Class Note 1984
Issue
January-February 2025
I’m savoring memories of another foreign study program (FSP) reunion and happy to report that the Dartmouth spirit is alive and well in the eternal city. We came, we saw, and we attempted to conquer Rome’s renowned art works, monuments, and gelaterias during our four-and-a-half days together. Converging from as far away as San Francisco and Singapore, we were 26 strong between original participants, professors, and “plus ones,” including Gary Bubly ’82, Michelle Dorion, Rick Ehling, Sarah Frech, Kathy Heins, Buddy Ide ’82, Lisa Ragen Ide, Melissa Kaish ’83, Jacques Migeon, Bridget Clark Rymer ’85, Stacey Sell ’85, Chris von Eckartsberg, Ben Wiley, professor emerita Joy Kenseth, and adjunct faculty member Mario Carniani.
A grand plan hatched by two ’84s led to an epic 2022 gathering in Florence, Italy. Dubbed “the program that keeps on giving,” our FSP’s latest spin-off, October’s “RomeUnion,” had an ambitious itinerary. (Dartmouth travel has nothing on this concierge planning team!) In addition to must-sees such as the Sistine Chapel, our team arranged private tours and sought out less touristy sights and delicious restaurants off the beaten path. And at the legendary Galleria Borghese, we were treated to dynamic lectures—on Bernini’s sculptures by Professor Kenseth and on Caravaggio’s paintings by one of our own: art historian Stacey Sell, curator at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, with onlookers struggling to elbow in and listen in on our Big Green experts!
Like the storied layers of Rome itself, our group has history—from 10 weeks together in ’83 to our recent reunions: Florence in ’22, Hanover in ’23, and now Rome—we’ve cemented bonds that could easily have been lost to time. Representing a diversity of fields from business to medicine, art history to architecture, nonprofit management to music, ours is a cohort of true Renaissance men and women, celebrating lifelong friendships while relishing our continuing education. (When our guide at one museum referred to us as university students, a group of Italian teens looked at us in complete disbelief!) While we laughed and learned, we also toasted a dedicated professor with a profound love of her subjects and her students. Professor Kenseth, after establishing the art history FSP in 1980, led eight groups to Florence and two to Rome during a career recognized for outstanding contributions to undergraduate teaching. And though our lodging together at a pensione and, for most of us, limited Italian language skills didn’t translate well to making local friends during our FSP, noted Florentine scholar and ambassador Mario proved a great exception, embracing us as warmly in 2022 and 2024 as he had in 1983. We’re already excited for 2026!
If I’ve whetted your appetite for planning a language study abroad or FSP reunion of your own, contact mini-reunion cochairs Anne Arquit and Merrie Levy at d84.minireunions@icloud.com for guidance—for a single evening or a weekend of events. And if a large-scale international gathering sounds tempting, I can put you in touch with organizers in a class of their own!
—Deana Washburn, 209 Casino Ave., Cranford, NJ 07016; deanadw@aol.com
A grand plan hatched by two ’84s led to an epic 2022 gathering in Florence, Italy. Dubbed “the program that keeps on giving,” our FSP’s latest spin-off, October’s “RomeUnion,” had an ambitious itinerary. (Dartmouth travel has nothing on this concierge planning team!) In addition to must-sees such as the Sistine Chapel, our team arranged private tours and sought out less touristy sights and delicious restaurants off the beaten path. And at the legendary Galleria Borghese, we were treated to dynamic lectures—on Bernini’s sculptures by Professor Kenseth and on Caravaggio’s paintings by one of our own: art historian Stacey Sell, curator at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, with onlookers struggling to elbow in and listen in on our Big Green experts!
Like the storied layers of Rome itself, our group has history—from 10 weeks together in ’83 to our recent reunions: Florence in ’22, Hanover in ’23, and now Rome—we’ve cemented bonds that could easily have been lost to time. Representing a diversity of fields from business to medicine, art history to architecture, nonprofit management to music, ours is a cohort of true Renaissance men and women, celebrating lifelong friendships while relishing our continuing education. (When our guide at one museum referred to us as university students, a group of Italian teens looked at us in complete disbelief!) While we laughed and learned, we also toasted a dedicated professor with a profound love of her subjects and her students. Professor Kenseth, after establishing the art history FSP in 1980, led eight groups to Florence and two to Rome during a career recognized for outstanding contributions to undergraduate teaching. And though our lodging together at a pensione and, for most of us, limited Italian language skills didn’t translate well to making local friends during our FSP, noted Florentine scholar and ambassador Mario proved a great exception, embracing us as warmly in 2022 and 2024 as he had in 1983. We’re already excited for 2026!
If I’ve whetted your appetite for planning a language study abroad or FSP reunion of your own, contact mini-reunion cochairs Anne Arquit and Merrie Levy at d84.minireunions@icloud.com for guidance—for a single evening or a weekend of events. And if a large-scale international gathering sounds tempting, I can put you in touch with organizers in a class of their own!
—Deana Washburn, 209 Casino Ave., Cranford, NJ 07016; deanadw@aol.com