BFFs

Amid a world of constant change, little is guaranteed to remain the same. However, for four Ed School alumni from the 1950s, one thing has stood strong: their friendship. From secondary school to college to graduate school, no matter how much their lives have changed, Barbara Cage, Ed.M.'54; Xonnabel Clark, Ed.M.'54; Rosetta Sanders, Ed.M.'55; and June Sanchez, Ed.M.'54, supported one another. They continue to do so today.

It began as a young friendship in New Orleans, where Cage, Sanchez, and Clark all attended secondary school together at Gilbert Academy. It matured and expanded when all three transitioned to nearby Dillard University. It was there that they welcomed Sanders to the group after all four became sorority sisters. And while graduation from Dillard marked a time of major change for the women, it did little to pull them apart. Instead, all four were selected to be part of a small group of six Dillard graduates to attend the Ed School under a program sponsored by the Fund for the Advancement of Education. According to Clark, going to Harvard together made their bonds stronger.

"For June, Barbara, and I, it would be our first big move away from home and from New Orleans," she recalls. "But because we were friends, we felt like we had our own support system."

[caption id="attachment_5385" align="alignright" width="200" caption="Watch the friends' "Special Reunion" at the Ed School."][/caption]

Nearly six decades later, that system of support is still strong and the women remain close. Last September, they decided to have a mini-reunion in Cambridge, where Clark and Sanders still live. Cage, who moved to Virginia, also came. Sanchez had hoped to, but had to stay in New Orleans to care for her 95-yearold mother. Their visit to the Ed School campus was eye-opening — the campus has completely transformed from the one they came to know, relocating from Lawrence Hall and Palfrey House to Longfellow Hall and Appian Way. Their old classrooms no longer exist, replaced by Harvard's Science Center.

As the women walked around, they were reminded of their initial arrival at the school, exactly 58 years prior, in September 1953.

"Much has changed since our year of matriculation," Sanders says, but "our recent mini-reunion rekindled a feeling of belonging and pride for overcoming the culture shock we felt when we first arrived, and [reminded us] how we quickly adjusted and became a support group for each other."

Walking into classrooms in Longfellow Hall, Clark says they could not help but be overcome with awe as they took in the modern arrangements and new technologies.

"The scene immediately brought an exchange of smiles and comments as we remembered our much smaller classrooms with oval-shaped tables and Harvard-style arm chairs in Lawrence Hall," she says. "My, how times have changed!"