Becky Cook Cain
After graduation, Laine worked in the Carter Center Foundation in Atlanta, as a democracy program intern, monitoring the political situation in Macedonia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique. She provided logistical support for the election in Nigeria and traveled to Indonesia, preparing briefing materials during those elections. She also spent a year volunteering through Americorps, sponsored by Hands On Atlanta. She chose Hands On because of its focus on literacy, education and schools and spent most of her time tutoring at a school where one quarter of students were international, most refugees. Laine finds volunteer work and working at a nonprofit agency fulfilling and rewarding. “I don’t find it very satisfying to sit at a desk all day just working to make a living,” she says. “I like a lot of personal interaction with people. It’s very important to stay involved in our communities. We all need help at some time.” Volunteering has helped Laine meet people in a new city. It has other not-so-obvious benefits too. “It helps you keep a tremendous sense of perspective,” she says. “Once you get out and start interacting you see people living with nothing, and you realize how lucky you are.” Giving women a voice Becky Cook Cain (BI-West Virginia) combined an interest in politics with volunteer service and rose to lead one of the nation’s most visible women’s political action organizations.
QUARTERLY EAB IS 100 PERCENT VOLUNTEER Claire Waters Ferguson
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A 1965 graduate in political science and international relations, Becky is president and CEO of the Greater Kanawha Valley Community Foundation and immediate past president of the League of Women Voters. She first heard of the League while an undergraduate when a group of women visited campus. Five years later, the same group of women were pictured in the newspaper at the State Legislature. “I thought that would be interesting to do and wondered how [to get involved],” she says. After a friend suggested she call the organization to find out more, Becky joined the League. “The first meeting was the annual meeting. I saw women run a meeting using parliamentary procedure, very businesslike,” she says. “The second part was a luncheon, and the president of the county commission spoke. These women were very knowledgeable about the county and had very educated opinions about all sorts of issues. The press was there, and I knew it was more than just a group of women. It had a broader community appeal.” Becky was elected president in 1992, a position she held for six years. Her position required the commitment of a full-time job. Though unpaid, Becky was expected to work full-time hours at times, remain professional and poised, arrive on time and put in as much effort, if not more, than if she were working at a Fortune 500 company. “I love the nonprofit sector. The community involvement, the collaborative nature,” Becky says. Learning to be a diplomat Claire Waters Ferguson (BB-Michigan State) turned her lifelong love of figure skating into a career as an international judge. She is a U.S. Figure Skating Association (USFSA) past president and serves on the International Skating Union Council — the first woman from the United States to do so. Claire, a 1957 graduate in communications skills and English, lives in Jamestown, R.I. She began skating at a young age and became a judge at age 16. She worked her way up to the national level, then to the Olympic level.
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