Nancy G. Rosoff ’78

“In athletics, you learn pretty quickly how to deal with adversity and with success. You figure out how to learn from missed opportunities and move forward,” said Nancy G. Rosoff ’78. This lesson proved true on a cold afternoon last spring, when Rosoff bundled up and drove three hours from her Pennsylvania home to cheer for the Mount Holyoke lacrosse team as it competed against Hood College in Maryland. Though the Lyons didn’t win on that blustery day, the team’s determined play and growth through each quarter reminded Rosoff of her experiences as a student-athlete at Mount Holyoke and later as a high school coach. Through all the ups and downs, she noted, “being part of a team is magical.”

The confident, connected women whom Rosoff met on and off Mount Holyoke’s fields indelibly shaped who she would become. A self-described “timid teenager,” Rosoff drove under the College gates and immediately knew that Mount Holyoke was where she needed to be. “I told my mother that if I didn’t get into [Mount Holyoke], I was not going to college.” After arriving on campus, Rosoff quickly found friends, faculty and staff — including Phyllis Palmer in the history department, Penny Gill in politics and lacrosse coach Val Turtle — who believed in her abilities and gave her the confidence to achieve ambitious goals. She joined the lacrosse team and the club field hockey team and pursued challenging coursework toward a major in history. “The first draft of the first paper that I turned in [to Palmer] had a note: ‘Come see me.’ We spent hours tearing that draft apart and putting it back together. Phyllis was a wonderful mentor.”

Rosoff continually honed her ability to pivot. When an injury sidelined her lacrosse career during her sophomore year, she served student-athletes as a sports reporter and editor for the Choragos campus newspaper. She also assumed a leadership role in the College’s Athletics and Recreation Association. “These opportunities would have been extraordinarily unlikely at a co-ed institution,” she said, “but at Mount Holyoke, I was encouraged to be a leader.” 

Rosoff has carried the skills she gained at Mount Holyoke into her professional and volunteer lives, from refining the scholarly discipline instilled by Palmer — one strand of Rosoff’s academic research focuses on cultural representations of women’s athletic activity in the late 19th and early 20th centuries — to promoting the value of collaboration as a high school lacrosse and field hockey coach. 

“By the time I graduated from Mount Holyoke, I was someone who believed in my ability to do things,” said Rosoff. “That was a result of what happened in the classroom and outside the classroom. Mount Holyoke made me who I am.”

To ensure that future Mount Holyoke students can enjoy similarly empowering experiences, Rosoff included the Mount Holyoke Friends of Athletics Endowment in her estate plans. She knows that her gift will make a difference for the Lyons as the varsity and intramural programs continue to evolve. The decision to include the College in her will was easy. As Rosoff put it: “I knew I wanted to provide for members of my family, and the other obvious destination was Mount Holyoke.”

“Athletics brings people together in a common pursuit of a goal that’s important to you, and it gives you the chance to meet that goal.” With Rosoff’s support, future Mount Holyoke students will play harder and aspire higher.