Page 33 - Spelman50thReunionBook

Spelman: A Sisterhood Not Only a School

by Mary Susan Parker Wheeler

I entered Spelman College after spending my last three years of high school in boarding school at

Boylan Haven Mather Academy. Many of the other students had been at the school since 7th grade.
Cliques and friendships had long been formed when I got there. I had to figure out how to adjust.
Academically I did pretty well at the boarding school. I was ahead of my classmates in math in particular
and on task in my other subjects. But social interactions were another thing together and how to fit in
and make friends with these folks was a challenge.

Frankly it was a painful experience and the first few weeks and months were extremely difficult. I was

saddled with two roommates who were unfriendly to me but friends with each other. They were deceitful
and I was never on great terms with them. We tolerated each other but that was it. When I went home
for one weekend, I was told they had been wearing my clothes while I was gone. Painful to say the least.

Because of my Mather experience, I expected Spelman might be the same. I just did not expect anyone
to be nice to me or make friends. Boy was I wrong. However, we were all starting on even board. Very

few of us knew anyone in our freshmen class and no cliques had been formed. I was assigned to
Morehouse North and lucky for me, Jeri Lyons who had just finished Spelman, was my house mother. I
knew this was going to be a great year in the dorm if nowhere else on campus because she was young,
energetic and creative!

The other surprising thing was that the women on my hallway were warm and welcoming. We bonded
right away. Talking, going to freshmen week activities together, eating together, swapping stories,

learning the latest dances to the latest records in the hallway and suffering through our registration
together. The only damper on my happiness was that my first roommate got homesick right away and