Many hands make light work. Many hands also helped write the final chapter of the most unusual Commencement in college history.

On June 10, a dozen or so �ֲ���ý staff members formed an assembly line in the College Store. Their job: pack several hundred boxes with diplomas and other markers of the college’s virtual Commencement on May 31 for mailing to this year’s 463 graduates.

The process was mostly quiet — punctuated with an occasional shriek of packing tape being dispensed and an occasional question: “How are we doing on bubble wrap?” “How many boxes is this crinkle paper supposed to fill?”

“There’s a long story in each one.”

At the front end of the assembly line were all the diplomas, filling traditional wooden racks that in other years would cradle the sheepskins on the Coram Library Terrace for President Spencer to give the grads.

That’s where Kerry O’Brien, assistant dean of the faculty, was stationed. “My job was bubble-packing the diplomas and nestling them into the boxes,” she said. “As I wrapped each diploma, I thought about all the energy and imagination and sheer effort that earned it. There’s a long story in each one.”

At the other of the line was Claire Schmoll, executive assistant to President Clayton Spencer. Schmoll stacked the completed boxes on waiting “U-boat” carts that, once filled, were wheeled around the corner to Post & Print, where Bobby Bosse affixed a �ֲ���ý decal and mailing label to each finished box.

“As I saw a familiar name, I hugged the box,” Schmoll said. “It was my way of saying, ‘Congratulations, we care for you, we miss you, and we hope to see you back on campus soon.’ I wish I could have hugged all the boxes!”

Each mailing box contained:

• �ֲ���ý diploma
• Letters announcing recipients’ academic awards
• Bound thesis (complimentary, if the graduate requested)
• Congratulations from the �ֲ���ý Alumni Association
• �ֲ���ý car window sticker
• Congratulations from President Spencer and Dean of the Faculty Malcolm Hill

“It felt exciting and sad” to prep the boxes, said Christine Schwartz, whose office — Dining, Conferences, and Campus Events — oversees almost all Commencement planning and execution, so different this year.

“It was exciting to imagine our graduates opening the box, and finding the diploma — like a Cracker Jack prize at the bottom! — and opening it and feeling happy. But it was sad that we couldn’t share that moment with them.”

The contributors to the “boxing day” effort were:

• Bobby Bosse, Post & Print
• Donna Duval, College Advancement
• Dan Girling, Post & Print 
• Cheryl Lacey, Dining Services
• Michelle Lewis, Conferences and Campus Events
• Kerry O’Brien, Office of the Dean of Faculty
• Judith Otim, College Store
• Brenda Pelletier, Conferences and Campus Events
• Gail St. Pierre, College Store
• Christine Schwartz, Dining, Conferences, and Campus Events
• Claire Schmoll, President’s Office
• Heather Taylor, Finance and Administration
• Michelle Zuehlke, Dining Services

In lieu of a traditional recessional, this celebratory slideshow of 260 images of seniors and the faculty who taught and mentored them over the last four years was the finale of

And that steel pan music in the video? Performed the Atlantic Clarion Steel Band, it’s been a staple of �ֲ���ý Commencement recessionals since 2014, and was also part of the recessionals of the inaugurations of presidents Elaine Hansen, in 2002, and Clayton Spencer, in 2012.

Each year we profile �ֲ���ý seniors in a series known as “Voices of the Class.”

Here are the five we profiled from the Class of 2020, each one produced by Theophil Syslo:

• Sam Findlen-Golden talks about how mathematics manages to “work its way into a lot of places that I didn’t expect.”
• Maddie Hallowell explains how she honed her data-collection skills — which she employs in fisheries research — by sending balloons high into the sky.
• A poet, Jesse Saffeir offers insights into the verses she wrote about unexpected places: Maine’s power-line corridors.
• A first-generation college student, Ryan Lizanecz talks about the slow process of finally feeling comfortable at �ֲ���ý.
• Topher Castaneda, a front-line Residence Life staff member,  describes his love of creating community at �ֲ���ý.

Sam Findlen-Golden ’20 and the unexpected joy of mathematics

When Sam Findlen-Golden ’20 of Amherst, Mass., first started at �ֲ���ý, he wanted to try anything and everything that was available to him. “Just because it’s an option,” he says.

Since then, as he’s learned more about what interests him, he’s let go of some pursuits while taking a deeper dive into others — including both mathematics and the performing arts.

A mathematics major and French minor, he’s a member of the a cappella group Crosstones and the music director of the Robinson Players, the student theater company.

Video by Theophil Syslo.

For Findlen-Golden, math serves as an organizing principle in his life.  “Math manages to work its way into a lot of places that I didn’t expect,” he says. “It can be math in the perspective of music or through the perspective of history and education, which is a lot of what I’ve done here outside of academics.”

As he completes his math major, Findlen-Golden has similarly dived deep into biomathematics, learning how best to model the spread of diseases. Along the way, he’s learned how to embrace the more subjective side of his discipline.

Sam Findlen-Golden ’20 (left) and El Khansaa Kaddioui ’20 of Elhajeb, Morocco, talk with Associate Professor of Mathematics Meredith Greer during their biomathematics seminar in Hathorn Hall. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

“I’ve always been a very pure mathematician: I like working with straight numbers,” he explains. In the past, “whenever it gets into interpretability, like modeling complex behaviors or patterns in nature, I’ve always been a little intimidated because as much as I enjoy being creative, I also like things that have objective truth to them. There’s a bit of a simplicity in that.”

Yet once again, math has shown him a path, and he’s discovering new satisfaction as he’s explored biomathematics in his senior year, including epidemiology and disease spread.

“It’s shown me that there can be this beautiful blend of interpretability and subjectivity to something that is very objective. You have this objective language to describe subjective opinions and subjective patterns that can be modeled, interpreted in various ways.”

Maddie Hallowell ’20 and the lows and highs of data collection

Maddie Hallowell ’20 grew up in North Haven, Maine, an island community in Penobscot Bay. For her family and neighbors, the effects of climate change are immediate.

“I recognize the changes that are happening in the coastal system and the ecosystem,” she says.

With the guidance of �ֲ���ý professors, Hallowell discovered the value of data collection, primarily through sensors deployed along the coast. She designed an interdisciplinary major incorporating digital and computational studies and geology, and her senior thesis involves developing a sensor that can be attached to lobster traps.

“I want there to be a future for where I live and for there to be a place that I can come back to when I’m older,” Hallowell says. “I think that getting this information will help solidify my ability to do that.”

To expand and hone her abilities, Hallowell has devoted her extracurricular time to collecting data in another direction — straight up — with the High Altitude Ballooning Club.

Video by Theophil Syslo.

For a recent launch, club president Hallowell and the rest of the student team rose at 5 a.m. to drive to New Hampshire, where they launched a balloon filled with 200 cubic feet of helium dozens of miles into the atmosphere.

When the team retrieved the balloon two hours later in central Maine, along with sensors that measured things like temperature, pressure, and humidity, “it felt like we had done something really big,” Hallowell says.

“Data collecting really excites me,” she adds. “You expect what you’re going to see, and then you can get a whole new frame of information, and it can completely change what you thought.”

Maddie Hallowell ’19 of North Haven, Maine, fills a high-altitude balloon with helium before a launch on Nov. 9, 2019. (Theophil Syslo/�ֲ���ý College)

Jesse Saffeir ’20 and lines of poetry sparked by lines through nature

One of the most important lessons Jesse Saffeir ’20 of Pownal, Maine, has learned at �ֲ���ý is the importance of applying what she learns in class to her own life in the world.

“What impact do we have on other people, and how can we move through spaces in ways that make people feel comfortable and included?” she says.

An environmental studies major, Saffeir began to think about how she moves through one type of space in particular: Maine’s power line corridors. The corridors, cut through fields and forests to make way for tall towers and wires, are juxtapositions of what we think of as manmade and natural — if we think about power lines at all.

“We all, for the most part, rely on electricity to live, and we never really encounter the spaces where that energy is produced and transported,” Saffeir says.

Video by Theophil Syslo.

So last summer, Saffeir walked along the corridors, funded by a �ֲ���ý Otis Fellowship, which supports students investigating relationships between humans and nature. She defined the experience more as bushwhacking than hiking — since there are no trails, she had to make her own maps and plan where to get her food.

“I think we often forget just how much we rely on the spaces around us for our well-being and our sanity,” she says.

Saffeir wrote a poem each day as she walked, later collecting them into a book called Transmission: Poems from Maine’s Powerline Corridors.

Jesse Bull Saffeir ’20 of Pownal, Maine, displays her book of original poetry about Maine’s power line corridors, written during an Otis Fellowship sojourn. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

Walking the lines, Saffeir says, has reinforced and given deeper meaning to what she has learned in her classes: that the environment isn’t just the wilderness, that there’s no clear binary between “human” and “nature.”

“I want to think a little bit broadly about our environments as being the places where we live, where we work, where we play, and also the environments that we rely on but don’t really spent a lot of time in,” she says.

“Being able to apply the things that we’re learning about in a very direct way to our own lives is so important to just becoming humans in this world.”

Here is one of the poems from Transmission:

“T�����Բ������������Dz�”

I step into the lake to fill
an empty jug with cool clear water.
I cannot trust my senses
so I heat it to a boil.

I am learning to shelter
my body
to only drink upstream
of the runoff —

pass by the green water
the brown water
the turquoise water pooling
near the mines

sooner or later everyone
gets thirsty

the world is not a disease
that I know of.
it is an inheritance beyond
my wildest dreams.

at night the space between my eyes crawls
with deer ticks, vectors that will burrow
their bodies into me transmitting
a fear I cannot see.

I walk along transmission
lines. the air grows charged
condenses to a static spark
each time I touch a finger to metal

and what that spark contains
has travelled a long way to get here
and will keep traveling
long after it passes

Ryan Lizanecz ’20 finds a home at �ֲ���ý as a Maine first-gen student

When Ryan Lizanecz ’20 first came to �ֲ���ý, “I was anxious, I was curious, I was scared,” he says. “Literally every feeling I could possibly feel at the same time.”

Lizanecz is from Portland, Maine, and he is the first in his family to go to college. Maine as a whole and �ֲ���ý are similar, he says, in that both are “small communities where people know each other and people are friendly.”

Nevertheless, arriving on campus was an “information overload.” Lizanecz had lived in the same house all his life and never been away from his family for more than a week.

At night early in his �ֲ���ý career, he says, he often dreamed of home.

Video by Theophil Syslo

“Thankfully,” he says, “Bobcat First! was my foothold.” The four-year program designed to foster belonging among first-generation-to-college students “provided me with everything I needed to succeed in the first year–plus of my college experience. They were really a family to me.”

With that support, Lizanecz flourished. A politics major, he has delved into the ways that structures of power shape the world.

“�ֲ���ý does a very good job, especially in the liberal arts, of teaching you about how all these different moving parts of the world are interconnected, and how that impacts how the world works,” he says.

At Opening Convocation on Sept. 3, Ryan Lizanecz ’20 (center) sits between keynote speaker and honorand Dolores Huerta and Phillips Professor of Economics Michael Murray. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

Lizanecz has sung with the Deansmen, the oldest of �ֲ���ý a cappella ensembles, throughout college. He is also the president of student government this year; in that role, at Opening Convocation, he told the incoming first-year students that their �ֲ���ý experience will be what they make of it.

Now, when he spends the night at home in Portland, Lizanecz dreams of �ֲ���ý.

“�ֲ���ý is my home,” he says. “This is where my friends are. This is where I have the most fun. This is where I learn things that I care about. I think that that’s what �ֲ���ý has become to me.”

Topher Castaneda ’20 builds community as a Residence Life leader

“Something that I’ve realized I truly enjoy doing is building community,” says Topher Castaneda ’20 of Los Angeles.

Which makes Castaneda a great fit among the front-line community builders at �ֲ���ý, the college’s Residence Life staff.

This year, Castaneda is a Residence Coordinator team leader. He’s in charge of six Junior Advisors who, in turn, work with groups of first-years in their residences known as First-Year Centers. He has three first-year residences in his portfolio: Clason House, Milliken House, and Frye House.

Video by Theophil Syslo

“Being so far away from home, I’ve found ways and places to help structure some sort of community around myself, but also around other people who identify as me,“ says Castaneda.

“I’m first-gen, I’m queer, and I’m Latinx. How do I build community for those people, but include more stories in the narrative? One really good way is through Res Life.”

“A really big thing when building community is making sure that people feel heard.”

Castaneda taps into a powerful and fundamental way to forge community: “Stories are really important because they connect people,“ he explains.

“A really big thing when building community is making sure that people feel heard, and people are also understanding where you’re coming from — what your background is, your culture, and what your norm is.”

His Res Life work “has been just awesome,” says Castaneda. And that’s partly because, again, of the human connections. “You get to meet so many different people that you wouldn’t otherwise get to meet at �ֲ���ý.”

An environmental studies major, Castaneda devoted his summer to supporting community in a different way. Working with Holly Ewing, Christian A. Johnson Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies, he collected water samples from the local municipal water source, Lake Auburn, as part of research into protecting drinking water quality for the Twin Cities.

Topher Castaneda ’20 (right) sits on a boat with Holly Ewing, Christian A. Johnson Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies, as they do fieldwork on Lake Auburn. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

Seen by more than 10,000 viewers around the world, the �ֲ���ý College Class of 2020 emerged from the tumult of their abbreviated senior year to graduate Sunday on a triumphant note, as the college conferred bachelor’s degrees on 463 seniors in a ceremony delivered via livestream.

“The Class of 2020 will hold a special place in the college’s history,” said President Clayton Spencer in her welcome, recorded on the Historic Quad earlier in May.

The graduates have endured a singular experience — the global COVID-19 pandemic — that, she said, “I hope and expect has brought moments of joy amidst the frustrations, and an arc of learning and growth amidst the ceaseless uncertainty of these times.”

Commencement Day scenes: May 31, 2020

Lexie Jamieson '20 of Scarborough, Maine, poses outside her home with her dad, Neil Jamieson ‘82.

Kathleen Smith '20 of Piedmont, Calif., with dog Hibby at Donner Lake.

Anna Glass '20 of Wilton, Maine, celebrates at home with her parents, Marc '88 and Wendy Glass.

Cousins Patrick Crowley '20 of Lexington, Mass., and Callie Abouzeid '20 of Belmont, Mass., toss their graduation caps.

Erin O'Farrell '20 of West Burke, Vt., poses with her mother, Des Hertz, and stepfather, Chris Manges '91.

The 463-member class comes from 37 U.S. states, plus the District of Columbia, and from 52 countries, including 38 from Maine.

+Class of 2020 By the Numbers

Mirroring many of the elements of the traditional on-campus ceremony, the 154th �ֲ���ý Commencement comprised video segments recorded over the last three weeks, including a social-distanced processional to the Historic Quad featuring Spencer, Dean of the Faculty and Vice President for Academic Affairs Malcolm Hill, and Multifaith Chaplain Brittany Longsdorf.

Since its first in 1867, �ֲ���ý has never cancelled or postponed a Commencement.

Wearing a face mask due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Michael Murray, the Charles Franklin Phillips Professor of Economics, carries the mace on May 11 during the taping of portions of the 154th �ֲ���ý Commencement. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

Spencer’s welcome also expressed hope that the seniors will go into the world with an advanced understanding of the vexing complexity of the world’s problems.

“I hope that as a result of having your world turned upside down this spring, you will understand certain things sooner and better than the typical senior graduating from college,” she continued.

Welcome | A. Clayton Spencer, President | Commencement 2020 | �ֲ���ý College

“I hope that you will realize that hard problems do not admit of glib or easy answers; that sound decisions are based on the conscious integration of evidence, values, and empathetic imagination; that unequal access to resources and opportunities magnifies the suffering of some groups over others.

“Wherever you may be, whatever you may be wearing, I send you, from the entire �ֲ���ý community, our most sincere and joyous congratulations.”

“Most fundamental, I hope that you will never assume that the world can be a stable or fair place unless you get up every day and fight for truth, justice, and our shared humanity.”

The Historic Quad may be empty, but “I imagine you out there in your homes, surrounded by loved ones — some of you, I hope, turned out in caps and gowns,” Spencer concluded. “Wherever you may be, whatever you may be wearing, I send you, from the entire �ֲ���ý community, our most sincere and joyous congratulations.”

Described by Spencer as “a force on the �ֲ���ý campus for the past four years,” Senior Speaker Alexandria Onuoha ’20 titled her prerecorded Commencement address “Stay Strong, and Walk Like You Got Some Sense” —  advice from her mother, Vinette Gayle, to whom the address was dedicated.

Senior Address | Alexandria C. Onuoha | Commencement 2020 | �ֲ���ý College

Onuoha credited Gayle with instilling “in me the values of consistency, activism, initiative, and warmth.” A double major in psychology and dance from Malden, Mass., Onuoha used facets from her �ֲ���ý career to illustrate how those qualities had powered her own success — exercising activism and initiative, for example, to lead student organizations in advancing social justice on campus.

“Our story as a class is not perfect, but it’s real,” Onuoha said. “For students who have been waiting for this moment to be celebrated — especially for students of color, for first-generation students, for international students — it’s more than a walk, it’s a moment of victory.

“We may not have been able to walk across the stage and then hug our families, but we do get to walk with a �ֲ���ý degree and a holistic perspective on academics and on life. We get to walk towards the next chapter of our lives as writers of our own story.”

Though recorded weeks ago, Commencement Greetings delivered by artist Vanessa German, an exhibitor at the �ֲ���ý Museum of Art in 2019–20, delivered a message very much in the current national moment.

“The future belongs to human beings who can hold justice at the center of their truth. And you all — you graduates of now — are rare, promising human beings,” she said.

“You are the bridge generation. You are bridging a past of fastness and desperate injustice to a future that is so eager for your open heart, your brilliance, your capacity to be emotionally available, courageous, vulnerable, and a rocket ship of perseverance.”

Commencement Greeting | Vanessa German | Commencement 2020

German encouraged the graduates go forth with courage and authenticity. “Bet on yourself,” she said.  “Even if you need to take a leap of faith and it makes your leg shake, it is better to go forth quaking in your own name than it is to claim someone else’s hand of playing it safe.”

She described her faith in the seniors, telling them to rely on their self-knowledge gained at �ֲ���ý. “You know your places of strength and you know your small places too. You know of the power that resides within you — when you are in the click and the groove of the thing that is your thing. You know what right feels like, when you are right inside of it.

“So from this point forward, offer to no one the lie of your smallness. You get to rise to the occasion of who you are and you are whole. Move towards the future that is calling your own name with the sound of your own voice.

“You are a rare human being and you must decide who you will be and how you will go forth for the world. We are waiting for your dreams and your ideas for the restless, energetic spirit that is rising up within you. We are waiting for you.”

The conferral of degrees featured slides of each of the 463 graduates, each with a photo of the senior’s choosing plus their major and academic honors. Dean of the Faculty Malcolm Hill read each name.

And though the virtual ceremony didn’t allow the usual in-person hugs and congratulations that mark any sort of graduation, more than 100 �ֲ���ý faculty and staff recorded personal greetings for the class.

More than 100 �ֲ���ý faculty and staff recorded video messages of congratulations and support to the Class of 2020.

In her closing benediction, Multifaith Chaplain Brittany Longsdorf asked the Class of 2020 to view moments from their time at �ֲ���ý as “not mundane but sacred. They are the fibers that weave together who you are and who you will continue to become.”

“You are spread across the world now, a beautiful Bobcat diaspora, but this place now lives in your bones just as your essence still rustles the leaves of stalwart maples and oaks lining each sidewalk you trod,” she said.

“Envision the face of each family member, faculty, staff, and fellow student who journeyed with you through your �ֲ���ý days and nights. As your locus changes, feel our collective blessing.”

Full Program | �ֲ���ý Commencement 2020

For �ֲ���ý mason Ron Tardif, installing the class ivy stone each May is a labor of respect for the graduating class.

“On behalf of the whole Facility Services crew, I wish the Class of 2020 the best of luck. Congratulations!” he said while expertly placing this year’s stone into brickwork near the Pettengill Hall entrance.

�ֲ���ý mason Ron Tardif installs the Class of 2020 ivy stone near the front entrance of Pettengill Hall. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

Paying close attention to detail, Tardif chiseled, adjusted, and spread mortar on the four sides of the stone, before cleaning away the excess and inserting the stone into the side of the building.

Showing the Hathorn bell tower, the favored design is by Hazel Simpson ’20 of Katonah, N.Y. She did the work before the pandemic put a premature end to the Class of 2020’s campus experience. Collette Monuments of Lewiston engraved the design into the stone.

The Hathorn Hall bell tower is the focus of the Class of 2020 ivy stone, shown being inset on a front wall of Pettengill Hall by Facility Services mason Ron Tardif. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

“In a way, the stone I designed no longer seems fitting,” she says at first. “It doesn’t reveal anything about the Class of 2020’s unique and challenging graduation and senior year.”

But after reflecting a bit more, Simpson changes her mind. While the pandemic has cast a long shadow over their senior year and graduation, the class still has a precious trove of positive �ֲ���ý memories.

The focus on Hathorn reflects some of her experience. “I have great memories of Hathorn: classes I attended there, walking up the steps in the snow, and taking photos outside in the fall. My friends and I took a photo on the steps on our last day at �ֲ���ý.”

Installing the ivy stone is a labor of respect for Facility Services. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

“I spent three and half years at �ֲ���ý before COVID-19,” Simpson says. “The pandemic does not define my college experience. I want our class to be remembered as the Class of 2020, not as the COVID class.”

Installation of a class ivy stone is a �ֲ���ý tradition dating to the 1870s.

Seven members of the �ֲ���ý Class of 2020 and three young alumni have been offered grants for English-language teaching or research abroad through the Fulbright U.S. Student Program or the related Fulbright Austria program.

If all 10 accept the awards, they will travel to nine countries scattered around the globe, from Brunei to Colombia to Montenegro.

The Fulbright U.S. Student Program bestows two types of awards. Open Study/Research grants fund self-designed projects, and recipients work with advisers at universities abroad. And English Teaching Assistant awards place Fulbrighters in classrooms abroad.

For 2020–21, eight of �ֲ���ý’ awardees have been offered ETA awards and the others, research grants — one will study agribusiness in New Zealand and the other, large-tree ecology in Brunei.

One senior was offered two different Fulbright awards. Anne Trapp ’20 of Brunswick, Maine, has accepted an English Teaching Assistantship from Fulbright Austria — Austria being one of 51 countries in which Fulbright exchanges are managed by an autonomous, binational commission. Trapp was also offered an English Teaching Assistant award for Germany from the U.S. Fulbright program.

This spring’s Fulbright offers to �ֲ���ý seniors and young alums came, of course, at a time of dramatic disruptions around the globe caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

On March 19, the U.S. State Department of State issued a health advisory instructing all Americans abroad to either return to the U.S. or prepare to shelter in place. In effect, that advisory suspended the Fulbright Program for U.S. participants partway through their commitments — including most of the 24 �ֲ���ý graduates who received Fulbright awards in the 2019–20 cycle.

While their sojourns abroad were cut short for the 24 — a drastic example being Emily Bowen ’19, who arrived in Brazil on Feb. 10 and had to leave on March 15 — some, like Kelsey Schober ’16 and Emily Tan ’19, were able to continue or complete their Fulbright-funded research nevertheless.

But if last year’s Fulbright grantees didn’t have the experience they signed up for, the experience they actually received was historic, says Lecturer in English Robert Strong, the director of national fellowships at �ֲ���ý. “While they had their grants cut short — in some cases, like the Nepal and Brazil Fulbrights, right at the beginning — they were deep into the globe at the start of a global pandemic.

“So they’ve had a unique and valuable view into the international ability to respond to crisis. No doubt, they will carry this lesson, with whatever hopes and disappointments came with it, forward into their work improving the world.”

The impact of the pandemic on the 2020–21 recipients isn’t clear. An undated statement on reads, “As this is an emerging situation, circumstances may change as additional information becomes available. As of today, selection notifications for the Fulbright U.S. Student Program are moving forward in preparation for the 2020–2021 academic year.” 

On April 21, finalists were notified that several components of the program won’t start at least until after Jan. 1, 2021, in order to “give selected candidates, host institutions, and program partners worldwide as much information as possible in order to plan for the coming academic year.”

“So they’ve had a unique and valuable view into the international ability to respond to crisis.”

The notification stated, “Fulbright acts in partnership with educational systems in the United States and around the world, many of which are also in flux and may not open their physical facilities on a normal schedule this fall.”

“The COVID-19 global pandemic has created extraordinary circumstances around the world and enormous challenges for the Fulbright Program,” finalists were told. “As sponsors of the Fulbright Program, the United States Department of State’s highest priority is the health and safety of all participants. Please know that our goal is to work flexibly with you to ensure you can have a safe and successful overseas experience.”

That flexibility, notes Strong, includes the invitation that Fulbright has extended to the latest crop of offerees: “They have been invited to apply again this fall for the year after, even though some of them may actually start their grants in January.”

Meet the 10 recent or soon-to-be �ֲ���ý alumni who have been offered Fulbright awards:

Fulbright U.S. Student Awards: Seniors

Madeline Clark ’20

Madeline Clark ’20 of McLean, Va., a double major in English and sociology, has been offered a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant Award for Asturias, Spain.

The Fulbright, she says, will support “my deep cultural curiosity and strong desire to connect with others.”

While at �ֲ���ý, Clark has engaged with the Lewiston community through organizations including Big Brothers Big Sisters of America and the Immigrant Resource Center of Maine, where she taught English-language learners from the Republic of the Congo and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The ELL work in particular, says Clark, will inform her teaching in Asturias.

Her IRCM experience showed Clark the importance of forging connections in teaching language. “I adapted my teaching goals by designing a curriculum grounded in conversation,” she explains. “I created lessons on global current events and provided my students with guided discussion questions.

“They were soon developing their English skills while getting to know one another, as they passionately debated topics that aroused their interest. Language learning transformed into a collaborative process.” Clark adds that IRCM also afforded valuable insights into the “importance of engaging with contrasting perspectives, and how to do so effectively.”

Outside of her classroom in Asturias, music will offer Clark a means of getting to know her community. Known at �ֲ���ý as a singer-songwriter, she calls music “a pivotal part of my identity and a powerful uniting force.”

She hopes to get involved with a songwriting club to help build her language skills and cultural awareness. Songwriting, she says, has become “an exercise in interpersonal and intrapersonal connection, and has inspired an insatiable curiosity to know myself and others.”

Back in the U.S., Clark aims to earn a doctorate in creative writing and then teach at the college level. “The relationships, culture, and language that I experience in Spain will prove generative for my own writing,” she says. “I believe I’ll grow as a writer by learning from Spanish literary traditions and creating prose that draws on multicultural influences.”

Lexie Jamieson ’20

Lexie Jamieson ’20 of Scarborough, Maine, a double major in politics and Spanish, has been offered a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant Award for Malaysia.

Jamieson credits her experience at the renowned Seeds of Peace international camp, in Otisfield, Maine, as a transformational episode in her life. Encountering young people from diverse countries and backgrounds opened her eyes to the fact that “the world around me was so much larger than just my bubble in Maine,” she says. Since then, “I’ve been inspired to absorb myself in other similar experiences.”

In particular, Jamieson has used the classroom as a venue for lowering cultural barriers. For two years she was a math and writing tutor in Lewiston elementary schools, where she taught many immigrants from Somalia and other East African countries and found creative ways to help them learn English.

“Because of Seeds of Peace, I’ve been able to connect with students and exchange experiences about our cultures, strengthening my bond with them and ultimately aiding them in the classroom,” she says. “I believe that we’re capable of overcoming cultural barriers through education.”

Jamieson has served as a peer writing and speaking assistant in Spanish in the Academic Resource Commons at �ֲ���ý. She studied at the Universidad del Salvador, Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 2019, and volunteered as an English-language tutor at an international school in Buenos Aires. She interned for the Maine Democratic Party, for congressional candidate (now U.S. Rep.) Jared Golden, and for U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree.

A lifelong athlete, Jamieson intends to deepen her community engagement in Malaysia by volunteering for local athletic organizations and coaching youth sports. “I’m excited to involve myself in a place and community where the living conditions are potentially very different from those I’ve been accustomed to.”

After her Fulbright year, Jamieson hopes to work in educational policy making, with a focus on advancing equity within the U.S. educational system.

Signe Lynch ’20

Signe Lynch ’20, an environmental studies major from Farmingdale, Maine, has been offered a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant Award for Montenegro.

Lynch credits a 10th-grade social studies teacher with opening her eyes to the transformative power of education. “Knowing from my own experience how valuable a great teacher can be to an individual’s life,” she says, “I will be an English teaching assistant who makes space for trust and growth, pushes my students’ learning beyond the confines of a classroom, and prepares them for wherever their English knowledge may take them.”

An education minor at �ֲ���ý, Lynch has been a peer writing tutor in the environmental studies program and, in Lewiston public schools, taught third-graders with special needs and ninth-grade social studies students.

Inspired by her parents to love gardening and outdoors recreation from an early age, Lynch has parlayed these interests into a commitment to sustainability. She has been director of cabins and trails for the �ֲ���ý Outing Club since 2017. In 2018 and 2019, with two other environmental studies majors, Lynch conducted a community-engaged, capstone research project examining changes in land use in Auburn, Maine. The project informed that city’s own discussions about changes to its 1964 agricultural protection district.

Teaming with a nutrition center and the Lewiston school district, Lynch initiated a composting program at local elementary schools that conserves municipal resources, generates compost for school gardens, and provides valuable lessons to students.

In partnership with the NGO Zero Waste Montenegro, she hopes to achieve something similar during her Fulbright year, establishing composting facilities that support community gardens. Montenegro, she says, has “an excellent climate for growing and a delicious cuisine.”

Back in the U.S., Lynch hopes to teach world history at a diverse, under-resourced public high school. “Teaching students who may lack opportunities that others have,” she says, “is near to my heart and of the utmost importance as I establish my career goals.”

Martha Rabura ’20

Martha Rabura ’20, a psychology major from Port Gamble, Wash., has been offered a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant Award for South Korea.

Scion of a family of teachers, Rabura is an education minor at �ֲ���ý. She has undertaken a wide variety of placements as a teaching assistant in Lewiston public schools, including working in a special-needs classroom and helping francophone middle-school students with English language learning. She has been a Big Brothers Big Sisters mentor, a counselor for at-risk youth, and, on campus, a peer statistics tutor for the psychology department.

An advanced speaker of Spanish and French and an intermediate speaker of German, Rabura has studied abroad extensively, including more than two months in Chile, a month in China and a semester in France.

She says, “I’ve learned that countless children struggle to receive a good education and that what is considered a ‘good’ education varies between cultures.” In a �ֲ���ý course on cultural psychology, “I’ve further learned about contrasting beliefs about child development and early education between the U.S. and many Asian Pacific countries. These lessons and experiences have inspired me to become an elementary-level English teaching assistant in South Korea.”

“My role as a student and a teacher are interwoven when it comes to culture and language. I may be teaching my students about English grammar and American customs, but, in return, I am a student of the people around me, learning about their traditions, history, and perspectives.”

Outside the classroom in South Korea, Rabura looks forward to getting involved with the local community by taking local art and cooking classes. In addition, as a former Girl Scout and a troop leader during her time at �ֲ���ý, she’d like to volunteer with a local scouting troop or similar youth organization.

After her Fulbright experience, she plans to work with immigrant communities in either an education or advocacy capacity. 

Madison Rozells ’20

Madison Rozells ’20, a double major in English and Spanish from Pacific Palisades, Calif., has been offered an English Teaching Assistant Award for Colombia.

Rozells’ teaching experience ranges from private tutoring in English for a Spanish boy, assisting in public classrooms from pre-K to fourth grade, and tutoring college students in both English and Spanish writing. Through America Reads/America Counts, Rozells served as a tutor and teaching assistant in Lewiston elementary schools for two years.

At �ֲ���ý, she has been a peer writing and speaking assistant for students in a First-Year Seminar and in an upper-level Spanish class. She explains, “In these classes, I support both the students and faculty members. As a PWSA for writing Spanish, I give presentations in class about the different genres that students will be working in as they develop their voices in a second language. I also offer one-on-one help.”

She continues, “I can relate to students because they and I know that we have been through a lot of the same journey on our way to fluency and to building our own voices.”

Active in a student theater group at �ֲ���ý, Rozells has performed in musicals produced for audiences of local schoolchildren — and, drawing from her own early performance experience, has had good success in the classroom with exercises adapted from theater.

This practice has been especially effective at a local school for students with emotional or behavioral challenges, she says. “I run workshops in which we play theater games and read scenes as a way to help the students grow their social and interpersonal skills. As I work with them and watch their confidence and trust in others grow, I see them begin to make eye contact and converse with me and their peers.”

After Colombia, Rozells plans to pursue a doctorate in literature. “My Spanish language skills and the intercultural Fulbright experience will allow me to further immerse myself in the study of global and comparative literature,” she says.

Anne Trapp ’20

Anne Trapp ’20, an environmental studies major from Brunswick, Maine, has been offered both a U.S. Teaching Assistantship by Fulbright Austria and an English Teaching Assistant Award by the Fulbright U.S. Student Program.

Trapp will accept the Fulbright Austria award and work as a teaching assistant in a secondary-school English language program.

Trapp and her sister Greta spent part of summer 2019 on a farm in Austria, the latest of Anne’s travels to German-speaking lands. “I’m excited for the USTA year and the opportunity to once again immerse myself in Austrian culture, to share my background and education, and to use my teaching and German-language skills to cross borders,” she says.

Trapp adds, “The first life goal I ever made was to become fluent in German. Ever since my high school abroad semester in Germany, I have been fascinated by the language and culture.” As a German minor at �ֲ���ý, Trapp completed seven semesters of course work in the discipline.

Outside of the classroom, Trapp will seek opportunities to immerse herself in the community through theater and sports — specifically swimming, rock climbing, or rowing. “All three sports have helped me integrate into new communities throughout my life,” she says.

Trapp has also visited Bhutan, where she studied politics and ecology for more than three months, and Norway, Hungary, and Italy.

Minoring in theater as well as German at �ֲ���ý, Trapp directed a 2018 production of The Shape of Things by the Robinson Players, the college’s student-run theater company, and acted in Robinson Players and theater department productions. Her directorial skills, Trapp says, will help her “engage students and help manage the energy of a large classroom” in Austria.

After her Fulbright Austria experience, Trapp plans to pursue advanced degrees in English or environmental studies, with the ultimate goal of teaching environmental literature at the high school or college levels. She also hopes to return to Europe for a German-language master’s program.

Danielle Ward ’20

Danielle Ward ’20 of Atlantic Highlands, N.J., a double major in environmental studies and English, has been offered an Open Study/Research Award for Brunei, a country on the island of Borneo. 

Working with Professor Johan Frederik Slik of the Universiti Brunei Darussalam, Ward will research large-tree ecology in Bruneian rainforests. Specifically, she will quantify and characterize trees within a permanent plot in the Andulau Forest Reserve.

Large trees, which are defined as those with diameters of 50 centimeters or more, “play a critical role in rainforest dynamics in Brunei and, more broadly, in climate change,” Ward says. “However, information about them is limited.” She will also map, inventory, and assess the health of large-tree species across a variety of parameters.

The data she collects will enable Ward to quantify the carbon storage of the trees she studies. These assessment methods “can be applied to other ecosystems, which will allow researchers to draw important comparisons between forests in Brunei and elsewhere,” she says.

Ward points out that Brunei stands out in Southeast Asia for its robust forest protection policies. “Work that highlights the importance of old-growth trees is in line with the country’s recognition of its forests as culturally valuable assets.” She adds, “I hope to gain an understanding of local peoples’ perceptions, appreciations, and challenges with their rainforests through personal discussions. This will help me contextualize my own research, as well as connect with local communities.”

Ward has undertaken a variety of trainings and internships related to forestry, including a field internship with the Forest Ecosystem Monitoring Cooperative in Vermont.

At �ֲ���ý, Ward wrote a senior thesis on Maine lichen for her environmental studies major (she also completed a thesis for her English major). She served as president of the college Outing Club this academic year (its 100th) and led three wilderness trips for �ֲ���ý’ annual orientation program for first-year students. She is an Appalachian Trail through-hiker. 

Ultimately, Ward says, “I plan to pursue a career in environmental journalism.”

Fulbright U.S. Student Awards: Young alumni

Jacob Atwood ’19

Jacob Atwood ’19, an English major from Natick, Mass., has been offered an English Teaching Assistant Award for Mexico.

Since 2019, Atwood has been a world-languages teacher placement counselor at a firm that supports educational organizations with faculty recruitment, leadership searches, and consulting.

His teaching experience includes serving as a teaching assistant in an English as a Second Language program at Lewiston High School and, on campus, as a peer writing tutor for first-year students and a teaching assistant for a psychology course.

A Spanish minor at �ֲ���ý, Atwood spent the fall 2019 semester studying in Spain, choosing to speak only Spanish and travel only within the country.

That was his favorite semester ever, Atwood says. “My language pledge meant that even buying candy was an opportunity to publicly err, to improve my language skills, and to connect with a stranger. I loved having the sense that every phrase I chanced and every sentence I tried to understand would better prepare me for the next conversation.”

He adds, “The best and most formative experiences of my life have been characterized by a commitment to similar risk-taking endeavors. I’m drawn to a Fulbright ETA for the opportunity to embrace my vulnerability in order to build cross-cultural relationships and grow.”

An avid ultimate frisbee player, Atwood hopes to parlay this obsession into a deeper connection with his community in Mexico. He hopes to join a local team and help teach ultimate. “I’ll bring my experience playing on a multicultural, multilingual men’s and women’s ultimate frisbee team in Madrid,” he says. “All you need to play is a group of people and a frisbee, and I will bring many frisbees with me to Mexico.”

After his Fulbright experience, Atwood hopes to remain in the field of education. He says, “By continuing to work with teachers who engage their students with the Spanish-speaking communities of the world, I’ll contribute to the efforts of independent schools to make their curriculums more inclusive.”

Caroline Caldwell ’15

Caroline Caldwell ’15, an environmental studies major at �ֲ���ý who is now a rancher in Missoula, Mont., has been offered a Fulbright Open Study/Research Award for a year in Christchurch, New Zealand.

Working with Alison Bailey, professor of farm management, Caldwell will earn a master’s degree in management in agribusiness from Lincoln University. Combining formal coursework with independent research at local farms, she will explore relationships between land, agriculture, and bio-economic systems in the context of world markets.

Caldwell will work with farmers to create business plans that combine science-based innovation with local knowledge, the objectives being to improve business performance and regenerate farmland. “Through this degree, I’ll be able to support the ecology and economy of agriculture locally, foster agricultural trade internationally, and help guide us towards a climate-resilient, productive, and environmentally sustainable future,” she says.

For her senior thesis at �ֲ���ý, Caldwell analyzed the workings of three organizations dedicated to farmland preservation.“Caroline excels at thinking across systems and drawing out information, finding patterns, and building from them,” says her thesis advisor, Holly Ewing, professor of environmental studies and Christian A. Johnson Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies.

An Otis Fellowship recipient at �ֲ���ý, Caldwell went on to receive a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship to work on livestock properties in Finland, New Zealand, the Falkland Islands, and Australia.

During her Fulbright year, in addition to her academic work, Caldwell will take part in ranch activities and attend low-stress stockmanship clinics and regenerative agriculture workshops. A member of the women’s rowing team that claimed the first NCAA team championship in �ֲ���ý history, in 2015, she hopes to join a rowing club in Christchurch, as well as to swim and coach swimmers.

Caldwell ultimately wants to work with an international NGO on issues of agriculture in the context of global trade, climate change resilience, and economic sustainability. “My unique background will bring a fresh approach to a career with such an organization,” she says.

Hannah Singer ’18

Hannah Singer ’18 of New York City, a sociology major, has been offered an English Teaching Assistant Award for Spain.

Since September 2019, Singer has worked as an intake coordinator for Health Law Advocates’ Mental Health Advocacy Program for Kids, based in Boston. From 2018 to 2019, she was an AmeriCorps Fellow at AmeriCorps Legal Advocates of Massachusetts.

An education minor at �ֲ���ý, Singer will bring to her Fulbright classroom extensive experience with diverse students from elementary through high school age. In addition, she held a summer internship in 2017 creating online grammar and writing exercises for Quill, a nonprofit that works to increase student literacy around the world.

Singer worked in a variety of educational settings during her time at �ֲ���ý — as a literature circle facilitator in a program for English-language learners, a teaching assistant in a middle-school literacy program, and an English and math tutor for students at Maine Immigrant and Refugee Services.

“Those experiences taught me the importance of being flexible in order to accommodate the needs of all students and create a positive learning environment,” Singer says. “As an ETA in Spain, I want to continue working with students with a wide range of backgrounds and abilities. I’ll design lessons that allow my students to learn from each other and focus on inclusion.”

Outside the classroom, she plans to volunteer at an after-school program and offer English tutoring to both young people and adults in her area. If circumstances permit, she adds, “I look forward to engaging with and exploring the arts community, as someone who has always loved ceramics.”

After her Fulbright experience, Singer plans to earn a Master’s in Education or attend law school. Dedicated to supporting underserved communities, she hopes to continue her work with children either in a school setting or as an advocate for their educational and mental health needs.

Offering the Senior Address at �ֲ���ý’ 2020 Commencement is Alexandria Onuoha, a double major in psychology and dance from Malden, Mass.

Well-known on campus for her work in social justice and her leadership, she’s been an essential part of many campus organizations, including Women of Color (serving as co-president this year) and Amandla! Black Student Union, and the Caribbean Student Association.

She has served as a Senior Fellow in the Admission Office and the Center for Purposeful Work and as a student manager of the Academic Resource Commons.

In January, she offered the student Welcome at the college’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day observance, encouraging the �ֲ���ý community to continue the difficult work toward greater equity and inclusion “from the ground up. Speak out against injustice even when it might be uncomfortable. We cannot be silent. ”

In the fall she starts a doctorate in applied developmental psychology at Suffolk University.

Your Commencement speech, “Stay Strong & Walk Like You Got Some Sense,” was inspired by something your mother, Vinette Gayle, says to you. It was filmed earlier this month to be part of the virtual ceremony on May 31. Where did you film it?

About 10 miles from my house, at Powder House Park in Somerville. It’s not �ֲ���ý, but it resembles �ֲ���ý because of the greenery. My mom was able to be in a little cameo.

Why did you want to give the Senior Address?

Part of it is representation — it does matter when you see a woman of color, specifically a Black woman, having this honor — but the other part is that I felt I had a great �ֲ���ý experience in that I was able to build relationships across differences.

I felt it would be doing a disservice if my speech did not mention COVID-19, the elephant in the room. But I wanted to make sure that I am also speaking life and motivation into the Class of 2020. I did not want to use COVID-19 as a sad story. It is just one of the many things that has happened for the class.

How did you choose �ֲ���ý, four years ago?

I remember this vividly. It was between �ֲ���ý and another liberal arts college, both of them fit what I needed in terms of a financial aid package. But when I visited �ֲ���ý, that was the best college tour I had been on.

The environment was really amazing. The students looked like they loved being there. The other institutions I went to didn’t feel like that. Dean [James] Reese gave me a hug! I don’t even know what to call it, there was a family vibe. After the Admitted Students Reception, my mom was like, “Your face. You want to be there.”

And also, I wanted to go to a school where I was going to challenge myself, personally. I applied to some of the historically black colleges and universities, but I wanted to make myself uncomfortable, a little bit. The thing about �ֲ���ý is, no institution gets it right all the time, but at �ֲ���ý, they will keep trying and trying until they get it right. �ֲ���ý exceeded all my expectations. �ֲ���ý is a part of the woman I am today.

You’ve been a campus voice around issues of equity and inclusion. How do you approach that work?

I was co-president of Women of Color this year, along with Kati Cabral ’20. We meet new students of color and say, “We want you to feel safe on this campus. �ֲ���ý wants you to feel safe on this campus.”

Our goal for Women of Color is to create an inclusive environment, where all women of color are celebrated. In the past it seems it has been mostly for Black women. It needs to be inclusive of other women as well. I think we did a great job of that this year.

We did tabling in Commons, we gave out little stickers, we had the Center for Purposeful Work collaborate with us on bringing in Dr. Monique Brown ’07. She is from the Caribbean and she is an epidemiologist. We had Michelle Pham ’15, who is Asian and works at Google — she is just dominating tech. We had a great conversation with her.

Amandla! Black Student Union is there to have the conversation and create a fun learning environment. We meet regularly and talk about our experiences, from the uplifting to our difficult experiences on campus, and about mistreatment of Black individuals at �ֲ���ý and all around the world, and healthy ways of dealing with that.

“It is difficult to talk about race especially if you don’t know all the right words and you don’t want to offend anybody. I would just try to show them that it is OK to make mistakes.”

If we have a concern, we need to find a healthy way that is safe for us emotionally, and not silencing our voices, to make sure that our voices are being heard. We also have white students who come and listen. We tell them, “You need to be prepared. You may be uncomfortable. These are real experiences that happen.”

We want to make sure that �ֲ���ý has students who love all people. We want the liberation of everybody. We want people to feel OK with being a woman, being a person of color, being queer.

�ֲ���ý is one of those institutions that is striving to be more inclusive — and it has done an incredible job — but at the same time, there is a lot of work to be done.

Your work extends to other areas, like Admissions, where you started training to give tours during freshman year and ended as a Senior Fellow. What is your role there?

Helping �ֲ���ý reach students of color. Engaging with students and parents who come through the door. There have been a lot of people visiting �ֲ���ý. Our applications have gone through the roof.

As a Senior Fellow I do interviews with prospective students and write up reports. An interview does not make or break an application, but does help give a face to this awesome application. To me that makes a difference. What we want at �ֲ���ý are individuals who are passionate and curious.

You’ve also worked at the Center for Purposeful Work this year and at the Academic Resource Commons all four years, except when you were studying abroad in Denmark during junior year. How did you get involved in the work of peer tutoring and support?

As a freshman, I took the First-Year Seminar “Race, Justice, and American Policy in the 21st Century,” with [Associate Professor of Politics] Leslie Hill. She is a gem.

As a sophomore, I was attached to that class as a tutor. I would attend every class to prompt their thinking if there was a long silence. I was never the first person to raise my hand but I’d just try to keep that conversation going. To let people know this is a safe space, that this is a hard topic.

It is difficult to talk about race especially if you don’t know all the right words and you don’t want to offend anybody. I would just try to show them that it is OK to make mistakes. And not to be defensive.

At ARC we have more than 70 tutors for different content areas. The purpose is to serve students with tutoring and writing and speaking sessions. I also did learning strategies, basically meeting students to help them figure out ways to get better study habits.

I always encourage students to use ARC. When I was a freshman, I was sort of hesitant. We want to make sure that you finish and you succeed. I tell people, if you work hard and use ARC and go to professors’ office hours, you will not fail.

At the Center for Purposeful Work, I help create events that will help students find their career path and their interests. I also look over resumes and cover letters and offer feedback to students during drop-in hours. I get to engage with students across all years.

What excites you about your graduate program at Suffolk University?

The focus on activism and social justice. It’s one thing to conduct research in the comfort of a lab, but when you physically get to engage with communities and learn for yourself in person, it creates something magical. Suffolk will allow me to continue my community partnerships that I have developed over the years.

Suffolk is crafting leaders, just like �ֲ���ý. The flexibility of the degree captivated me when I was exploring Suffolk in depth. It is an applied psychology doctorate, which means the expertise I will be engaging in is useful in every context; policy, government, education, and nonprofits.

My advisor is Dr. Mimi Arbeit, who . Her research interests are in adolescent sexuality development, the ways in which white supremacist ideologies impact marginalized communities, and exploring right-wing extremism perpetuating rape culture. She is also a brilliant, kind, and committed community organizer, which I also aspire to be.

“Every time I perform, people come up to me, people that I’ve never met, saying, ‘I went out feeling uplifted after that.’”

I am not sure what specific career this degree will lead me to, but I know that it will lead me to a position where I can help change policies, create supportive communities, education and healthcare systems, and educate future students on race and sexuality. There is a system here that has only been working for a certain demographic. It needs to work for everyone.

How did your dance major contribute to your thinking?

I have been dancing since I was younger but I never had any formal training. My mother is Jamaican and I learned from her family about Jamaican dance. I’m also half-Nigerian, but I don’t have that same relationship with my father, so I had to learn those dances from my peers.

Every time I perform, people come up to me, people that I’ve never met, saying, “I went out feeling uplifted after that.” I use art as a form of activism, celebrating women and their bodies, letting people know about being OK with whatever size you are.

But my dance major encompassed much more than a physical practice. Creating a work of art and then having to explain in the words of the theories you were digesting and the influences you were taking in is a complex and intellectual exercise.

“I am going to watch it with my mom. It is my day, but it truly is her day too. She came from Jamaica and created a great life for me.”

There is also beauty in focusing on different disciplines — sometimes you have to be extremely factual and on point, and sometimes you can be intentionally uncertain. In dance you consider yourself, what is going on in the world, race, class, sexuality. I might cast all Black women, and I don’t owe anyone an explanation for why.

I couldn’t turn in a paper to my psychology advisor, Professor Amy Douglass, and say, “Take this for what it is.” We would both laugh! My work is for my people and it is what it is. There is power in that.

What was a major highlight of your �ֲ���ý experience?

Being on the committee to choose the honorands. That is one experience at �ֲ���ý I will always remember. I’m a sophomore in the room with all these people with Ph.D.s and medical degrees who are not only asking for my opinion but receiving it. Like, “Alex, why do you think this person is deserving of this?” It was a really nice, positive exchange. I don’t think I ever felt uncomfortable in that room.

Who are you going to watch Commencement with?

I am going to watch it with my mom. It is my day, but it truly is her day too. She came from Jamaica and created a great life for me. I am very taken care of and I thank her. According to her, even at the age where I get married and have children, I will still be her baby!

I might put the cap and gown on. We might order something to eat after. We will celebrate the best way we can. Knowing that this too shall pass.

Vanessa German, a dynamic and versatile artist and speaker whose work celebrates human connection and the transformative power of art, will offer greetings to the �ֲ���ý College Class of 2020 during the college’s 154th Commencement, which will be conducted remotely and livestreamed beginning at noon on Sunday, May 31.

Widely considered among the brightest rising stars of the art world, German is known for her “power figure” sculptures: often female and often repurposing doll parts, embellished with seemingly random objects that at closer inspection reveal themselves to be rich with allusion and symbolism.

Vanessa German will offer greetings to the Class of 2020 during the college’s 154th Commencement.

“In a world of division, Vanessa German is a uniter. In a world of heartbreak, she is all heart — passion and joy, vibrancy and vitality,” said President Clayton Spencer, who will offer the formal Welcome to open the Commencement ceremony. Also speaking on May 31 will be Alexandria Onuoha ’20, a dance and psychology double major from Malden, Mass., who will give the Senior Address.

A self-described citizen artist, German invokes the power of art and love to transform communities. Her work is deeply rooted in Homewood, her neighborhood in Pittsburgh, a place that inspires her and that she seeks to uplift. She is the founder of ARThouse, a community arts initiative for the children of Homewood.

Vanessa German’s exhibition Miracles and Glory Abound was shown in the �ֲ���ý Museum of Art in 2019–20. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

“[T]he big human lie [is] that we are not all connected,” German has said. “For me it’s a matter of life and death if I do not do violence to the lie. It’s the reason that I have lungs.”

has been shown and collected by institutions including Figge Art Museum, Flint Institute of Arts, Spelman College Museum of Fine Art, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, and Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, as well as �ֲ���ý, which hosted her 2019–20 exhibition Miracles and Glory Abound.

Interacting with her audience, Vanessa German does a few dance steps with Nicholas Florio ’22 during her talk in Olin Arts Center on Oct. 25, 2019, celebrating the opening of Miracles and Glory Abound in the �ֲ���ý Museum of Art. (Photograph by Vanessa Paolella ’21)

German is also a poet and spoken-word performance artist who has given several TEDx talks and addresses at festivals, schools, museums, and youth organizations. She has been featured on CBS Sunday Morning, NPR’s All Things Considered, and in The Huffington Post, O Magazine, and Essence Magazine.

She received the 2015 Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Grant, the 2017 Jacob Lawrence Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the 2018 United States Artists Fellowship, and the 2018 Don Tyson Prize, honoring exceptional achievement in American art, from the Crystal Bridges museum.

The power of love is the theme of a TEDx talk by Vanessa German in 2015.

During this pandemic, a photographer’s creative opportunities have shrunk as the restraints of social distancing remove her usual subjects — in my case, �ֲ���ý students.

But as we’ve seen, the coronavirus can’t stop creativity, and soon I was seeing photographers execute a new and more collaborative kind of portraiture using FaceTime and iPhone technology.

Before trying my hand at FaceTime portraits with a group of �ֲ���ý students, I did a few test shots, first with my out-of-state daughter, then with my out-of-state brother, and finally with an out-of-Lewiston colleague. They were all patient with the process, but it proved to be a lot harder than I had anticipated. My results were pitiful, I thought.

Surely, the pictures could only improve, so I forged ahead, inviting a few members of the Class of 2020 to take part in FaceTime portraits, letting them choose the setting for their portrait — a place that felt special — and letting them choose a close-up or something more environmental, with or without surroundings and/or companions.

Photographer Phyllis Graber Jensen FaceTimes with Maya Church ’20 of Atlanta, Ga. When Graber Jensen saw the right moment, she tapped the white circle to take the picture.

Typically, a photographer gets to exert a lot of control in a posed situation. While ideally there’s a partnership between subject and photographer, clearly the scales are weighted in favor of the photographer, who can make decisions about framing, lenses, and light.

But with FaceTime portraits, the subject has the upper hand, literally, since they’re holding the phone that will take the picture. After joining the FaceTime call, the subject gets to position the camera and present the background.

The photographer can make requests — “A little to your left” — but the control has shifted. It makes for interesting creative dynamics, and that was fun to explore with these seniors. (The image itself is taken by the photographer, who presses a white button on the FaceTime display. That yields a 3-second video clip from which still images can be selected.) And of course, the photographer exerts further creative control with cropping, toning, and sharpening.

In the end, these 10 individuals blessed me with their willingness to go on a creative journey with me. They were patient and generous with their time and ingenuity. Ditto for their loved ones, who in some circumstances positioned the camera or posed with them.

In one sense, the photographs might lack typical “quality” as measured by sharpness, resolution, whatever. But in another sense, these photographs — showing hopeful and resilient soon-to-be-graduates who have faith in themselves and in others — help give us confidence in our future.

There’s no finer image available.

Maya Seshan ’20

Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College

Hometown: Wilton, Conn.

Major: Politics

Setting: Family room

Maya says: “Arriving at home, I found it extremely difficult to give myself the structure and environment I needed to get work done. At �ֲ���ý, my favorite spot to work was always the large tables by the windows on the first floor of Ladd Library. I loved being surrounded by the light-filled windows and in an open space buzzing with noise. As an academic and social space, the first floor was somewhere I could always find at least two tables of my rowing teammates and plenty of other friends to work (or chat) with. Somehow, despite the noise, I was always the most productive there. It is where I worked on group projects, finished chemistry homework, came up with my thesis topic, and where I really began writing my thesis. At home, our family room with big windows is about the closest I can get to that.

“Though finishing my politics thesis was certainly a challenge at home, I am thankful to have had so much support from my adviser, Professor Stephen Engel, and to have been able to write about something that felt truly relevant right now. My thesis looks at the resistance to technology adoption and to reform in the U.S. healthcare system. I also analyze whether the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the adoption of technology in healthcare, and as a result, whether it presents political opportunities for reform. I’ve been able to reflect on how this crisis may permanently change our world, and the possibilities for change that may come out of it.

“It is undoubtedly painful to not be at �ֲ���ý ending my senior year with my friends. Not being able to bind my thesis on the library terrace, finish my final rowing season, or even enjoy a final Short Term really hurts, but I am of course extremely grateful for the moments that I did have. I wish everyone health and safety at this time and to my fellow 2020 seniors say, ‘Congratulations.’”

Analea Angot ’20

Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College

Hometown: Hampton, N.H.

Major: Sociology

Setting: Childhood home

Analea says: “As I’m confined to my small childhood home, I find comfort in this large-scale painting, now the center of my visual world. It breathes air into the house and brings the outdoors in — often a jumping-off point for my daydreams. I sit and drink my coffee, admiring the way the morning light beautifully illuminates the trees bursting with pink blossoms, filling my heart with hope and anticipation of better days ahead.

“A family heirloom, it also signifies the artist Tom Cooke’s adjustment of artistic expression after a stroke that robbed him of fine motor skills but granted him a deeper connection to color. How apropos — a great reminder that we all possess the power to adjust to change, overcome adversity, and see the forest for the trees.”

Madeline Fagundo ’20

Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College

Hometown: Boulder, Colo.

Major: Rhetoric, film, and screen studies

Setting: In her parents’ bedroom, looking out on Mount Sanitas, with her sister, Melina, 16, and golden retriever, Georgia

Maddie says: “I am so grateful for my sister, Melina. Since going to college all the way in Maine, we haven’t been able to see each other as much as we would like, so it has been nice to make up for lost time. I’ve really missed the �ֲ���ý community, and Melina has been really supportive and comforting — she is actually going to bind my thesis tomorrow!

“Since being home, we’ve learned how to cook, bake, scrapbook, make homemade ice cream, do woodworking, and learn remotely together. I think we have taken on recipes and projects way beyond our skill level, but we’ve had fun with it. We’ve truly been inseparable during quarantine — I even moved into her room.

“Behind us is Mount Sanitas, which has some of my favorite trails in Boulder. Getting outside during these times has been really important for our wellness and health. Thankfully, the Colorado Public Health Order says it is safe to recreate close to home while following social-distance protocol. I am really grateful that Melina likes to hike with me — especially since there have been a lot of mountain lion sightings in Boulder (possibly because the city is so quiet as everyone is at home).

“Inside or outside, the ‘buddy system’ has done so many wonders.”

Maya Church ’20

Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College

Hometown: Atlanta, Ga.

Major: Gender and Sexuality Studies

Setting: Her back yard

Maya says: “I love being home — not just the actual home but the feeling of home, too. Whether I am having my best or toughest days, you will find me at some point in the day sitting in my back yard, always in the same seat. When I am outside, my thoughts become more clear, and I truly feel like I’m given peace of mind, especially when there’s a lot of noise in my head.

“Having this time has really made me think about what’s important in life. For me, that’s having a home, a foundation. Amidst all of the problems that are happening right now, I am blessed to be at home.”

Andrew Garcia-Bou ’20

Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College

Hometown: Eastchester, N.Y.

Major: Interdisciplinary

Setting: Bedroom at home

Andrew says: “This is where I spend a lot of my time now. There are not many places that I can go and feel productive. If I am not sitting here, my day is usually filled with other small, miscellaneous tasks or projects to help move the days along.

“The concept of time is so interesting to me now. We have all the time in the world to enjoy doing nothing — but also all the time to try and do everything, if that makes sense. I try to stay away from thinking how this time could have been used soaking up the final days as a senior with my peers. Once I get past that, sitting here isn’t so bad.”

Charlotte Karlsen ’20

Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College

Hometown: Portland, Ore.

Majors: Politics and Rhetoric

Setting: Kitchen at home

Charlotte says: “I study here in the kitchen while my dad works and my mother, a nurse, trains to work with COVID-19 patients.

“I’m sitting in front of cookbook-filled shelves that include some favorites such as the Joy of Cooking and volumes by chef Yotam Ottolenghi, an Israeli chef. I’ve found cooking to be a source of peace in a stressful time.

“Although cutting short my senior year and returning home was not how I wanted to end my final year at �ֲ���ý, I know I am lucky to have really great parents. So I am not completely miserable.

“I talk with my �ֲ���ý friends every day, holding Zoom parties, and continuing a book club with female friends where we read works by women about women our age and the transitions that occur during this time in their lives.

“The best thing I’ve learned during this quarantine period is that my relationships with friends and family will sustain me through a future of uncertainty.”

Ryan Clermont ’20

Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College

Hometown: Lincoln, N.H.

Major: Politics

Setting: Gas station in Beaufort, S.C.

Ryan says: “I think most of my friends would agree that I am a very spontaneous person. I have a hard time saying ‘No’ when someone says, ‘Hey, you wanna…?’ So when my dad and brother asked if I wanted to drive down to Florida with them to pick up the boat, I didn’t hesitate, even though I still had to submit my thesis, watch three classes’ worth of video lectures, and take the final exam for my psychology class.

“Four hours into the trip, I had wrapped up the final edits to my thesis and submitted it. But taking the psych final was challenging. When a tire on the boat trailer exploded, I was left wondering whether I should begin the timed exam on the side of the highway. I ended up doing the exam — and ending my college career — from the comfort of the breakdown lane on I-95 and a hotel in Vero Beach, Fla.

“I had always envisioned my college experience ending in Ladd as I bound my thesis, or in P’gill as I walked out of my last exam. Sometimes things don’t go as planned, and an email and an online exam from the back seat of the truck were perfect alternatives.”

Lauren Hernandez ’20

Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College

Hometown: Chester, N.J.

Major: Psychology

Setting: Amidst the Christmas trees in her backyard

Lauren says: “My family moved to Chester, N.J., in 2003 when I was 5 and my sister was 3 years old. The property used to be a Christmas tree farm and was filled with evergreens as tall as my sister and me. Although people in the area suggested my family cut down the trees, my parents decided to let them grow. Seventeen years later, those same trees tower over us.

“When I was 5, I remember when I saw the first blade of green grass sprout in our back yard. It is a very special memory. For me, it symbolizes the start of certain growth for both me and my back yard. Now that I am graduating from �ֲ���ý and will be moving away, I look back at this back yard and these memories with gratitude and peace, knowing that this is where my true roots lie. I hope that everyone is safe and their families are well.”

Graham Bonnell ’20

Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College

Hometown: Southport, Conn.

Major: Politics

Setting: Cold Garden Spirits distillery, Canterbury, N.H.

Graham says: “I’m originally from Connecticut, but since leaving �ֲ���ý I’ve been living at Canterbury Shaker Village, a historic site and museum. There’s no Wi-Fi, and it’s in the middle of nowhere. Fortunately, in addition to working on classes and writing my thesis, I’ve been able to keep myself busy by working part time at the Cold Garden Spirits distillery, a 10-minute walk down the road.

“The work has been incredible — socially distanced, letting me spend hours outside clipping weeds, stacking wood, digging post holes, and tending to distillery operations. I also created an online store so that the business could continue without in-person interactions. I have also learned a lot of cool new things. I routinely drive a tractor, a pickup truck, a forklift, and I even have to use a chainsaw from time to time.

“I have never experienced rural life. I am not accustomed to working in fields or driving tractors, but I am happy to learn. As painful as it was to leave all of my friends and the community of �ֲ���ý, I’ve found a new purpose here in New Hampshire.”

Maya Wilson ’20

Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College

Hometown: New York City

Major: Politics

Setting: Amenia, N.Y.

Maya says: “I’ve been quarantining with another �ֲ���ý student, Ben Hinton ’21, which has been nice, although I’ve been spending a lot of time outside to avoid being forced to play Magic: The Gathering. Tomorrow I plan to make Ben do an hourlong EDM dance workout with me as payback (he doesn’t know this yet). And being outside has been good for both of us. It is definitely comforting to hear cars on the road, or see people walking, a sweet reminder that life continues around us.”