midst of poverty speaks of their endurance.

Safely Back from Their Second Community Service Trip to the Dominican Republic

Their trip coincided (with a one day delay) with the earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disaster in Japan and now, after a week, they have all returned safely.

The group, consisting of ten Bement School alums, accompanied by two of their former teachers, a spouse of one of them, and two medical professionals departed western Massachusetts on Saturday morning, March 12, 2011, at 5:30AM in the darkness. They returned this morning safely to their homes at about 2AM, having flown back from Santo Domingo to JFK and then ridden the Bement School van back to western Massachusetts.

The group consisted of students who had been to La Suiza Orphanage in the Dominican Republic as part of their 9th grade Bement School curriculum and had since graduated. It was not certain that the trip would become a reality. As you know, the Dominican Republic shares an island with Haiti, which marked this past January the first anniversary of its devastating earthquake, followed by an outbreak of cholera months afterwards.

As a parent of one of the travelers, and as someone who also does research on risk management from financial networks to supply chains, I felt a bit unsettled about the prospect of this trip. However, the joy that preceded this trip in the anticipation of seeing the boys (some are as young as 3 years old) and in planning various activities for them made me realize the significance of this return trip to all the participants.

Yesterday evening, before boarding the plane that would bring them back to the US, my daughter left a voice mail message, saying that this trip was even better then her first trip there, which took place two years ago. That trip coincided with one of my first posts on this blog.

As a teacher told us, the orphans were used to groups coming and then leaving (quite a few consisted of adults helping out with much-needed maintenance of the orphanage and school) but this was the first "school" group that had come back to see them and to be with them and they had done it because they really wanted to. The Bement School graduates on this trip consisted of students (all females, interestingly) who were now at high schools, including Deerfield Academy, Northfield Mount Hermon, Brewster Academy, and Suffield Academy, as well as Williston. They had graduated within a two year period from Bement.

Above is a photo taken of the suitcase that my daughter packed up with activities for the children at La Suiza. I hope to share more on their experiences, plus photos, after the travelers have had some much-needed rest.

Our hearts and prayers go out to the people of Japan for their tremendous pain, losses, and suffering. Please realize that, as global citizens of one world, you are in our thoughts as we all work for the recovery of your great nation. I have had the distinct honor of going to Japan several times and one of my PhD students was from Japan. The Bement School has also graduated several students from Japan.

Figure Skating -- A Truly Unique Sport

With the blizzard of 2010 upon us and New England looking like a winter wonderland (albeit with major travel disruptions and even our trip to NYC rescheduled) I thought the time perfect to write about a truly unique sport -- that of the sport of figure skating.

My daughter donned her first pair of skates as a kindergartener at that fabulous school, the Bement School, in Old Deerfield, Massachusetts. Every winter, the husband of the head of the school, Ms. Shelley Jackson, Rob Jackson, would create an outdoor rink for the children to skate on and there, I suspect, my daughter's love of figure skating was born. Over several winters my husband would build a skating rink in our front yard where neighborhood children would learn to skate and parents and the neighborhood dogs would congregate to watch and have fun (yes, oftentimes, we even served refreshments).

Numerous figure skating lessons followed, along with skating competitions throughout New England, and performances in ice shows even at Lake Placid, where we have gone several times for my daughter to further train. When I was on a Fulbright in Innsbruck, Austria, and our home had a view of the 1964 Olympic ski jump, we brought the figure skates with us but the rink closed in March (we were told that the skaters there trained with weights until it reopened late in the Fall). Her second grade teacher, Frau Shwerma, taught the class to rollerblade, so we compensated with that.

Figure skating demands stamina, terrific balance, endurance, athleticism, and something which makes this sport truly unique -- musicality and artistry. And all of this while one is balancing on metal blades on the ice and trying to land after doing several jumps in the air! Figure skaters have tremendous discipline but many, for a variety of reasons, drop out of this sport. But for those who, sometimes through just sheer drive and love of the sport, continue, it can be used in numerous positive ways -- from entertainment of audiences to teaching the young skills and good sportsmanship.

Now my daughter is a teenager and still goes to school in historic Old Deerfield but at Deerfield Academy.

The above classic books she received from one of our wonderful neighbors recently when she delivered a plate of holiday cookies that we had baked.

The book in the collection, which intrigued me the most, is The Ancient Art of Skating by Robert L. Merriam, which was published by Deerfield Academy in 1957.

It begins with: The Ancient Art of Skating being a brief discussion of man's gliding on the ice from the earliest times to the present and including information about skates, dress, ladies, learning, figure skating, hockey and artificial ice.

Aid Gridlock in Haiti, Being WISE, and What Should a Mother Do?

The airport in Port-au-Prince at which many of the relief (and military) planes are landing, is gridlocked, with supplies not being disseminated in a coordinated and effective manner to the victims of the earthquake in Haiti. This article shows the huge frustration experienced even by the relief workers who are lacking trucks, and in many cases, even fuel, to disseminate the needed water and food. Coincidentally, this past term, I have had several meetings with the coordinator of FlexNet, Mr. Matthew Bader, who works in providing trucks for supply deliveries in humanitarian operations.

Doctors are working with primitive supplies, searching for antiseptics, alcohol, in most any form, as well as clean water, in order to do the necessary surgical procedures and to try to save lives. The medical situation is so dire -- heroic medical professionals are working in settings like Gettysburg, the Civil War battle that took place in the middle of the 19th century. Hospitals in Haiti, even pre-earthquake, were not sufficiently stocked.

There is a better picture now in terms of the coordination of relief activities, which is, nevertheless, still lacking in numerous respects. I spoke with Dr. Jose Holguin-Veras of RPI, who gave a brilliant lecture in our Speaker Series this past term on Emergency Logistics and the Response to Hurricane Katrina. He is a native of the Dominican Republic (DR), the country which shares the island with Haiti. He told me that he is now advising the Dominican Republic on logistics, since that country and its airport are a major logistics relief staging area for Haiti. He told me that, once the supplies arrive at the border with Haiti, the United Nations is taking over, because of the extraordinarily challenging situation in Haiti now in terms also of safety. I have tried to reach Dr. Denise Sumpf, who works for the UN, and who also spoke in our series and who is an expert in transportation, but I have not had success. Since several dozen UN peacekeepers in Haiti perished in the earthquake, the coordination of the relief efforts has suffered, as a consequence of the lack of command and control, early on.

My daughter, last year, at precisely this time, was packing up supplies to take to an orphanage in San Cristobal in the DR, to begin a week's community service there with her 9th grade class at the Bement School.

This orphanage is west of the Santo Domingo airport in the DR, to which many relief planes have also been landing. The supplies are then transported over roads to the Haitian border and onwards in treacherous conditions.

This year's 9th grade at Bement is to be journeying to help out in the same orphanage in less than two weeks. Last year, I had the usual concerns about allowing a child to take on this special trip. This year, there is the Haiti earthquake and its aftermath to contend with. I hear that this community service trip is still on. It signifies that one should do whatever one can and is capable of to help the less fortunate. As an educator, I have been trying to do my best in conducting research and in disseminating knowledge about logistics and transportation and the importance of networks and infrastructure to societies and economies.

I hope that more students will assume careers in humanitarian logistics. There is a very thoughtful writeup on humanitarian logistics and WISE (Women's Institute for Supply Chain Excellence), in which Ms. Melanie Miller, of Accenture's Supply Chain Management Practice, includes a quote by me. With the number of disasters, and their severity growing, we, as educators, can inspire others.

Earthquake in Haiti and Critical Needs

The worst earthquake in two centuries hit Haiti, the poorest country in the western hemisphere, yesterday. The pain, suffering, and devastation are horrific. This natural disaster is creating havoc for humanitarian operations because of the destruction of much of the infrastructure, such as roads and hospitals, in the capital, which was the hardest hit. Interestingly, the World Food Program had stockpiled food supplies in Haiti in preparation for disasters, with hurricanes, being the most expected ones. It is now also airlifting food supplies. Haiti is on an island which is also home to the Dominican Republic.

Exactly one year ago, my daughter and her classmates at the Bement School in Deerfield, Massachusetts were packing up to go on their trip to the Dominican Republic to help out in an orphanage. This year's 9th grade class at Bement is also scheduled in early February to travel there. The airport in Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic is now being utilized to assist in Haiti's recovery. Last year, with excitement and nervous anticipation, I let my daughter travel there on a community service mission, which deeply affected all those who took part. I wonder whether this year's trip will take place given the extreme seriousness of the disaster in Haiti. She had, this past weekend, completed a huge photo montage of memories from last year's trip to the Dominican Republic that a teacher was going to deliver to the orphanage. I, in the meantime, was busy working on a research paper with a co-author on the assessment of supply chain performance in the case of disasters (an ironically timely topic) for submission to a special issue of a journal on transportation network vulnerability.

Our hearts and prayers go out to all those affected by this earthquake.