Mayra Bloom MS Ed ’71 joined the College last January as the new director of the Center for Continuing Education (CCE). She had previously spent nearly 20 years at SUNY Empire State College, a school for returning adult students, where she taught writing, women’s studies and peace education; she also contributed to program and curriculum development and served—in SLC don fashion—as a mentor.

“Sarah Lawrence really did change my life,” says Bloom of the professional training and progressive, student-centered educational philosophy she learned here (she went on to earn a PhD from Union Institute). “I’ve always been very proud and grateful for my Sarah Lawrence education. It has stayed with me no matter what I was doing.”

Returning to the campus as an alum, she says, has meant seeing it with new eyes. The Center is developing programs that will increase its contact with the rest of the College community, so Bloom has attended readings, concerts and other events that she didn’t as a student. It’s helped her recognize, she says, the great intellectual and cultural resource the College remains for its students—even after they become alumnae/i.

Sarah Lawrence, Bloom says, is considering ways to enhance the CCE program, including an environment-themed October College, taking advantage of SLC’s involvement in the new Environmental Consortium of Hudson Valley Colleges and Universities; one-credit courses applicable toward a Sarah Lawrence master’s program; and ways to involve CCE students’ families.