WDCSA Newsletter – January 2022

This month’s newsletter is available for download in PDF format.

Events Calendar

  • Jan 9 • Washington DC Book Club Discussion
  • Jan 10 • Baltimore Book Club Discussion

Stanford OVAL

The Stanford OVAL team is currently looking for volunteers for the regular cycle of interviewing in January 2022. Alumni interested in being OVAL Interviewers are encouraged to register and watch the training webinar here: https://oval.stanford.edu/.

Stanford in the News

  • Stanford astronomer Bruce Macintosh was a co-author of the latest “Decadal Survey,” a once-in-a-decade report that helps set the research priorities for the astronomy and astrophysics communities. Those priorities will include the identification of other habitable Earth-like worlds and determining whether life exists elsewhere in the universe.

WDCSA Book Club Corner

Washington DC Book Club Discussion

Sunday, January 9, 5 pm                   
Silver Spring, MD

Exact location information will be sent one week prior to the event.

The January book is The Anna Karenina Fix: Life Lessons from Russian Literature, by Viv Groskop.

In this book, Groskop narrates her life as a student of Russian language and literature in Moscow.  She describes the lives of celebrated Russian writers and the characters they created (as well as her own experiences). She believes that many of life’s questions can be answered in a Russian classic.  It’s a short course on Russian literature, written in a personal style by a comedian. The real-life examples of the themes in Russian literature are witty, comical, and beautifully told.

This in-person meeting has a requirement for full COVID vaccination.  Attendees are also asked to bring a pot-luck food contribution. 

For further information, contact  Don Bieniewicz, MS ’75, at donbien@erols.com.

Baltimore Book Club Discussion

Monday, January 10, 7:30 pm                   
Google Meet: Registrants will be emailed a link to join the meeting a few minutes before.

Our January selection is The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett.  

“Weaving together multiple strands and generations of this family, from the Deep South to California, from the 1950s to the 1990s, Brit Bennett produces a story that is at once a riveting, emotional family story and a brilliant exploration of the American history of passing. Looking well beyond issues of race, The Vanishing Half considers the lasting influence of the past as it shapes a person’s decisions, desires, and expectations, and explores some of the multiple reasons and realms in which people sometimes feel pulled to live as something other than their origins.” (Amazon)

The March 14th selection is You’re Not Listening:  What You’re Missing and Why It Matters by Kate Murphy.

Questions/RSVP:  Helene Myers, Ph.D., P’14, at cedarhouse@comcast.net