Victoria Lowe ’12, a double major in dance and American cultural studies, discusses her Short Term experience with “Tour, Teach, Perform” and her goal of advancing arts education in the schools.

Biochemistry major Jessica Howard ’12 was also a three-year letterwinner on the women’s swim team who was inducted into the �ֲ���ý Scholar-Athlete Society as a senior. Photograph by Rene Minnis.

The journal Chemistry and Engineering News says Jessica Howard ’12 is a prime example of how science majors can use research internships to leverage job prospects.

A chemistry major, Howard is now a research scientist working on a drug discovery project at Albany Molecular Research Inc. in Indianapolis. She had considered graduate school, but “loves the hands-on” aspect of work in the private sector.

Her internship, the summer before senior year, was at Cubist Pharmaceuticals (whose CEO is Mike Bonney ’80, chair of the �ֲ���ý College Board of Trustees).

“I loved my experience there — the people, the work environment, and seeing the impact of my work by producing drug candidates,” .

Howard also gained lab experience at �ֲ���ý, including a yearlong thesis in analytical chemistry under Dana Professor of Chemistry Tom Wenzel. “Being able to form a relationship with a professor who knew me both in the lab and as a student, that gave me a leg up in my [job] interviews,” Howard says.

She also did a CDIP job shadow through the �ֲ���ý Career Development Center with the drug-discovery company , where she was hosted by Steven Kates ’83, vice president of research.

(In fact, the National Science Foundation says that 72 percent of chemistry majors have had some research experience upon graduation, suggesting that graduate schools and employers now expect science grads to have such research experience.)

The private-sector experience at Cubist and Ischemix, coupled with her �ֲ���ý education, made her a more attractive job candidate, she explains.

“I could start working right off the bat, rather than being trained.”

Famously known as AESOP, the college’s Annual Entering Student Orientation Program gives incoming first-year and transfer students a taste of �ֲ���ý culture and an instant social circle.

Members of the 2008 AESOP trip dive into the chilly waters of the New Meadows River near Bath, Maine. From left, co-leader Emily Chandler ’09, co-leader Lincoln Benedict ’09, Ben Williams ’12, Stephen Wright ’12, Erin Pinover ’12 and Monica Rodriguez ’12. Standing near the stern is Maria Rouvalis ’12. Photograph by H. Lincoln Benedict ’09.

Each year, more than three-quarters of incoming students immerse themselves in the distinctive landscape of Maine — whether backpacking up mountains, exploring coastal waterways, or conducting service projects in the local community.

But as one graduate of the Class of 2012 recalls, AESOP also teaches students a little about themselves.

In late August 2008, Monica Rodriguez ’12 of Stamford, Conn., joined four other first-years and two senior co-leaders on a sailing trip along the Maine coast. Clever camera work by co-leader Lincoln Benedict ’09 created this photograph of the group leaping from the boat.

Four years later, Rodriguez is a young alumna in the world, armed with a degree in Chinese and politics. Recalling that experience on the Maine coast, she says that AESOP (the only student-run program of its size among U.S. colleges) gave her quick confidence and helped her discover her voice.

• An AESOP leader aims to give as good as she got
• Student leaders’ ideosyncratic descriptions of their AESOP trips — and themselves

“After sleeping in a small cabin with six students I had never met before, I realized I didn’t have to be self-conscious,” she says.

During her four years at �ֲ���ý, she was a member of the Brooks Quimby Debate Council and an Admission tour guide. She held leadership positions with Latinos Unidos and the Senior Gift campaign and secured internships in public service.

AESOP, she says, taught her to “step out of my comfort level and to take leadership opportunities head on.”

As she prepares to enter the Boston College School of Law this fall, Rodriguez feels ready to embrace its challenges — thanks to her rich �ֲ���ý experience and a jump-start with AESOP.

Asked why he chose to attend �ֲ���ý, Robert Long ’79 remembers looking at schools that would “keep open a variety of paths.”

On Commencement morning, Erica Long '12 is flanked by parents Elizabeth Pohl '80 and Robert Long '79

His daughter Erica, Class of 2012, unwittingly echoes her father as she describes her college search. “I didn’t want to go down one direct path yet,” she says.

“I wanted to try out some new things, and the idea of a liberal arts school — I saw that as an opportunity to explore.”

The college’s alumni database counts 12 members of the Class of 2012 who have a �ֲ���ý alumni parent. That number rapidly grows when alumni grandparents, siblings and other �ֲ���ý relatives are included, as evidenced by the big turnout in Perry Atrium for a photograph on the day before Commencement 2012.

• Related story: �ֲ���ý debuts the Alumni Admission Legacy Program, June 10-11.

For example, grad Richard Sullivan III ’12 was joined by grandparents Edith Lysaght Sullivan ’56 and Richard Sullivan Sr. ’57, as well as his father Richard Sullivan Jr. ’81. The four Sullivans are among 17 family members to attend �ֲ���ý.

And Devon Bonney’s �ֲ���ý family includes siblings Erin ’09 and Garrett ’15, grandfather Wes ’50, aunt Melissa Bonney Kane ’81, and parents Mike ’80 and Alison Grott Bonney ’80.

With some prodding, Erica Long acknowledges other commonalities between her parents’ experiences and hers.

For example, she and her father are both English majors, and both worked at WRBC, the college radio station. In 2010, Robert spoke at the Parents & Family Weekend interfaith service, while Erica has been active in the Multifaith Chaplaincy and addressed her peers at Baccalaureate during Commencement weekend.

Erica and her mother, Betsy Pohl ’80, share their respective stories of Hedge Hall, making a poignant connection across 30 years of �ֲ���ý history.

However, Erica insists that her parents never pushed her to apply to �ֲ���ý.

Richard Sullivan III '12 is joined by grandparents Edith Lysaght Sullivan '56 and Richard Sullivan Sr. '57 and father Richard Sullivan Jr. '81. They represent four of 17 family members to attend �ֲ���ý.

Likewise, Kristy Andrews ’12 acknowledges that while her family history was influential — she and her brother, Mark Andrews ’09, are fourth-generation �ֲ���ýies — it was never the deciding factor.

Her mother, Cindy Holmes Andrews ’74, agrees that she never pressured but hoped her children “would just think about it.”

While parents and children both cite �ֲ���ý’ smallness, its academic rigor and the enduring value of the liberal arts education among the school’s attractions, some things do look different today.

The college has undergone considerable physical changes while the classroom experience continues to evolve thanks to emerging technologies that make knowledge more immediately accessible and shareable.

Michael Chu ’80, father of Christopher Chu ’12, admires �ֲ���ý’ ability to keep faith with its founding principles while keeping “current with the world today.”

All parents agree that the food is vastly better now, too.

“A good, welcoming, regular-folks feel to it.”

But it’s �ֲ���ý’ palpable sense of community that, generation to generation, makes it stand out. For Robert and Betsy, �ֲ���ý was an elite school without being elitist; Betsy describes it fondly as “a school with a conscience.”

“It just has a good, welcoming, regular-folks feel to it that I didn’t get at any other place,” says Robert.

He borrows Erica’s term “�ֲ���ý vibe” to describe the openness and accessibility that persists today.

That vibe has an even stronger resonance now.

Robert recalls a college friend who came out after graduation. As was true in most of U.S. society at the time, “the environment at �ֲ���ý at the time made it unthinkable for him to reveal his true self” as a student, he says.

Today, �ֲ���ý is noted nationally for supporting orientation equality on the campus and in the community. “Erica’s gay friends can be their full and true selves on campus — and be celebrated for it.”

Both Erica and Kristy agree that �ֲ���ý was the best choice for them, and their experience has been filled with its share of opportunities and surprises.

For Erica, the fact that her parents are alumni didn’t shape her understanding of �ֲ���ý so much as �ֲ���ý shaped her understanding of her parents.

“Now I have this thing in common with my parents where at this same age in our lives we lived in this same place,” she says.

Crossing the stage at Commencement, she joined her parents in yet another role: �ֲ���ý graduate.

“It’s just stunning to me,” Betsy says. “I feel like I just took her there for her first day, and that four years just went by so amazingly fast.

“Kind of like it did when I was there.”

Front, from left: Sara Vigne '12, Alison Cornforth '12, Elizabeth Pohl '80, Erica Long '12, Caitlyn DeFiore '12, Donna Avery '82, Elizabeth Kalperis Chu '80, CJ Chu '12, Michael Chu '80, Devon Bonney '12; second row: Palo Peirce IV '12, Meaghan Doyle '12, Kristy Andrews '12, Madeleine West '04, Jeffrey Roy '83, Alicia Roy '12, Erin Bonney '09, Alison Grott Bonney '80; third row, Palo Peirce III '82, Julie Gleason Doyle '86, Cindy Holmes Andrews '74, W. Jeffrey Helm '76, Steven Imig '02, Edith Lysaght Sullivan '56, Sarah Cleary '12, John Cleary '80, Wes Bonney '50, Mike Bonney '80; fourth row: Andy Doyle '86, Mark Andrews '09, Kevin Helm '12, Elliott West '12, Richard Sullivan III '12, Richard Sullivan Sr. '57, Richard Sulllivan Jr. '81, Garret Bonney '15.

Seven 2012 �ֲ���ý College graduates received Fulbright grants or related awards for teaching and conducting research in Argentina, Austria, Germany, Poland, the Slovak Republic and Vietnam.

Claire Lampen '12 received an academic grant from the Fulbright U.S. Student Program to conduct research in Germany. Photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College

Claire Lampen of St. Louis, Mo., received an academic grant from the Fulbright U.S. Student Program to conduct research in Germany under the auspices of the German Historical Museum.

Six �ֲ���ý seniors received grants for teaching English as a foreign language, with five of them awarded English Teaching Assistantships from the U.S. Fulbright Student Program: Jeffrey Berry of Redondo Beach, Calif., who will teach in Germany; Jacob Kaplove of Novato, Calif., bound for Argentina; Leah Maciejewski of Tewksbury, Mass., heading for Poland; Rebecca Merten of Warwick, R.I., who will teach in the Slovak Republic; and Jessica Plate of New Fairfield, Conn., who’s bound for Vietnam.

The sixth teaching grant recipient is Dana Ellis of West Orange, N.J., who will teach in Austria supported by a Fulbright Austria teaching assistantship, which is funded by the Austrian government.

The Fulbright U.S. Student Program is funded primarily by the U.S. Department of State and sends some 1,500 U.S. citizens abroad each year.

The academic grants offer an academic year of support for study and/or research in projects of the recipients’ design. The assistantships support students who both pursue their own research and work to improve local students’ English and knowledge of the United States.

Claire Lampen

Lampen, a �ֲ���ý history major and recipient of a Fulbright Study/Research grant, will partner with the German Historical Museum in Berlin to study photographs, maps and documents left behind by a soldier named Wilhelm Endemann at the conclusion of World War I.

Titled “Images of the Great War: A Soldier’s Photographic Memory,” the project is significant because of the perspective and depth of Endemann’s collection. “I propose to follow Endemann’s trail,” Lampen writes, and “to flesh out the documentary skeleton he laid out to reconstruct a cohesive and uniquely personal narrative of World War I.”

German soldiers were forbidden to have cameras on the battlefield, but many defied that regulation and took personal snapshots that have ended up in albums like Endemann’s, though few are as detailed as his.

At �ֲ���ý, Lampen recently completed an honors thesis on the indoctrination of German children under the Nazi regime. In 2011, she undertook a seven-month study-abroad experience in Berlin, completing a full course load in German at several institutions including Humboldt University. She was also an intern at the German Historical Museum, for which she did translations and research for a website.

Jeffrey Berry '12 received an English Teaching Assistantship from the U.S. Fulbright Student Program. Photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College.

Jeffrey Berry

Berry, a triple major in history, German and French, first experienced Germany through a �ֲ���ý Semester Abroad program in Berlin, and spent his entire junior year studying at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland. He wrote his �ֲ���ý honors thesis on parallels between Freud’s psychoanalysis and the output of Viennese author and dramatist Arthur Schnitzler.

During his Fulbright year, he will divide his time between teaching English and leading a digital photography course to connect with community members.

“My photography course will display life across class and cultural lines,” Berry writes in his Fulbright proposal. “The photographic medium allows students, and myself, to capture concretely notions about what is characteristic or worthy of documentation in their daily lives and the region at large — and to discuss these issues.”

After his time as an ETA he plans to pursue graduate studies in modern European history, German studies or international relations.

Dana Ellis '12 received a Fulbright Austria teaching assistantship. Photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College.

Dana Ellis

Ellis, recipient of the Fulbright Austria USTA award, is a psychology major. Like Berry, Ellis was inspired to learn more about her Fulbright destination by a �ֲ���ý Fall Semester Abroad program, in her case Vienna.

“I embarked on a journey to expand my knowledge beyond what I could learn in American college courses and to immerse myself in modern-day Austria,” she writes in her proposal.

Ellis was inspired by a German-language teacher who used readings from a free newspaper to steep his students in the Viennese milieu.

“Learning a language provides the tools to interact with native speakers, but without the cultural context, the language skill is far less useful,” she says. “Bridging the gap between people of different backgrounds and exchanging cultural perspectives, while recognizing the inescapable differences . . . is what motivates me to teach abroad.”

Jacob Kaplove '12 received an English Teaching Assistantship from the U.S. Fulbright Student Program. Photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College.

Jacob Kaplove

Kaplove, a psychology major, has worked closely with Lewiston’s Somali community as the program director for Refugee Volunteers, a program that promotes cross-cultural learning and exchange between �ֲ���ý students and refugee families; as a researcher for Project SHIFA, an in-school program designed to promote the mental health of young Somali refugees; and as a Bonner Leader, a participant in a national program that promotes student development through community work.

He was one of two �ֲ���ý students to receive the 2012 Heart & Soul Award from the Maine Campus Compact, recognizing outstanding contributions to the community.

Kaplove, who has done volunteer work in Central America, was attracted to Argentina in part because of the opportunity to work in a training college for teachers of English. This setting, he says, “will help to sustain my impact as my students will go on to teach future generations about the English language.”

In addition to teaching English in Argentina, Kaplove will work in a youth mentoring program and take courses in Spanish literature and public health. After Argentina, he plans to apply to medical school with the goal of practicing family medicine, which will allow him to continue working with Latino immigrants and refugee populations.

Leah Maciejewski '12 received an English Teaching Assistantship from the U.S. Fulbright Student Program. Photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College.

Leah Maciejewski

“My Polish heritage has never been a large part of my life,” Maciejewski writes in her Fulbright proposal. “When my great-grandparents came to America, they chose to assimilate to the culture at the expense of tradition.”

Now Maciejewski has the opportunity to rediscover her Polish heritage while indulging her passion for teaching languages. “The Fulbright will allow me to do just that while also sharing my culture and experience as an American with my Polish peers.”

Maciejewski, a double major in English and Spanish, has been an accomplished student and volunteer, working in English Language Learning classrooms in Lewiston. She’s also respected for her athletic accomplishments, having captained the varsity softball team this spring and been honored as most valuable player, as a �ֲ���ý Scholar-Athlete and as a member of the National Fastpitch Coaches Association All-Academic Scholar Athlete Team.

After her Fulbright commitment, Maciejewski will pursue a law degree in preparation for a career in public education policy. “I seek to explore the opportunities for bilingual policies in early education and consider new models of research and practice.”

Rebecca Merten '12 received an English Teaching Assistantship from the U.S. Fulbright Student Program. Photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College.

Rebecca Merten

Merten, a history major, will travel to the Slovak Republic eager to continue cultivating her interest in education and to be immersed in a country foreign to her. She is “seeking to place myself in an environment that offers a level stage for cultural exchange, with everyone learning about a new culture.”

Merten brings considerable experience as an educator. While studying in Mexico, she assisted in teaching middle-school English classes. “While the teachers were trained, none were native English speakers, and I was a resource for both the students and teachers.”

In the Slovak Republic, she hopes to foster intercultural exchange through cooking and film clubs. As a student of history, she adds, “What interests me most about the Slovak Republic is how it has maintained its cultural identity while being at the crossroads of various military and cultural invasions.”

Upon her return, Merten hopes to remain involved in education and history.

Jessica Plate '12 received an English Teaching Assistantship from the U.S. Fulbright Student Program. Photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College.

Jessica Plate

A history major, Plate minored in German and education at �ֲ���ý, and hopes to become a teacher, a goal aligned with her interest in teaching English in Vietnam.

Through her education coursework, Plate amassed nearly 400 hours of student teaching and other fieldwork during her �ֲ���ý career. “Some of my experience was in an English Language Learners classroom, where I worked with Somali refugees,” she notes.

As a student of history, Plate believes that this is a definitive time for Vietnam. That nation, she writes, “is surrounded by two majorly developing nations, India and China.

“Historians and policymakers — as well as the Vietnamese themselves — all have the same important questions: Where will Vietnam, whose third-largest trading partner is the U.S., stand as its neighbors grow? How well will Vietnam be able to imitate the Chinese model and develop a capitalist economy with a socialist government? How will Vietnam maintain successful relations with the U.S.?”

Attending �ֲ���ý with support from a prestigious Thomas J. Watson Memorial Scholarship, Plate spent her entire junior year abroad, dividing it between Austria and India. She feels emotionally and intellectually well-prepared for this next foray into an unfamiliar culture. “My objective is to broaden the horizons of my students, so that they too may want to become cultural ambassadors one day.”

Bonnie Bassler (left) is congratulated by Robert De Niro (second from left) after her address at Commencement. Gwen Ifill (second from right) and interim President Nancy Cable add their applause. Photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College.

As you might expect from one of the nation’s leading journalists, the advice that Gwen Ifill gave to the �ֲ���ý College class of 2012 was short and to the point: Look up.

“It’s so much simpler to look down,” at our feet and our smartphone screens, Ifill said. “But our fears are down there, too. If you look up and look away from the fears, you’ll see the destinations that you’re headed for, and the opportunities.”

Ifill was one of three prominent figures to receive an honorary degree and to offer remarks to the 463 �ֲ���ý graduates on May 27, joining Princeton biologist Bonnie Bassler and actor Robert De Niro.

• Complete �ֲ���ý Commencement coverage

Thanks to the honorands’ edgy wit, energy and well-researched references to insider �ֲ���ý lore like the Blue Goose and Midnight Madness, �ֲ���ý enjoyed an unusual college graduation: one that sent the graduates away with not just an earful of good advice, but stomach muscles sore from laughing.

One estimate had the crowd at 5,000, and with families, faculty and friends filling the Historic Quad under blue skies, interim President Nancy Cable offered welcoming remarks.

“You have given us your good will, your creativity, your humane instinct, your artistic and athletic gifts, your willingness to ask the right set of questions, your sense of reason and your dogged determination to sustain the momentum at the college,” Cable said.

Cable also called for a moment of silence to honor the memories of two individuals the college community lost too soon — economist David Aschauer, who died last August, and first-year student Evan Dube, who passed away May 19 during a Short Term trip to the Shetland Islands.

Bassler’s doctorate of science recognizes her transformational research into bacterial “quorum sensing,” the ability of bacteria to coordinate their behavior through chemical signaling. Hilarious from the outset — “Now, enough about you,” she told the graduates. “Let’s please talk about me” — she opened her talk with the conceit that the one scientist among the honorands would never have the prestige of a famous actor and a television journalist.

“If only the academic scientist would get it over with,” she said, “Robert De Niro and Gwen Ifill could give their talks, and you could get to what you’ve been waiting for.”

But Bassler artfully steered her address toward the graduation speaker’s prime responsibility, that of sending the graduates off with solid advice. When she was their age, she told the graduates, she believed there were the De Niros and Ifills of the world, and then there was everybody else, including the Bonnie Basslers. Now she knows better.

“So how do you go from where you are sitting to where I’m standing? You do it by finding, or better yet, by making your own adventure,” she said. “It can be science, it can be acting, it can be journalism, it can be anything, so long as you love it.”

“You do it by jumping in and trying your best. You do it by not saying no because you are scared that you might fail,” she said. “When I don’t want to do something, I say, ‘No, thank you. When I consider not doing something because I’m scared that I could fail, I say, Yes.”

De Niro had his own subversive way of commenting on the star power that he and Ifill brought to �ֲ���ý. For instance, he offered this helpful advice: become a movie star.

“There may be pressure on you to change the world, but you must find the strength to resist,” he said. “When I started, I wasn’t a movie star, and it sucked. The moment I became a movie star, things started to get better.

“When you’re a movie star, you can coast. For example, who remembers the last really good successful picture I made?” De Niro asked, to huge laughs.

“But I want you to know under this movie star exterior is a real person. Just like you — naw, I really didn’t mean that. That was acting. You see, I still got it.”

De Niro took on the college world, too, pointing out that by dropping out of high school in the 1960s, he saved $6,000 in tuition costs. “I feel a little foolish, because if I had waited until now not to go to college, I could have saved around a quarter of a million.

“But I was in a hurry and, you know, it worked out just fine. I saved the money and I got the degree” — the doctorate of fine arts he had just gotten from �ֲ���ý.

He did get around to offering some irony-free advice. “If you’re an actor, always be true to your character. And if you’re not an actor, have character and always be true to yourself.”

Bassler and De Niro were tough acts to follow, acknowledged Ifill, who received a doctorate of letters. “Yesterday I met my fellow honorands for the first time, and I decided that I instantly love them,” she began. “But now I hate them both with a deep and abiding passion that comes from being the third person to speak.”

But she played it mostly straight. “Now there are some benefits to be had in looking down,” she said. “If you look down today you will be able to follow in the footsteps of �ֲ���ý graduates like Ed Muskie and Benjamin Mays and Peter Gomes and Bryant Gumbel. That ain’t half bad.

“But mostly we want you to unglue your eyes from the screens, to look around and see that the world won’t get better without you,” Ifill told the graduates. “The news I cover won’t happen without you. And the learning you have acquired here means nothing unless you apply it to a cause that does not end at your smartphone.”

Thanks to the honorand addresses, as well as weather that couldn’t have been better, it was an ecstatic throng that watched the graduates collect their diplomas. Hannah Zweifler of West Hartford, Conn., was the last, and Cable held Zweifler’s hand high in victory.

Alumni Council President Roland Davis ’92 welcomed the new grads to the ranks of the Alumni Association. And Multifaith Chaplain Bill Blaine-Wallace sent the class of 2012 on its way with a benediction that he based on an incident when Southern author Flannery O’Connor declined to meet African American author James Baldwin for fear it would cause the “greatest trouble and disturbance and disunion” in her Georgia town.

Blaine-Wallace urged the graduates to choose the disturbance and disunion, if it’s for a righteous cause. “�ֲ���ý has not taught you to be nice and play it safe,” he said. “You’ve learned here to embrace complexity with fiery passion.”

Quoting civil rights activist Bayard Rustin, the chaplain said, ” ‘We need in every community a group of angelic troublemakers.’ Now and then, here and there, be a beatific pain in the you-know-what.”

With poet and writing adviser Rob Farnsworth looking on, Karen Nicoletti '12 reads from her novel during the 2012 Mount David Summit. Photograph by Rene Minnis.

As is his custom at the annual senior thesis reading, creative writing adviser Rob Farnsworth blessed the graduating �ֲ���ý poets and novelists whom he has advised during the academic year.

A poet and senior lecturer in English, Farnsworth invoked the four ingredients that Herman Melville said writers need to continue their important but often thankless art.

“May you go forth into the world,” Farnsworth told the seniors, “and find what every writer needs: time, strength, cash and patience.” And like any good public reader, he paused at “cash” for appropriate humorous effect.

Farnsworth also praised them for their “dedicated commitment to the life of the imagination.”

The seven readers and their voices at the May 17 event (an eighth creative writing major, Emily Cull of Greenville, S.C., was unable to attend):

Alison Cornforth of Warren, Maine, read autobiographical poems. The experience of creating them, she said, raised emotional issues, “but I ended up writing them anyway.”

Listen to Alison Cornforth read her autobiographical poetry.

Alana Folsom of Los Angeles read part of her prose thesis that explains, like a parable, the curse on the small Southern town that is the focus on her story.

Listen to Alana Folsom read prose about the curse on a small town.

Lil Henry of Lee, N.H., read from her poetry on relationships, including one about difficult emotions a young mother feels toward her new baby.

Listen to Lil Henry’s poetry about human relationships.

Karen Nicoletti of Brewster, N.Y., read from her prose thesis about a saxophone player and Juilliard dropout who winds up playing for handouts in the New York City subway.

Listen to Karen Nicoletti read a selection from her prose thesis.

Charlotte Simpson's poetry and prose explore the power of imagination to pull us into the unknown. Photograph by Rene Minnis.

Meg Ramey of Bethesda, Md., read her gritty and realistic poem “Violet” and a selection from her prose thesis dealing with mental and emotional disorientation.

Listen to Meg Ramey read her poetry and prose.

Charlotte Simpson of New York, N.Y., read the poem “Opener” and a prose piece called “Space Is the Place,” each about submitting to one’s imagination and the unknown.

Listen to Charlotte Simpson read two pieces whose theme is the lure of the unknown.

Michelle Schloss of Unionville, Conn., read a biographical poem, 18 stanzas each with 10 lines about Zelda Fitzgerald, from her wild Roaring Twenties days to her suicide in 1948.

Listen to Michelle Schloss read her biographical poem about Zelda Fitzgerald.

This October 2010 image shows Mikey Pasek ’12, at right, with Jourdan Fanning ’13 moving furniture in the Office of Intercultural Education, a location that includes space for �ֲ���ý Hillel. Photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College.

Soggy rice in Commons, issues with general education requirements or unjust national energy policies — many of us are content to complain about the issues that irk us on a daily basis.

Not Mikey Pasek ’12, senior class co-president. It isn’t Pasek’s style to grumble while waiting around for improvement. Instead he feels duty-bound to take action and make change happen.

A native of Ardmore, Pa., Pasek has served as class co-president since his junior year, and is a student government representative to both the President’s and Dean’s advisory committees. He was one of four students taking part in the committee that revised the college’s mission statement in 2010. In all these positions, Pasek challenges the apathy that he sometimes recognizes among peers and sees as symptomatic of larger cultural tendencies.

He explains, “We are so lucky to live in a world of democratic institutions — at �ֲ���ý the student has a voice, and if you don’t take up your own voice, you take away part of your own self-determination.”

Pasek finds that one of the most effective means of championing issues is to make specific in-person appeals — one-on-ones with peers or campus officials. Creating personal connections, highlighting individual potential and establishing a narrative other people can feel positive about, quite simply, all get results.

At �ֲ���ý, he says, “appealing to an institutional framework is often not the most effective way of getting support. Campaigning for a personal cause shows you believe in what you’re working for and makes people excited to help you.”

Pasek is just as straightforward with his opinions of the world beyond �ֲ���ý. He has contributed several opinion pieces to various publications in the last four years, including articles in Lewiston’s Sun Journal and Jewish Exponent, a Philadelphia-based weekly newspaper.

Pasek also helped co-found �ֲ���ý’ J-Street U, a chapter of the national student activist organization promoting peace, security and social justice for Israel and Palestine. He serves as vice-president for the local chapter and is the national organization’s co-chair for New England.

The �ֲ���ý chapter is highly regarded by the national organization. With Pasek and President Alex Friedman ’12 at the helm, the chapter collected 500 student and staff signatures that persuaded Maine’s U.S Rep. Michael Michaud to sign the so-called Price-Welch letter encouraging continued U.S-Palestinian aid.

Pasek’s interest in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict shapes his academic experience as well. He is currently gearing up to defend a yearlong honors thesis on American Jewish perception of Israel for his self-designed political psychology major.

Recognizing that not all �ֲ���ý students share his ease in leadership roles, Pasek has also helped facilitate �ֲ���ý communities of interest that he is not as personally tied to. Co-president of Hillel, Pasek does not identify as particularly religious, but is aware that Hillel serves an important role on campus creating a space for a group sometimes underrepresented on campus.

Pasek is well-attuned to the activist’s delicate balancing of self-interest and the common good. For him, it boils down to engaging issues that one is passionate about, but also appreciating that part of effective engagement is removing oneself from the equation. He cites a well-known saying by the ancient Jewish sage Hillel: “If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am only for myself, what am I? And, if not now, when?”

— By Elana Leopold ’12

Ian Mahmud ’12 supports the government position during the quarterfinals at Cambrige in November. The motion: “This House believes that the use of conscripted soldiers should be a war crime.”

What was true 90 years ago, when The New York Timesproclaimed �ֲ���ý to be a “power centre of college debating,” is in evidence again now as the college’s Brooks Quimby Debate Council ranks among the best debate programs in the world.

Ranked 14th globally as of Feb. 29 by the the �ֲ���ý team recently has ranked as high as ninth.

�ֲ���ý’ strong world ranking, says Director of Debate Jan Hovden, “is a true honor for members of the Brooks Quimby Debate Council. �ֲ���ý is an undergraduate-only institution whose students regularly compete against graduate and law students from around the globe, so the ranking speaks volumes about the quality of students we have at �ֲ���ý.”

According to the IDEA website, the world rankings draw “from the results of 33 high-profile tournaments across the world to show an accurate representation of the comparative strength of debating societies against each other.”

In rankings published by the American Parliamentary Debate Association, �ֲ���ý is ranked sixth the U.S., behind Yale, Brandeis, Harvard, American and Columbia universities.

�ֲ���ý debates at home March 8-10, hosting a public debate vs. Yale at 7:30 p.m., March 8, in the Chapel, and an intercollegiate debate the following two days.

Ian Mahmud ’12 and Colin Etnire ’12, ranked among the top U.S. debate teams, chat during their November debate trip to Cambridge.

Pacing the Brooks Quimby Debate Council are seniors Colin Etnire of San Francisco and Ian Mahmud of Duxbury, Mass., rankedin the Team of the Year standings by the American Parliamentary Debate Association.

Etnire is ranked eighth in U.S. Speaker of the Year standings, while Taylor Blackburn ’15 of Atherton, Calif., is eighth in the Novice of the Year standings.

The Brooks Quimby Debate Council is distinctive in that the club trains and develops debaters who have had no prior experience. It does not hold competitive tryouts but is open to all interested students.

Tiarra Abell ’12, a double major in Spanish and anthropology, is spending her December break in Ecuador doing research.

As the end of the semester approaches, �ֲ���ý students are looking forward to a break from late nights in the library and a chance to spend the holidays with friends and family. But for senior Tiarra Abell of Louisville, Ky., winter break is a time to get some real work done.

At 4 a.m. Dec. 10, just hours after her last class of the semester, Abell began her journey back to Ecuador, where she spent her junior semester.

“A reality is coming true that I never imagined,” Abell said. “Although I didn’t want it to, I expected my time in Ecuador to end. But within just six months I’m able to go back!”

Along with 11 other seniors, Abell received a Barlow Thesis Research Grant. Established by David Barlow ’79, the grant’s goal is to enhance the study-abroad experience.

“I really like the Barlow thesis grant program, as it helps link the study abroad experience to the student’s academic program at �ֲ���ý,” said Stephen Sawyer, director of off-campus study. “It allows students to return to their study-abroad country and interact with that setting in a more targeted way, building on their first experience.”

A double major in Spanish and anthropology, Abell is writing two senior theses, both investigating the lives of the Afro-Choteño community in Chota, a rural village with a population of 800. While living with a host family in Chota last spring, Abell was struck by the warmth and generosity of the Afro-Choteños despite the poverty in which they live.

“That was the first time in my life that I have experienced extreme poverty, in its real form,” said Abell. “The way they accepted me into their culture because I looked like them was very powerful to me. Just because I am black and I was doing well, they were very proud of me, as if I was one of their own.”

The timing for the return visit could not be better. After witnessing Easter in Chota, Abell was inspired to write her Spanish thesis on the role of faith in the lives of the devoutly Catholic Afro-Choteños. Abell hopes that spending Christmas in Chota will allow her to gather valuable interviews and photographs for her thesis.

After �ֲ���ý, Abell plans to pursue a career in medicine. While in Chota, she volunteered at the local health clinic. She will return to the clinic to gather more field notes for her anthropology thesis on the economic and racial inequalities affecting medical treatment in Chota.

“This is a great opportunity,” she said. “Now I not only have volunteer experience in the medical field, but I have it in another culture.”

Most of her time will be spent in Chota, but Abell will visit Quito and Otavalo to gather books and articles that are not available in the United States on the Afro-Choteños. During this time she plans to meet Carla Guerron, the author of one of her primary sources, El Color de la Panela (“The Color of Brown Sugar”).

Abell will miss spending the holidays with her family in Louisville. “This is the first Christmas I have missed with my family, but being able to share and give back to people who don’t have nearly as much—who can’t even conceptualize the amount of things I have—brings me back to the true meaning of Christmas that my parents and family instilled in me.”

While home for Thanksgiving, Abell added, “my best friend’s sister gave me a big bag full of toys to give to the kids in Chota knowing that they would go to good use.”

— Erica Long ’12