Eva Thal Belefant, '49 (BardCorps)
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Interviewee Role
Alumni/ae/x
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Class Year
1949
Academic Program
Economics
Interviewer
Helene Tieger, '85
Description
Eva Belefant enrolled at Bard two years after the college began admitting women. She remembers her admiration for Professor Adolf Sturmthal and as a result switching her major from Spanish to economics; maintaining a life-long relationship with Sturmthal and his family; entering Bard in 1946 with relatively few men on campus; her involvement with two International weekends [International Student Conferences] in 1947 and 1948, in which foreign students from many countries came to Bard for a conference on a designated political topic; cherishing a life-long friendship with Professor Frauenfelder who advised and counseled Eva during her first year at Bard; developing independence and maturity; experiencing Bard as a close-knit college between faculty and students; frequent afternoon visits in Faculty Circle; borrowing a winter sweater from Mrs. Frauenfelder during a first snow . She recalls that though Bard was a progressive college, she herself did not 'create her own curriculum,' but rather she followed the direction offered by her advisors in her college program. She also describes venturing onto the then off-limits Zabriskie estate [Blithewood] to explore the Hudson River; and reconnecting with her Bardian friends on a regular basis in Manhattan. Eva served on Bard's Board of Trustees from 1957-1962 as the first alumna representative. She was awarded the Bard Medal in 1976, and she was active on the Board of Governors.
Eva Thal Belefant died in 2015.
Keywords
Adolf Sturmthal, Willie Frauenfelder, Felix Hirsch, Faculty Circle, Potter, Zabriskie Estate, Red Hook, Mike's [Bar], International Student Conference, Eleanor Roosevelt, Kit Ellenbogen, '52, Big Sisters, Selda Jerrold Steckler, '48, Charlene Obstfeld Newburg, '49, Lila Lesnick Scherl, '49, Irene Zimmerman Schultz, '48
Location
Stevenson Library, room 402
Interview Date
10-22-2011
Interview Duration
26:22
Recommended Citation
Belefant, Eva Thal, "Eva Thal Belefant, '49 (BardCorps)" (2011). BardCorps -- All Oral Histories. 21.
https://digitalcommons.bard.edu/oral_hist/21
Rights Management
The use of any image or audio from the Bard College Archives without permission is prohibited.
Significant Quote
"We consider it the Bard Family."