Yudu - Vista Spring/Summer 2012 Vol. 17 No. 1

Vista • Mount Holyoke College • Spring/Summer • Vol. 17 No. 1

At the Top: Mona Sutphen ’89

At an intimate breakfast hosted by Mount Holyoke’s Weissman Center for Leadership and the Liberal Arts, students who had traveled to D.C. in December for the Women in Public Service Project (or WPSP—see page 4) got savvy advice from Mona Sutphen ’89. Sutphen, a member of President Obama’s Advisory Intelligence Board and former White House deputy chief of staff, is a managing director at UBS, the Swiss global financial services firm. She also served on the National Security Council during the Clinton administration.

Over eggs and coffee, Sutphen spent an hour answering student questions, such as . . .

How can we continue what was begun at WPSP? Sutphen: Public service isn’t just about politics; it’s a way of thinking about your place in the world. And con- nection can start at the community level. Look around your community—what expertise do you have to offer?

Is there a resource at Mount Holyoke you didn’t use but wish you had? Sutphen: The alumnae network!

What have you taken with you from MHC during your career? Sutphen: I’m confident about who I am, and that’s a value Mount Holyoke gave me. And the mentoring that I received here has stuck with me—I hold it dear. [While at MHC, Sutphen worked with international relations professor Anthony Lake, who later become national security advisor for President Bill Clinton and remains a close friend.]

Sutphen’s first rule with regards to careers? Relax! It’s not necessary to map out your entire career before you graduate, she advised. “Every job teaches you something you can use later,” she said. For example, in her first job out of college, she arranged a lot of meetings. Those skills proved extremely useful later on in politics, where every event is like “a giant meeting.”

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Vista is published twice a year by the Mount Holyoke College Office of Communications. Vista is produced for prospective Mount Holyoke students; alumnae; faculty and staff; parents of current students; and other friends of the College.

Creative Director and Editor: Tekla McInerney

Writers: Michelle Ducharme, Dave Orsman, Bonnie Sennott

Copyeditor: Bonnie Sennott

Executive Director of Communications and Marketing: Patricia VandenBerg

Cover photo by Michael Malyszko

©2012 by Mount Holyoke College. Portions of Vista may be reproduced with the permission of the Office of Communications, 50 College Street, Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, MA 01075-1459; 413-538- 2989; email: tmcinern@mtholyoke.edu. Third-class postage paid at South Hadley, MA 01075 An electronic version of Vista is available at www.mtholyoke.edu/admission/publications.html

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