A lifelong learner
In 2006 Ethel Stafford walked into an American history class taught by Tim McCarthy ’93 in Dorchester, Mass. The Harvard lecturer immediately noticed a spark. “She was one of our best and brightest,” said McCarthy of the married mother of two, grandmother of five, and current full-time employee in the Board Review Department with the Massachusetts Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development. McCarthy, who is a lecturer in history and literature and public policy at Harvard, was impressed by his student’s drive and desire to learn. “Ethel was one of the most dedicated and inspiring students I’ve taught in any setting in my career,” he said. Stafford was taking part in the Bard College Clemente Course in the Humanities for low-income adults. McCarthy, who has long been affiliated with the program both as a teacher and its academic director, said the yearlong college course offers another chance to those who have had to...