On November 8

On this day in ...

... 1837 (175 years ago today), in South Hadley, Massachusetts, a schoolteacher and chemist named Mary Lyon (right) welcomed 80 students to a new school, named the Mount Holyoke Female Seminary. Each student paid $60 for the year's tuition, room and board, and fees. Now Mount Holyoke College, the school continues as an institution of higher education for women, and will celebrate its anniversary with a number of events on campus. Mount Holyoke's list of distinguished alumnae include at least one IntLawGrrls foremother – Frances Perkins, the 1st woman to serve in the Cabinet of a U.S. President –  and many others on whom we've posted, among them Lucy Stone, Ella Grasso, Nita M. Lowey, Elaine Chao, Lan Cao, and Suzan-Lori Parks.

(Prior November 8 posts  are here, here, here, here, and here.)

Kudos to Lan Cao

A favored feature at ImmigrationProf blog, "Immigrant of the Day," provides glimpses of individuals who've come to and enriched life in the United States. A recent worthy honoree is Lan Cao (right). International law professor at Marshall-Wythe School of Law at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, she came to the United States as a teenager, having grown up in wartorn Vietnam. Cao's the author of a host of law review articles in her specialization, economic globalization, ethnicity, and Asia; co-author with Himilce Novas of Everything You Need to Know About Asian American History (rev. ed. 2004); and author of a semi-autobiographical novel, Monkey Bridge (1997).

Am honored to have Professor Cao as a colleague on the Executive Council of the American Society of International Law.

Heartfelt congratulations!