Bo Ra Kim ’14: scholar, activist and musician.

Bo Ra Kim ’14 of Seoul, Korea, has received a to fund her study of environmental economics at Columbia University.

Kim is among 41 scholarship recipients who will each receive up to $50,000 annually for graduate studies in the U.S. or abroad.

“I would like to either work as an environmental consultant, working to increase corporations’ environmental practices, or at the United Nations Environment Programme as a policy consultant,” says Kim, who double-majored in environmental studies and music at 乐播传媒.

Kim is clear about not only what she seeks to do with her life, but also how she aims to change the world around her. “I am incredibly passionate about mitigating climate change and adapting to the inevitable effects of the greenhouse gases that we have already emitted.”

The 乐播传媒 environmental studies faculty helped Kim narrow down an intimidatingly large choice of specialties. “I was able to really explore different concentrations within the large topic of environmental studies,” she says. “Through taking classes in different disciplines, I was able to find my interest in environmental economics.”

Lynne Lewis, Elmer W. Campbell Professor of Economics, “did a wonderful job of supporting me and sparking my interest in this subject.” Kim adds. “She provided me many research opportunities and further grew my interest in environmental economics.”

Kim says, “Without this focus, I would not have thought that I wanted to work as an environmental or policy consultant.”

For her senior thesis in environmental studies, Kim investigated a topic related to Lewis’ research into contingent valuation, an economic technique for placing a value on resources,聽such as environmental quality, that don’t have conventional market value. This work, says Kim, “taught me a lot about data analysis through the application of concepts that I had learned in other classes. I understand regressions a lot more than I ever would have through just taking the econometrics class.“

Kim’s interest in environmental studies is rivaled by her lifelong love of music.

“Music often is my stress reliever, because when I leave everything and go play the piano, violin or sing, I can get lost in it. That is one of the only times when my head is not swirling with thoughts of everything else I need to do.”

Her musical achievements include service as concert master of the Choate Rosemary Hall Chamber Orchestra and participation in a Grammy Award-winning recording by the Michigan State University Children’s Choir in 2006.

The聽Jack Kent Cooke Foundation, established by a successful entrepreneur who regretted that his Depression-era upbringing prevented him from attending college, has been by Kim’s side since seventh grade, when she became a JKCF Young Scholar.

“The JKCF helped provide me with opportunities,” she explains. “They provided financial assistance for my musical activities, including violin and piano lessons, and choir.

“But I think that the most valuable aspect of this relationship was the guidance they provided. They advised me through boarding school applications and again through my college applications and choices. They did not just support me financially — they guided me through the challenges I faced in life.”

If you know someone born in the United States before 1965, author Isabel Alexis Wilkerson explained to the 乐播传媒 Class of 2014, “you know someone who was not born in a democracy.

“Think about that,” said Wilkerson, Commencement speaker and author of an acclaimed history of the Great Migration of black Americans out of the South during the 20th century.

“Because until that time, millions of American citizens were prohibited from voting,” she said. And today, she pointed out, those hard-won gains in social and political justice from half a century ago are again in peril.

“No matter what course your life takes, there is but one thing that you absolutely must do before you leave this planet,” Wilkerson told the 448 soon-to-be graduates. “You must leave this world a better place than it would have been if you had not existed.”

乐播传媒 President Clayton Spencer beams during Commencement 2014. Behind her is geology professor and faculty marshal John Creasy. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College)

Featured speaker at 乐播传媒’ 148th Commencement, held on the Historic Quad on May 25, The Warmth of Other Suns author Wilkerson was also one of four honorary degree recipients. Joining her and college President A. Clayton Spencer on the Coram Library stage were:

鈥⒙犅� 聽John Seely Brown, former director of Xerox’s legendary Palo Alto Research Center and a visionary thinker in the field of information technology;

鈥⒙犅� 聽Glenn Close, an actress renowned for her ability to bring characters to vivid life and an activist in the fields of mental health and wildlife conservation;

鈥⒙犅� 聽David Shaw P’00, philanthropist and a global entrepreneur whose enterprises have included Maine’s $1-billion-plus IDEXX Laboratories.

For the second year, one of the graduating seniors offered Commencement remarks. His 乐播传媒 experience wasn’t typical, explained Collin McCullough of Plattsburgh, N.Y.: He took his junior year off from school and so graduated with the Class of 2014 instead of his “natural” classmates.

Two qualities prevailing at 乐播传媒 made it easier for him to fit in than it might otherwise have been: intelligence and kindness. “Hard work and quick minds make us respectable individuals, but it is our willingness to engage and challenge each other with openness, with acceptance, that makes us remarkable,” McCullough said.

Senior class speaker Collin McCullough. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College)

And he found acceptance in ample measure.

“This institution has enhanced my ability to think critically and to hold fast to my opinions. It has taught me confidence and communication,” an emotional McCullough concluded, barely able to get the words out.

“But from the students in the class of 2014, I have learned the value of something I prize above all else. And that is the power of a simple hello or a selfless extension of kindness.”

For Wilkerson’s part, she offered an anecdote to illustrate the ability of one individual to effect change. She was having lunch with a colleague one day who surprised her by revealing that he came from a long line of child abusers.

The man told Wilkerson about the day he held his newborn baby to his chest and, confronting the darkness that had shattered his family, made a vow. 鈥淚t ends right here,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t ends right here with me.鈥�

Cecilia Pina ’14 of Boston poses with Katia, Cecilia and Vadilson Pina during a family photo session at Commencement 2014. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College)

Wilkerson told her 乐播传媒 audience, “It takes courage to confront what has gone before you and more courage still to end an injustice and set a new course.

“That is the choice before you and your generation. It may not be all that you do, but I hope that it will be part of what you do on your journey.”

“We are now on the eve of a watershed moment” in the national struggle toward equal rights for all Americans, Wilkerson said. This year marks the 49th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act and the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act.

“Yet in the time since you have been in college, in four short years, many of these advances have been dismantled,” she pointed out — from efforts to curtail voting rights for minority and disadvantaged people to the coarsening of public discourse to “worsening disparities between blacks and whites in every sphere of life.”

The things that divide us today have deep and persistent roots in history. But 乐播传媒, Wilkerson reminded the seniors, was “founded out of a desire to end these divisions, founded in the darkest hours before the Civil War by abolitionists who dreamed a world different than the one they had been born to.”

A much-deserved hug for Josh Ajamu ’14 of Breinigsville, Pa. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College)

And she shared the words of two African Americans who had the benefit of a 乐播传媒 education at a time when college was an impossible dream for countless Americans of color. The Rev. Benjamin E. Mays ’20, mentor to Martin Luther King, pointed out the resiliency conferred by a personal sense of mission.

And Wilkerson credited one of the college’s earliest black graduates, Thomas James Bollin of the Class of 1879, with what she described as a “beautiful definition of equality”: In an edition of The 乐播传媒 Student, Bollin wrote that 鈥淸s]ocial equality is the brotherhood of man in every condition.鈥�

If good feelings come with the territory at graduation, Commencement 2014 was downright fun. When President Spencer, in her welcome, said, “Seniors, this ceremony is pretty much all about you,” someone yelled right back: “Yes it is!”

Colleen Fitzgerald ’14 and Bridgette Chandhoke ’14 were among several dancers who managed to hug Marcy Plavin, founder of the dance program and dispenser of diplomas, on their way across the stage. There was more cheering from friends and family, but fewer boat horns.

Hats off to the Class of 2014! (Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College)

The switching-up of Commencement traditions begun last year continued for the Class of 2014 sendoff. Some were sartorial. For ease of identification, staffers wore shiny sashes — garnet, of course.

Faculty marshals John Creasy, a geology professor, and Marcy Plavin sported 乐播传媒 ballcaps announcing their disciplines (perhaps the camel of modernity poking its nose into the tent of medieval academic tradition).

Piper Rob Simmons and the Portland Brass figured prominently in the processional, as always, but there were innovations on the music front too. A Commencement Choir sang the Beatles’ “In My Life,” directed by Lecturer in Music John Corrie and sporting Ryen Martinez ’17 and Kelsey Berry ’16 as soloists. (This came complete with a vocal adaptation of producer George Martin’s speed-altered, Baroque-styled piano solo from the Fab Four’s Rubber Soul.)

And hailing from Down East, the Atlantic Clarion Steel Band followed the benediction by the Rev. Raymond Clothier, acting associate multifaith chaplain. The band sent the throng off to their lobster lunch with a series of bouncing two-beats — just the music to close one of life’s chapters and open another. With the sun finally shining after a chilly gray morning, it was better than a Hollywood ending.

Below is multimedia coverage of Commencement 2014 including full video of the Commencement ceremony on May 25.

Check back for more video and photography in the coming days.

Commencement Video Scenes

Video scenes from Commencement on May 25, 2014. Sarah Crosby/乐播传媒 College.

Complete Commencement Video

Watch the video of the entire Commencement ceremony on May 25, 2014.

Video: The shoes fit for seniors and faculty at Commencement

What does a choice of shoe say about how seniors and faculty approach the big day?

Commencement Social Media

For more video and photographs from Commencement Weekend, see 乐播传媒 Commencement Social.

As the groans fade and the printers sit dormant in Ladd Library, it鈥檚 finally safe to talk about senior thesis again.

The thesis is the culminating academic experience for most seniors 鈥� more than 96 percent of the senior class completes one.

But as my fellow seniors will tell you, behind all of the blood, sweat and tear-drenched pages is a window into what lights us up intellectually.

As a final send-off before graduation, and a bit of encouragement to the rising seniors filling our shoes, here are 14 senior theses representing a range of academic departments.

Name: Andrew Lawson Carranco
Hometown: Laredo, Texas
Major: History

Thesis: “All But Forgotten: Latin American Japanese Internment in the United States During the Second World War鈥�

During World War II, the United States not only interned Japanese Americans but was involved in a multinational internment of Japanese and Germans across the Americas. Peru was particularly keen on sending its Japanese population. In my thesis, I explore the reasoning behind Latin American Japanese internment and the subsequent treatment of those in internment camps in the United States.

In other words: 鈥�The most complex histories are sometimes in your own backyard.鈥�

Name: Jordan Buetow
Hometown: Fairbanks, Alaska
Major: Environmental Studies

Thesis: “The Use of Benthic Macroinvertebrates in a Baseline Characterization of the Input Streams of Lake Auburn鈥�

Benthic macroinvertebrates were sampled in the four major input streams of Lake Auburn to develop a baseline characterization for future monitoring programs. Physical and chemical characteristics of streams were used to attempt to explain the biotic variability among sites.

In other words: “There鈥檚 a lot more going on in streams than you think.”

Name: Brittney Dyana Davis
Hometown: Chicago
Major: Theater

Thesis: 鈥�Restoring Faith in Love: An Analysis of Elizabeth from 鈥業n the Next Room, or the Vibrator Play鈥� by Sarah Ruhl鈥�

I basically explored a character and developed how to better understand the struggle she endured from losing a child.

In other words: “I explored what it was like to be a black wet nurse.”

Name: Aung Phone Myint
Hometown: Yangon, Myanmar
Major: Politics

Thesis: 鈥淗ybridizing the Rule of Law: the Singapore Experience鈥�

My thesis develops a concept of legal hybridity to explain the unconventional behavior of authoritarian regimes that promote rule of law despite costly political risks. Legal hybridity can be understood in the context of a Weberian legal dialectic between formal rationality and substantive irrationality, and it can be observed in a judicial dynamic of simultaneous empowerment and containment.

In other words: “Authoritarian regimes may sometimes make friends with rule of law聽鈥� at least instrumentally!”

Name: Mike Arsnow
Hometown: Lynnfield, Mass.
Major: Biochemistry

Thesis: 鈥淒NA Vaccines, A Potential Cure for Type I Diabetes鈥�

Over the last decade, major advances have been made in gene therapy and the production of new forms of disease treatment utilizing DNA plasmid technology. I focused on how these 鈥淒NA Vaccines鈥� can be used to effectively combat not only acute infectious disease, but also chronic illnesses. Using the most current data and experimental techniques, I proposed a theoretical DNA Vaccine that would disrupt the auto-immune mechanisms of type I diabetes, allowing the pancreas to regenerate and insulin production to resume.

In other words: “I injected DNA to cure diabetes!”

Name: Reilly Bergin-Pugh
Hometown: New York City
Major: Anthropology

Thesis: “French Colonial Legacy鈥檚 Effect on Language Ideologies in Algeria鈥�

In my thesis, I examine how the Darja dialect of Arabic was affected by French and French colonial rule and the emergence of a 鈥渘ew linguistic identity鈥� in post-colonial Algeria.

In other words: “I discovered it is hard to write a thesis that involves three languages without confusing your reader. Or yourself.”

Name: Eddie Moan
Hometown: New York City
Major: Physics

Thesis: 鈥淏ose-Einstein Condensation in Novel Three-Dimensional Optical Lattices鈥�

A group of atoms cooled to temperatures just above absolute zero (roughly 100 nK) will occupy the lowest available energy state en masse, and they behave as a macroscopic quantum body聽鈥� essentially they become a giant 鈥渟uper-atom.鈥� This phenomenon is called Bose-Einstein condensation and can be realized with a series of magnetic and optical trapping techniques. Using the ultra-cold atomic gas, we can study the physical phenomena of real atomic crystal structures.

In other words: “We build ‘freeze-lasers’ that create the coldest thing in the known universe (100 nK)!”

Name: Max Goldfarb
Hometown: St. Louis
Major: English

Thesis: 鈥�Something Sweet, a short film鈥�

Something Sweet plays off of narrative styles of the French New Wave movement. The film intercuts different points of a relationship to examine what brings the couple together and what separates them. There are poems that accompany the movie.

In other words: “Boy meets girl, falls in love, breaks up.”

Name: William T. Green
Hometown: New Canaan, Conn.
Major: Music Composition

Thesis: 鈥�Music for the Movies鈥�

This project entails original composition of a series of orchestral movements that could be featured as the soundtrack to an unmade film.聽 Each movement contains a distinct theme that evokes a specific feeling or represents a certain scene. Through love, betrayal, suspense, and in settings such as the jungle, underwater and a fantasy world, the piece will guide the listener on a journey of cinematic enchantment.

In other words: “Writing music inspired by John Williams, Hans Zimmer and Michael Giacchino has been one of the most invigorating experiences I have had at 乐播传媒.”

Name: Grace Glasson
Hometown: Beaufort, S.C.
Major: Women and Gender Studies

Thesis: 鈥�’I鈥檓 Not Just a Teenage Dirtbag, Baby:’ Horrific Teen Flicks and the Horrors of Teen Stardom鈥�

Many teen films of the 1980s and 90s may be petty high school drama and 鈥渙verly dramatic鈥� teen angst-filled cinema on the surface, but there is plenty of sex, drug-use, death, as well as family and mental health issues lurking in the not-so-distant background. This thesis makes the latter more transparent, creating the 鈥渉orrific teen flick鈥� by examining three films and arguing for the existence of an intersectional incarnation of horrific teen film characters and celebrities. Drawing on innovative horror films of the 1970s and ’80s in conjunction with feminist film theory and analysis of various forms of popular media, this project constructs a gendered, classed and raced genre and figure.

In other words: “Surprise! Teenagers are actually complex human beings!”

Name: Mildred Aroko
Hometown: Salem, Mass.
Major: Rhetoric

Thesis: 鈥�Emancipation Through Mentorship: Decoding Tarantino鈥檚 Image of Masculinity, Power and Race in Django Unchained鈥�

Rhetoric is an important field of study as it concerns itself with the power of the symbolic as it is enacted in the process of negotiation in culture, civil society and history. My thesis explores the way cinematic narratives and images inform collective perceptions of race, masculinity and power. By calling critical attention to the narrative presented in Django Unchained, I analyze how Quentin Tarantino uses his film to convey ideas of power and powerlessness through his representation of whiteness and blackness.

In other words: 鈥�My particular study explores Django Unchained as a marker of masculinity and power by critiquing the relationship between black and white characters in the film and Tarantino鈥檚 stylistic aesthetic.鈥�

Name: Suraj Karmacharya
Hometown: Kathmandu, Nepal
Major: Economics and Politics

Thesis: 鈥�The Impact of Caste and Gender in Nepal鈥檚 Labor Market: A Blinder-Oaxaca Approach to Understanding Wage Discrimination鈥� (Economics)

“Conceptualizing the Role of 鈥楻ecognition鈥� and 鈥楻edistribution鈥� in Finding Remedies for Caste Injustice in Nepal: An Individualist Approach to a Dual Perspective” (Politics)

In other words: 鈥淚ssues of caste injustice clearly exist in places like Nepal and have a devastating social and economic impact on lower caste groups 鈥� untouchables. If I were to become the next president, it would come to an abrupt end.鈥�

Name: Peter Cowan
Hometown: Bethel, Maine
Major: German

Thesis: 鈥�Essen, Arbeit, W盲rme: 鈥淲eit, hinter den W盲ldern鈥澛爑nd das 脺berleben im d枚rflichen Siebenb眉rgen in der Nachkriegszeit鈥�

(鈥�Food, Work & Love: 鈥楩ar Beyond the Forests鈥� and Survival in post World War II Transylvania鈥�)

I explored the themes of food, work and love, as well as the difficulties of survival in post-World War II, Soviet-controlled Transylvanian Saxon villages. The study examined the necessities of the body, mind and soul of the remaining Transylvanian families in conjunction with those sent to labor camps in Russia.

In other words: 鈥淭he Soviets weren鈥檛 the nicest of people.”

Name: William T. Fubini
Hometown: Brookline, Mass.
Major: Psychology

Thesis: 鈥淒eath and Advertising: a Study Examining the Effects of Self-Affirmation and Mortality Salience on Participants Materialistic Tendencies鈥�

According to Terror Management Theory, humans manage emotional feelings of terror associated with thoughts of their own death through a two-part psychological system: one鈥檚 cultural worldview defined as a shared conscience or set of beliefs about how people perceive the nature of reality, and one鈥檚 own self-esteem. My experiment sought to examine the psychological effects that MST and self-affirmation could potentially have on participants鈥� materialistic tendencies as measured through assessments of, and desire for, commercially marketed products.

In other words: 鈥淭hrough my research, I discovered that 乐播传媒 students quell anxiety brought about by thinking of their own mortality through valuing existential aspects of their lives, such as thinking about friends and family, over monetary aspects, such as status and wealth.鈥�

For 乐播传媒 seniors and their families, Commencement is one of life’s peak experiences.

Politics professor Leslie Hill hugs a graduate after the 2013 Commencement ceremony. Photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen

It closes one chapter and opens another, with all the attendant hugs, goodbye and hello. It culminates a huge personal and intellectual achievement.

For seniors, it’s spring foliage, Senior Week togetherness, something silly on your mortarboard and that long dazed walk behind the piper.

The Class of 2014 by the numbers. (Click to enlarge.)

Life’s peak experiences, of course, tend to happen just once. This is a plus on the specialness side of the ledger, but a minus on the knowing-the-ropes side.

In that spirit, here’s a primer for getting the best from Commencement at 乐播传媒, the 2014 edition.

When, Who, Where

Though related activities begin days earlier, 乐播传媒’ 148th Commencement ceremony itself takes place at 10 a.m. Sunday, May 25, on the Historic Quad, Campus Avenue and College Street (or Merrill Gym in case of rain).

Some 448 students will receive bachelor’s degrees, and President A. Clayton Spencer will confer honorary degrees on four notable Americans:

• John Seely Brown, visionary thinker and computer scientist;
• Glenn Close, renowned actress;
• David Shaw P’00, leading entrepreneur;
• Isabel Wilkerson, Commencement speaker and author of the acclaimed social history The Warmth of Other Suns.

Isabel Wilkerson, author of The Warmth of Other Suns.

Commencement weekend happenings also include a panel discussion with the honorands at 11 a.m. Saturday, May 24, in the Olin Concert Hall, 75 Russell St.; and Baccalaureate, a senior-designed celebration embracing many faiths and the arts of poetry, dance, music and more, at 2 p.m. May 24 on the Historic Quad.

Resources for Attendees

Visit bates.edu/commencement for a host of resources for families attending Commencement, including a schedule of events, campus map and list of FAQs.

Virtual Commencement

If you won’t be on campus, 乐播传媒 Communications provides multiple channels for following Commencement at a distance.

The next best thing to being there is the college’s Commencement livestream, available at bates.edu/live/.

Fans of social media are invited to participate using #batesgrad and #batescollege, but with social media channels abundantly abuzz during the weekend, you can keep abreast of the action at a single site: bates.edu/commencement/social/

After the Fact

Starting on Commencement afternoon with photography, video and a news report from the May 25 ceremony, 乐播传媒 Communications rolls out coverage during the following hours and days. For news stories and all manner of still and motion photography, including the ceremony in excerpts and its entirety, please bookmark bates.edu/news.

By late July, Simone Schriger ’14 had finished her off-campus semester program at the Universidad Austral de Chile.

In Chile, she pursued an independent study of dating violence among Chilean college students. Now back on campus, she’ll use the raw findings from that experience as the basis for the academic project that will dominate her senior year: the honors thesis.

Simone Schriger ’14 in La Campana National Park, Chile. (Photo: Arantxa Gallegos)

Name: Simone Schriger 鈥�14

Hometown: Los Angeles

Major: Psychology

Adviser: Associate Professor of Psychology Michael Sargent

Research Funding:聽Schriger was in Chile with C.V. Starr-Middlebury Schools Abroad, a program sponsored by the 乐播传媒 Off-Campus Study Office, and received a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to help her integrate her abroad experience into her senior year academic work.

1. In a nutshell, what was your independent study project in Chile?

I developed and conducted a study on violencia en el pololeo, premarital dating violence, among Chilean university students. I traveled to different universities and held focus groups, asking students about dating violence and their thoughts about the topic.

2. Were you able to draw any conclusions?

While that part of the project will form the basis of my honors thesis work, it’s very evident that the concept of intimate partner violence is prevalent both in the numbers and the psyche of Chilean students.

My project is timely because the Chilean government is just now starting to look at proyectos de ley, law proposals, concerning premarital dating violence. Currently, assault in Chile is only legislatively聽considered to be domestic violence if it involves a man and women who are married and have lived together. This is problematic because many instances of domestic violence fail to be recognized as such by the legal system.

3. Aside from the topic, what did you learn by doing research abroad?

On her semester program in Chile, Simone Schriger ’14 examined the issue of dating violence among college students. The experience has given her the raw material for her honors thesis work. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College)

When in Rome, you have to do as the Romans. That is, if you want to get things done you can鈥檛 impose your own ethnocentric views on another culture.

4. What’s it like to be back at 乐播传媒?

It is a little difficult to transition from studying in Chile, where every day felt like an unknown day, to being back to what is more familiar. But I’m going to try to adopt a mindset back at 乐播传媒 that every day can be an unforeseeable adventure.

5. How have you changed?

My first year at 乐播传媒, I had a general idea of things I wanted to do, but didn’t know the means of accomplishing those goals. I had no idea how to make an idea a reality in my life.

Now, given the experiences that I’ve had at 乐播传媒, the positions I’ve held and the classes I’ve taken, I feel confident in approaching a new situation. I have more control over my future.

6. Who is your 乐播传媒 faculty mentor?

Michael Sargent has been my major adviser, and I have worked with him since freshman year as a research assistant and in his courses.

My project changed focus several times, but even when it shifted away from his area of research, social psychology, he was very supportive and continued to mentor me. He and I met with Professor Georgia Nigro, who helped me understand how qualitative research differs from quantitative research. Professor Nigro will be my thesis adviser.

I also met with Professor Claudia Aburto Guzm谩n, who is from Valdivia, which I didn鈥檛 know going into our conversation. Given that I had never been to Chile, she really helped give me insights about what was feasible, culturally and logistically. She supported my ideas while providing constructive criticism.

7. You’ve done related work in Lewiston-Auburn?

Since my first year at 乐播传媒, I have been involved with Safe Voices, an agency that deals with domestic violence in Lewiston-Auburn as well as Androscoggin, Franklin and Oxford counties.

Freshman year, I went to photograph the executive director of Safe Voices for Lewiston Auburn Magazine. I arrived, asked what the organization was about and decided I wanted to volunteer.

I was trained to be a helpline volunteer. Now, every week I sign up for a shift and have calls directed to my cellphone. Safe Voices runs a 24-hour helpline, so at any point during my shift anyone in the country, or I guess the world, could call this number and get support and resources about domestic violence issues.

Emilie Geissinger ’14.

The Connecticut Post describes a day in the life of Emilie Geissinger ’14, a summer intern at the Marine Aquarium in Norwalk.

Besides interning at the aquarium and working as a life guard this summer (Geissinger is a varsity 乐播传媒 swimmer), she’s also working on her senior thesis in biology.

With Professor of Biology Will Ambrose as her adviser, Geissinger is investigating the eating habits of an eel-like fish called the wrymouth. To do her fieldwork, she’s made a nearly 10-hour drive to Machias, far down the coast of Maine.

Geissinger tells 乐播传媒 News that she took the aquarium internship to gain hands-on experience in marine biology.

“The skills and knowledge I have picked up here will benefit me as I continue pursuing marine biology,” she says. “I knew very little about animal husbandry before working at Maritime, so this is a major new tool for my ‘tool kit.'”

Connecticut Post reporter Tim Loh underscores the importance of internships for college students, noting that “nationwide, two out of three college students will at some point in their studies take part in an internship or cooperative education assignment, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers.”

Stopping by the kid-friendly lorikeet aviary was part of intern Geissinger’s aquarium duties. Photograph courtesy of the Maritime Aquarium.

Loh opens his story with Geissinger entering an aviary housing about 50 small, brightly colored parrots known as lorikeets.

Geissinger carries a tray of nectar, and “before long, the 21-year-old had six lorikeets perched on various parts of her upper body,” writes Loh.

The sight of a bird-bedecked human attracts a little boy. As he approaches Geissinger, she eases herself down to him.

“I’m a friend to animals too,” says the boy.

“I can tell,” Geissinger replies as a bird hops over to him. “These birds have a way of knowing.”

For Jenny Bergeron ’14, summer is passing at a snail’s pace 鈥� in a good way.

Along with Colin O’Leary ’13 and Alex Hulse ’14, Bergeron is studying snails and their neuropeptides: tiny molecules that help neurons talk to each other.

This spring, Bergeron was accepted to the Tufts Medical School Early Assurance Program, which guarantees admission to outstanding scholars two years ahead of matriculation. She plans to study abroad in Denmark this fall.

Student researcher Jenny Bergeron ’14 has been accepted to the Tufts Medical School Early Assurance Program. Photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College

Name: Jenny Bergeron ’14

Hometown: Lewiston, Maine

Major: Biochemistry

Research adviser: Nancy Kleckner, associate professor of biology, who studies the neurological systems of ponds snails like Helisoma trivolis

Research funding: IDeA Networks of Biomedical Research Excellence, a program of the National Institute of Health. INBRE grants are awarded by the college to faculty and students conducting research in cell and molecular biology, biochemistry and neuroscience.

1. Say you’re sharing an elevator with a famous hip hop artist who’s curious about your research. How would you describe your work?

Our research is looking at neuropeptides in snail brains in relation to feeding behaviors. We can use this information to discover how neuropeptides work in the human brain 鈥� but the snail brain’s a lot easier to work on. It’s smaller and there are fewer things going on. It’s less complex.

2. What made you decide to study snails?

It is Nancy’s project, and she asked me to join. But I think she picked Helisoma because 鈥� well, it’s a pretty snail to begin with! 鈥� but there’s not a lot of data out there on it. I think that makes the research a lot more interesting than just redoing other people’s work.

3. What do you enjoy most about the research?

My favorite part of the research so far is that we got to do six weeks of it at Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory. That is a really cool environment. We had a lot of scientists our age around, and we had morning seminars and took a research presentation class. It was really exciting being in that environment, and to talk about your research and other people’s research was very collaborative.

Bergeron concentrates in the lab while her adviser, Nancy Kleckner, works in the background. Photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College

4. What’s the best part of working with your adviser, Nancy Kleckner? The most challenging?

The best part is that she’s from 乐播传媒. Many people at MDIBL don’t work with a professor from their college, so they drop off their research and never see it again. But since Nancy’s from 乐播传媒 and she was a visiting scientist up there, she’ll still be working on it and I’ll be able to see the project transform over the next two years.

Plus, she’s really nice.

The most challenging part is not really her, but the fact that I haven’t taken neuroscience. So working with neuropeptides is definitely challenging, trying to figure out how the neuroscience works.

5. How does this summer research connect to your course work?

I’m a biochemist, and the research I’m doing with Nancy involves a lot of techniques that we use in cellular and molecular biology. I hear that a lot of the same techniques will come up in my future classes, too. So the research this summer is the same techniques, just different organisms.

6. Best part of being on campus in the summer?

When you see your professor walking around in shorts or just finished playing tennis, it’s kind of fun. And everyone’s a lot more relaxed in the summer.

Tomi Chipman '14 stands with her father, Doug, in one of their greenhouses in Poland, Maine. Photograph by Jose Leiva/Sun Journal.

The and her father Doug on the front page of its Father鈥檚 Day 2012 issue. Chipman plans to work the family farm after graduation, joining her father in a tradition that stretches back 231 years.

Chipman’s decision would make her the 8th generation to work the family鈥檚 60 acres in western Maine. After years of expansion, the Chipmans still own the original land their ancestor farmed in the late 1700s.

With two more years at 乐播传媒 ahead of her, Chipman will complete a major in biology. She plans to spend her breaks and summers helping out on the farm 鈥� naturally.

Enrollment figures will not be final until Oct. 1, but 乐播传媒 currently anticipates a class of 270 women and 231 men, selected from 4,517 applicants.

The students come from 376 different high schools, half of them public, in 35 states throughout the U.S. and 25 other countries. The group includes speakers of at least 22 different languages.

With 23.4 percent of the incoming students coming from traditionally underrepresented populations, 乐播传媒 has increased its enrollment of these students by more than 50 percent in the last five years. The class also includes 44 students who are the first in their family to attend college.

乐播传媒 will provide need-based financial assistance to 39 percent of the class.

Total enrollment at 乐播传媒 this fall is anticipated to be 1,884 — with 1,710 enrolled on campus, 46 studying in 乐播传媒 programs in Austria and China, and 128 off campus in other programs around the world.