Alice Paul Merit Award: Sarah Feyerherm ’82 Fosters Community and Inclusion at Washington College and Beyond

Dean of Students Sarah Feyerherm ’82 accepted the Alice Paul Merit Award from Head of School Julia de la Torre on Alumni Weekend. Sarah has spent her career helping to foster community and inclusion, both on her campus and throughout the world of collegiate athletics, as a member of the Board of Managers of the NCAA’s largest division, Division III.

As Chair of the LGBTQ Subcommitttee of the Committee on Women’s Athletics, Minority Interests and Opportunities, she helped to craft the NCAA’s first official guide to sexual orientation and athletics in 2013, which sought to create a more inclusive environment for gay, lesbian and transgender college athletes. The guide was the first of its kind, and offered everything from accurate terminology and guidelines for coaches of a student in the process of coming out, to tips on how to handle dating between teammates.

She has also served as vice chair of the overall NCAA Committee on Women in Athletics. There is a clear throughline from her experience at MFS to her current role at Washington College; where during the pandemic she and the college provost co-taught a course on ethics and sports.

Prior to her work in student affairs, Sarah was the Assistant Director of Athletics and Head Field Hockey Coach at the College. Sarah also has served on the Board of Directors of the Kent County (Maryland) United Way since 2015, and is its current Vice Chair.

Sarah is an alumna of Hamilton College, where she was a standout three-sport scholar-athlete, graduating as the first woman to score 1,000 points in basketball at the college, and as the college’s then all-time leading field hockey scorer. She later earned an M.S. in Sport Management from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and an Ed.D. in Innovation and Leadership from Wilmington University.

Sarah’s mother, Miriam Feyerherm, is a past recipient of the Alumni Association’s Alice Paul Merit Award. Sarah has stayed engaged with the school, currently serves on the Head’s Council, and was a co-founder of the Floss Brudon Endowment for Coaching.

Below are Sarah’s poignant acceptance remarks to the audience at the Dessert Among Friends on Alumni Weekend.

“In the rare moments of silence and peace – which have been hard to come by these past two years – I sometimes reflect on why helping young adults – particularly those who feel alone or out of place because they feel different – has become the thread that runs through the entire course of my career and life.

“I used to wonder if there was one defining moment or experience – maybe one person who flipped the switch for me and made me want to work in places where young people grow, develop, and find themselves. But recently what’s become clear is that it isn’t just one moment or one individual. It’s all of it. It’s this school, my friends – my classmates who are here tonight, my teachers (Mary Williams and Louise Morgan), my coaches, my family.

“And I learned that it is not in one experience either. I learned and absorbed the ethics of care, respect, and belonging in the MFS hallways — before class started or between classes, on the basketball court and the field hockey and lacrosse fields. I learned it in English class (especially Mary’s and Louise’s), I learned it as an elementary school student from teachers like Jackie Hockenbury – and my third grade teacher – my mom. The lessons became part of my DNA in art class, Intensive Learning, service projects — and I learned it every day growing up in the house that Alice Paul once called home.

“When I first became aware, as a young teen, who Alice Paul was, what she stood for, and how incredibly lucky I was to inhabit the same spaces she did as a child, I had no idea that her legacy of working tirelessly for the rights of those who didn’t have them would have any impact on my life once I left home.

“In my current role, I enjoy an immense privilege every day to help create an environment where ALL of our students can thrive and feel a sense of belonging and importance. I am particularly blessed to be able to focus on those environments where students both struggle and persevere, encounter both frustration and joy. It is no straight path for them. Or any of us.

“But it is those spaces – the rehearsal rooms, the residence hall lounges, the student government senate meetings, and of course, the playing fields, courts, and other places where they are part of a team and learn what it means to be borne up by the  support of teammates as well as the satisfaction of knowing you have helped a teammate who needs your support.

“After I graduated from MFS, college felt a lot less safe to me. But I found refuge with my college basketball teammates and coaches and was steadied by the foundation of care and support I had at MFS that helped me navigate some difficult times.

“When I was in 10th grade, my advisor and teacher Tom Smith wrote a humorous version of the school’s daily bulletin and noted that I was self-selected for the ’least likely to succeed’ award. I had a lot of doubt in myself back then! But the word ‘success’ and what it means has been a constant in my life. A while back my mom gave me a poster printed by the Fellowship of Reconciliation that includes Emerson’s well-known quote that ends ‘To know even one life has breathed easier because you lived, this is to  have succeeded.’ That poster sits up above my computer in my office at work and serves as a constant reminder to me.

“My life has breathed easier because of this institution and all of those people who are here and who I mentioned. And it provides me with unending satisfaction to know that I have been able to do the same for others.”

Alumni News