The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, May 28, 1905, Page 9

THE SAN FRANCISCO SUNDAY CALL. heve won the med their acts making the award of this high othea Ke educati ett, B. A woman intereste Just w settl colfege edu re for editorial ts Dorothea Kern Jewett, B A, and “most distin- gulshed graduate of the ear,” typifies the univer- ¥'s ideal of the co-ed, what is ‘Dorothea Kern Jewett like? If T had a sister daughter yearninj university education t 1d want to know. If 1 were a school girl getting ons with an eye to the university I should want to know. If I were undergraduate, at the rcy of the winds that w good and M in the lege world, I sh very much want to know. e most surprising thing about Darothea that she is “new.” 1 Kern Jewett the lea: to. rub my eyes and again to make sure 1 seeing aright, for the very first mo- when she opened the > me she seemed the very oldest type of wom- ank the type that bas been treasured through all ges of history—the ¥, sweetly femini ve, simple,” domestic, un- Tected the genuine ome” girl was educated e tells me In t g-room to provc to me how Httle there xin vie history to write “and 1 djd not Zo 1 until T was ready s grade; thea rent to grammar gchool in Cakland and afterward chool.” id you take any prizes there?” I ask. “There were pone,” she says quite simply. “I al- was “honorably pro- mdted. I did not have to pass the examinations.” She studied diligently Kern ass of 500 for womer women's club it Jewett everything seemed co-education, for and against it broke raging with inter- e across the country columns, papers; 1in our own participation antages Iversity the men warery 1 hand ced given nd charac- ing DOROTHEA KERN JEWETT, “THE MOST DISTINGUISHED GRADUATE OF THE YEAR® AT BERKELEY. without being a “dig.” Hvedlty and environment hald much to do with making ‘this possiple. She comes from a fie of students and teachers. Her mother, in-whose gentie hands’ her early education lay, is a graduate . of.Mount Holyoke. Her sistérs are col- lege.trained, and the home atmosphere is one of culture and study. Study, the #imple task of mastering her lessons, of.proceeding step by step, was not a difficult ‘one to the fine mind taat shinés' upon “you . from her serene, steadfast eyes. “L baven’t found it very hard or exact- ing,” she tells fne. “Study came first with me always, TBat was what I was In col lege for, and |t should come first; don you think s0? But I had time for other things—for the.social side, for a fshare in the. sfudent life. I dom't think that should be neglected, do you? I think that it is much _a part of the university course ‘as anything else—that it has Ms benefity, “I went to all the dances. I don't think I missed any of them—there are about & 8ozen in a iyear, I think. And 1 have always taken an interest in the ath- letics, the football games and the con- tests "of HII sorts. © I think I've loved Berkeley and hated Stanford as I ought to,” she declares, with gleeful, girlish “laugh. *“Neither the study nor the student life has been 2 strain on me. I think that really,”:. she deliberates with ~careful moderation and sweet seriousness, trying neither to understate nor overstate the fact, “that really I have feit better and been stronger during this last year than I was before.” - *“Ne, I have not belonged to any soror- ity, but to the Young Women’s Christian Association and the Associated Women Students, of course, aithough I have not taken any active part i the work of efther. A “I baven't taken any part in student politics. I don™ think I have any talent: for that, and it requires a talent, just 38 anything does; don't you think so? “I have only shared in the gen- eral :student life, not In the spectal things and not in the life of the socleties. I think the social life has its im- portance, too, and that It should not be neglected. Sometimes I feel that I should care for it more than I- do)” she tells me #ith a deprecating. self-accusing earnest- ness, and | I say I think we should each do as we -please about that. “But to avoid it seems selfish and narrowing,” - she inststs. “No,” she -an- swers to my gquestion I haven't gone g for athlet- ies or ‘mym work. Tve dene my ‘sym’ work at home—in the garden or in the house My mother thinks a girl can get enough eXercise doing the necessary things In ber home,” and- so, like the old-fashioned girl we have thrown at us out of that past that had no higher education, “the maest distingufshed graduate of the year” has given a part of her time jnd her en- ergy to performing stmple, homely house- ho duties and con- tributed her share to womanly home-mak- ing. “My greatest pleas- ure and recreation is walking. T always en- joy going for a day's walk over the Betke- ley Hills, and I.par- ticularly like to go. hunting with my brother. but—" sud- denly remembering the newspaper lurking in the background. “I'm not an amazon. You won't maKe me an ama- zon. will you' “Studying. doing the work of my course, has not been a task. I like it. It is a very real pleasure to me, for after the first drudgery of a subject Is over, after the preliminaries are dome with and I have made adva i her math- ematics and Lath student of Greek that Miss Jewett did ant work) “then the mter- ect carries me along. There beauties, fresh easur Every n't you think so?” , for I have sadly hu- nd of students d wet toevels ing their way oted degrees to s to the end of & révelations, greater one finds that so; And I think » morous pictures | apd black coffee through the. exe tack two capital name. s ‘And I like als ions the adv great pleasure to interested in t and who are | can pxchange s mathemati the congenial. compan- 1 bring. It is a eet people who are d ingeresting with whom you d diseuss: well, s. I find'higher g, 85 well as To-the- ordinary girl, whope mind cen- ters on clothes from Paris and displaying them at La" Jeunesse, this is a pleasurs that might not appeal—that might seem too remote and intangidle, but the artless spirit that carries fo beautiful heights. “Ard what are ydu going to.do with all this learning,”” I ask somewhat frivolous- Iy when she mean to rest on her honmors of this year, but to g0 on for another year doing grad- uate work “I think I shall teach. I should like to. That is one reason why I am going to do graduate .work. Six months of it is re- quired to qualify as a teacher, bat/I shall stay the yedr. - [ should not ca®e to go on studying just for. the sake of study. 1 don’t belfeve fn simply acquiring without making use of what you acquire, of mere- Iy getting all you cam-for yourseif and giving nothing out. That seems to me & mistake—a waste.” . . . The records of the nna?u determine the awarding of this hondr which was conferred on Miss Jewett, but there is a certain latitude into ‘whlch character, conduct, mental quality and moral quali- fications enter. President Wheeler himself recommend- ed the awarding of this honor to Miss Jewett and the other seven members of the committee that apportions the homors heartily concarred with him. President Wheeler, who is more judicial than enthusiastic. more swayed by facts than feelings. told me why. “The medal was awarded to this stu- dent Because of her distinguished scholar- ship and her fine qualities of character, for there can be no high scholarship without high moral qualities. She is a young woman of -exceptionsily high in- telligence. You can see tHat im her eyes, In their steadiness. Her high standing In schelarship was not a matter of rote, of being letter perfect. Hu mind goes beyond that in understandin she Wrings thought to Bep work. She has the mental power that gives poise. She is not _quick and superficial. She can. sit quietiy and look at you while you talk and not say anything until there 1y something to be ‘said’ She has dis- tinguished herself in the study of Greek, and that alone is proof of her qualifica- tions, for a student who excells in Greek must have 3 fiue mind. I should like to see her go on. to have the oppertunity for graduate work' “She means to §o on—to stay here an- other year,” I inform Him gratuitously out of the fullness of my newly acquired information. “Yes, I know,” he says, “but I should like her to have the opportunity to study in Europe, to fit herself for some work in lterature. Sbe is worthy of it.” President Wheeler, as I have sald, is mere judicial than enthusiastic, and he could not give higher praise than this gor any more gratifying to the heart of a co-ed R e “It must have made you very happy to win this medal—with all that it means,” 1 say to Miss Jewett before I say good-by. She is so slight and youthful that you balf expect to find her taking her boanors joyously, gayly, In the frivolous, inconsequent, usual young girl way. 2 But when she speaks with that sweet zravity of hers you know it woulda't e in character—that she feels as she thinks, deeply. “Yes, I was very happy when I knew, but I think it has made me hap- sler since; now that I have had time to think It over.” “And what is it that gives you the is & very great homor for a very young, girl?” T am only a very little younger than the average graduates.” she protests, “and I got along faster because I was taught at home, I suppose. I am glad to have been given the medal because it was not in sharp competition; there was no rivairy involved. The ard- ing of it depends on the student's reec- ords, and no student may see anoth- er's record or know how he stands. ‘We all did the best we could—that was all. My greatest pleasure‘in it. my greatest satisfiction is what it stands for—it means to me that I made the best of my opportunities. I think there ecan be no greater satisfaction than that feeling gives one—the feel- Jng that onc has made the Beskt of one’s opportunities, that one Bhas mnot wasted them.” x Oh, wise little co-ed, where in your less than twenty years, where in your short, sweet. simple, fragrant life did you discover this great truth, that some of us are so long in learning. that s many learn too late” . Was it in your college education? For if it was. there is uo mere money price or prite of time ar too high to pay for suech All your Latin. all your Greek. ‘all your higher mathematios are as noth- ing—and they are yet worth much to you—compared with the value of this one lesson well leamed