 It's a very special privilege and responsibility to Leader Women's College. For me that means maintaining a commitment to women and a focus on gender. It means advocating for women and others who've traditionally been underrepresented in a range of fields and ensuring that there is equity in the opportunity for our students and our graduates and continuing to use our voice as a Women's College to make the case for women and those who are underrepresented. It's the brilliant faculty and the dedicated staff and the engaged students working together with an intellectual vibrancy that you can feel in every conversation. It's the candour and the honesty with which we speak to each other about almost everything. It's the energy of being in a community of learners. It's the distinctive diversity, the fact that we represent a nation and the world. So it's the intellectual vibrancy, the rigor, the breadth of opportunities both inside and outside the classroom, the way in which the faculty engage with the mentor, the students. It's the residential space that encourages conversations well into the night. I actually think it's also about the many perspectives that are brought to the classroom into those discussions. I also think there's something very special about the fact that Mount Holyoke has committed to preparation beyond college that we're integrating into the curriculum career preparation. We see our students engaging in all sorts of professional activities and internships which will prepare them for success in a whole range of sectors, whether it's in public life, business and finance, entrepreneurship and engineering, social justice and social entrepreneurship. We see our students engaged and thinking about the ways that they can contribute. My plans for the college are to remain in advance Mount Holyoke as a leading women's college, to be demonstrably excellent in teaching and scholarship and to be imaginative in the delivery of a liberal arts education that is rooted in tradition and evolving in ways which serve our contemporary students. I love all the people who make up this community, I love the faculty and the staff and the students and I love the alumni who are part of our broader community. I feel as if I learn to see Mount Holyoke through their eyes and through their stories. I love the sunlight on the brickwork, I love the trees and the plantings, I love the clanking of the radiators in all of the old buildings. I love the way the bells ring out, the minutes and the hours of the days that we spend together on the campus. I think the biggest challenge facing women's colleges today is assuring that the value of women's college and the preeminence of women's colleges in the landscape of higher education is seen and understood. I think we have to tell our story, we have to tell the story of our students and our alumni, we have to talk about the amazing achievements of our faculty and we have to make Mount Holyoke known to a wider range of constituents. So I think it is a lot about the challenges to women's education and how we are addressing that. I think that a women's college is more relevant today than ever. I actually had to get to a dinner with alumni so I didn't have a lot of time to think about it. It didn't sink in until I came home from that dinner. When I got home and I took off my coat and I sat down and the news sank in, I was overwhelmed with gratitude first and foremost, with joy and with excitement about the future. I feel so fortunate to have this opportunity to serve Mount Holyoke College and this community of faculty, staff, students and alumni. It's an enormous privilege to have this opportunity. I'm really grateful for the vote of confidence that has been shown here and I have felt privileged to serve the institution over these past two years but I'm so excited to get started on the next chapter of the college's history. I know it's going to be a great one.