Class of 2025 – News

Video: Exploring, connecting, and a new definition of ‘outdoors’ for �ֲ��ý AESOP

�ֲ��ý News — Thu, 09 Sep 2021 16:44:29 +0000

Outdoor trips as part of new-student orientation are nothing new. Into the mid-1900s, new �ֲ��ý students spent an off-campus day with Harry Rowe to hear the avuncular dean recount �ֲ��ý tales of old.

Today, the off-campus trips are collectively known as AESOP: “Annual Entering Student Orientation Program.”

AESOP is based in the college’s Student Affairs Office and annually led by three student coordinators. Its mission is simple enough: “To engage and empower every incoming �ֲ��ý student to be their authentic selves through off-campus, student-led orientation programs.”

Video by Theophil Syslo/�ֲ��ý College

Mission simple, but the execution is eclectic, fun, and full of what students love: hanging out and getting to know each other.

Typically, outdoor orientation programs are all about the great outdoors: hiking, biking, climbing, kayaking, and otherwise navigating the ups and downs of mountains and lakes and everything in between.

And, for those inclined toward nature, they’re a blast. With an eye on achieving greater equity and inclusivity, the AESOP program leaders have brainstormed and deployed new trips in order to broaden the program.

“We’ve spent the past year curating this year’s programming to reflect the diverse needs and interests of the entire first-year class,” explained senior Alix Zabin of Greenwich, Conn., one of three coordinators along with Erik Malm of Batavia, Ill., and Jack Fruechte of Edina, Minn.

So while this year had the traditional trips like hiking Franconia Ridge and kayaking the Damariscotta River, there were also opportunities to paint riverfront scenes along the Androscoggin, create a movie in 48 hours, find their way out of a Portland escape room, visit local farms, and generally explore the downtown area.

Picture story: Convocation and Memorial Tree Planting at �ֲ��ý College

�ֲ��ý News — Fri, 03 Sep 2021 17:01:31 +0000

Photographs by Phyllis Graber Jensen of two academic rituals of a new academic year, Convocation and the Memorial Tree Planting, on Aug. 31, 2021.

10 pieces of advice, for all of us, from a wisdom-filled �ֲ��ý College Convocation

Jay Burns — Fri, 03 Sep 2021 15:53:08 +0000

In May and in August, Commencement and Convocation bookend the �ֲ��ý experience.

Held in the fading warmth of a Maine summer day, Convocation marks a beginning, the newest class’s “formal induction into the �ֲ��ý community of scholars,” said President Clayton Spencer at this year’s edition on Aug. 31, the day before the start of classes for the 2021–22 year.

As bookends, they share a look: pomp and circumstance, rows of chairs in front of Coram Library, and an academic procession from Alumni Walk to the Historic Quad. Both typically come packed with good advice for the next monumental step toward building a future, first on the Lewiston campus and then beyond.

This year, Convocation included one valedictory element that might have been stolen from Commencement, the celebration of a job well done as Dean of the Faculty Malcolm Hill introduced a new group of students to the newly opened Bonney Science Center. With the dramatic brick building at stage right, Hill called it “a building that will serve all disciplines to generate innovative teaching for years to come.”

The Class of 2025 passes by the Class of 1927 Mouthpiece featuring a photograph and quote from late John R. Lewis, the 2016 Commencement speaker, who urged the graduates to be bold and fearless in pursuing social justice. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ��ý College)

But the main focus of Convocation 2021 were tips and insights into navigating the �ֲ��ý experience, offered by Spencer; Kush Sharma ’23 and Marcos Pacheco Soto ’24, co-presidents of �ֲ��ý College Student Government; and Katharine Ott, associate professor of mathematics, who delivered the Convocation Address.

Along with advice, they received a blessing from the college’s multifaith chaplain, the Rev. Brittany Longsdorf. “May you be blessed by this place,” she said in her Benediction. “May you be blessed this new year, with authenticity, deep caring, wisdom and kindness, inspiration and affirmation, and the beauty of belonging.”

Ott’s perspective was a gift from last spring’s Class of 2021, who selected her to speak to the Class of 2025 at Convocation, and she began by thanking the recent grads and saluting them for their perseverance in the face of the pandemic. Recalling their accomplishments and their “incredible resilience during such a tumultuous year fills me with hope.”

The same goes for the Class of 2025, said Ott.

“You pivoted, you followed through with your plans and dreams, adjusting a lot when necessary. You made a major life decision — where to attend college — entirely over zoom and so much more. So I congratulate you and your support networks for arriving here. Your arrival and journey have been challenging. There was pain and suffering, and for some, trauma.”

Katharine Ott, associate professor of mathematics, delivers the Convocation Address. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ��ý College)

With all that has preceded the class’s arrival, she said, “it’s hard to think about where to begin the next chapter” — there’s that book metaphor again — “after all that has happened, all that is still happening. Where do we even begin?” And that’s how she titled her address, “Where Do We Even Begin.”

Referencing the title, she said she made it “big and vague on purpose,” precisely because she wanted to show �ֲ��ý’ newest students that you begin to answer a big question by tackling smaller ones first.

“Like the mathematician that I am, I will try to offer something useful on just one small part of the big question: Where do we begin…in our college classrooms?” Ott urged her audience of students to remember they are “building more than a transcript. They’ll be creating their own narrative, a journey where they are the main character, set within a community they hold the power to build.”

Her suggestions, and those from others, offer insight into classrooms, yes, but also how we live our lives.

Build judgment-free relationships where it is always OK to ask questions

Ott has a Ph.D. in mathematics and regularly publishes scholarly papers with other math Ph.D.s. “We work on theoretical mathematics, partial differential equations, and harmonic analysis, and the papers appear in international journals.”

That all sounds dauntingly high level. But, she said, when she’s at work with fellow scholars, the relationships are defined by humility.

“Do you know what kind of questions occur regularly?” Ott asked the audience. “Me, during a research meeting with collaborators: ‘Hold up. Where did that zero come from?’ My collaborator, slight frown, maybe a pause: ‘We added a two up here and then subtracted two down here. So that makes zero.’”

“There is no judgement, and we move on. No one is keeping track.”

Don’t wait to ask questions

“It’s a heck of a lot easier to start asking questions like that from the get-go, when you’re in the midst of a problem, than waiting 20 minutes before asking, then you’re buried under more and more lines of calculations.

“I’m not advocating that you interrupt your professors and classmates with questions unless invited to do so. I’m encouraging you to be honest and forthcoming about where you are with your understanding and meet your peers where they are with their understanding. Don’t let questions or confusions get buried.”

Make play out of your work

Ott’s 4-year-old son just started pre-K. Each day, she asks him what he did in school. “And so far six days running, he gives the same exact answer: ‘Play.’”

“Four-year-olds need play,” said Ott. So do the rest of us. In math, “play” might mean tinkering with the numbers in a graph and “seeing what happens to your solution.”

In a broader academic context, “play” means “changing your perspective, looking at a problem from a different viewpoint, creating a new scenario, putting things in a different order.”

So it’s highly likely, said Ott, that math students will hear phrases from their professors, like “play with the numbers in this example,” or “play with the graph and see what happens to your solution.”

Professor of French and Francophone Studies Kirk Read performs his duties as faculty marshal as the academic procession departs Alumni Walk for the Historic Quad. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ��ý College)

Mainers, and perhaps folks in other states, have a phrase for this kind of play, “dubbing around,” where you’re working around the house and trying a new way to solve a problem, like stopping that gopher that gets into the garden.

That kind of play “is meant to be low stakes. Play allows us to explore and learn separate from the validation of a grade or a checkbox,” Ott said. “Between pre-K and college — and most definitely in the last year — I think many of us lost this connection between play and learning. So let’s try and rekindle it.

Talk to people about your work

Developmental psychologists tell us that we create our personal narratives, discovering who we are and where we want to go, by talking with others.

Mathematicians like Ott know that too. She encouraged �ֲ��ý’ new students to “talk about your work. Share what you were doing in class when you check in with your family and friends from home. Work in study groups — and yeah, talk out loud with your classmates about what you’re doing. Make what you are doing in class a part of your everyday conversations with friends, teammates, roommates, coworkers, and so on.

“Inevitably these conversations will spin outward from the academics and that’s not only okay, that’s awesome. Talking about what we’re doing in class is a great launching point to conversations that we need to be having, conversations about identity, community, society.

In the next four years, you aren’t just building a transcript: You will be building a story, a journey narrative that has you as the main character.”

In seeking truth, seek what’s true about you

In her welcome, Spencer talked about the liberal arts and truth-seeking.

At �ֲ��ý, students learn how to discover what’s true in the world through the “knowledge you will gain and the connections you will make across multiple kinds of problems and ways of knowing,” she said.

But truth-seeking is not always outward-focused, she said. “It also means figuring out what is, and isn’t true for you — who you are, what you’re interested in, what you value and how you plan to move through the world.

“Only you, following your interests, thinking things through on your own terms, and discussing your theories and ideas in the classroom and in conversation, can develop an authentic and coherent view of how you want to live your life.”

Mace bearer Michael Murray, Charles Franklin Phillips Professor of Economics, leads the academic procession, followed by President Clayton Spencer and Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the Faculty Malcolm Hill. For certain large outside events, �ֲ��ý implements a face-covering policy. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ��ý College)

Put big questions on hold

Big questions, like “What should I do with my life?” or even “What should I major in?” can wait, said Spencer, because at this stage “they are downright paralyzing.”

Keep it simple. The Chinese philosopher Lao-tzu said “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” But the right question to ask yourself is not, “Is this the right step for me?” Instead, ask yourself, “Does this feel like the right next step for me?”

Don’t measure your success against the lives and careers of people you admire

Impressive, compelling life stories, those of Michelle Obama, Lin-Manuel Miranda, or Dr. Fauci, “only emerge when you look backward over a life,” Spencer said.

The enterprise of college, however, is about helping students ”look forward, not backward.” As a student, you’re on the bow of a ship, looking ahead toward uncharted waters. You’re not in the stern looking at the wake.

Your path forward is not clear — nor should it be. “As a famous scholar of religion and myth, Joseph Campbell, once said, ‘If the path before you is clear, you’re probably on someone else’s.’”

Use your curiosity, thirst for connection, and courage to take risks

A student admitted to �ֲ��ý has already displayed at least some of those abilities, said Spencer. Use those talents to “explore courses in fields you’ve never been exposed to before,” said Spencer. “Sit at a table in Commons with people you don’t know and introduce yourself, or try out for a play even if you’ve never been on a stage in your life.”

With understandably pensive expressions, members of the Class of 2025 move toward their seats at the start of Convocation on Aug. 31, 2021. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ��ý College

In turn, Spencer promised the students that their courage will be met with a promise from �ֲ��ý, that all students will be “seen and valued” so that, in turn they feel they “belong at �ֲ��ý and �ֲ��ý belongs to them.”

The work of “creating an educational community that is equitable and inclusive, and producing graduates who have experienced college this way, is, I believe, our best hope for making progress toward a more just society.”

Disrupt your own narrative

Spencer encourages the first-year students to “try to stop holding fast to the things that got you here — the narrative that you are pre-med, or will major in history, when you haven’t even taken your first college course; the identities that have defined you throughout high school; the assumption that if you don’t hurry up and find a small group of like-minded peeps you are doomed to a life of social isolation.”

Instead, “think of these next four years as a time to try new things, to step back and broaden the frame. As the poet Rainer Maria Rilke put it, ‘The point is to…live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.’”

Create community while you search for what excites you

Sharma and Pacheco Soto, the �ֲ��ý Student Government co-presidents, offered student-to-student advice.

First-years might have questions like, How do �ֲ��ý students pursue what interests them individually, whether a major field or a club activity, while at the same time engaging in collective efforts to achieve social justice?

How do the 555 individuals in the Class of 2025 with 555 different ideas become a community? How does one pursue your own wishes while also navigating a sea of difference?

Co-presidents of �ֲ��ý College Student Government Kush Sharma ’23 (right) and Marcos Pacheco Soto ’24 greet the Class of 2025.(Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ��ý College)

Definitely, “pursue what you are excited about — and then also think of a way we can come together and support each other in living that,” said Sharma.

“Offer compassion. Be each other’s voice in the work to fight for a society where every idea, thought, and individual has an equal opportunity. And as you try to find something that you’re excited about, each day for the next four years at �ֲ��ý, try to embrace and create a culture where collaborative excitement matters.”

Video: ‘Overwhelming, but a good time’ as students welcome students on �ֲ��ý’ Opening Day

�ֲ��ý News — Fri, 03 Sep 2021 15:29:32 +0000

“We’re just running up and down stairs and meeting people left and right,” said Tasha Kaluzynski ’22 of Bethany, Conn., outside Milliken House, where she’s a Junior Advisor.

“It’s overwhelming, but a good time!”

Aug. 23 was Opening Day for the Class of 2025, and Kaluzynski and her 61 fellow Junior Advisors and Residence Coordinators were deep into the meat and potatoes of their work as Residence Life paraprofessionals: meeting and greeting the 555 members of the Class of 2025.

RCs and JAs live and work with fellow students in the college’s 30 residences. Often seniors, Residence Coordinators focus on the living experiences of the sophomores, juniors and seniors in their residence. Junior Advisors work specifically with groups of 12 to 20 new students in what are called First-Year Centers.

“That’s why I do this work as a senior, because that experience really inspired me as a first-year.”

Trained by the Office of Residence Life and Health Education, JAs are mentors, guides, role models, and organizers who “help connect students, especially first-years, to the �ֲ��ý experience in whatever way is authentic to them,” says Assistant Director of Residence Life Eddie Szeman.

And everwhere one turned on Opening Day, there was advice on how to start off on the right foot.

“It is scary at the beginning,” says Oliver Barrera ’22 of Waukegan Ill., an RC at historic Parker Hall, the college’s very first residence hall, opened in 1857.

“But if you put yourself out there, people will welcome you with open hands. And that’s the best part of the �ֲ��ý community, as we see today: People are here to help you and people want to build a community with you.

“And that’s why I do this work as a senior, because that experience really inspired me as a first-year.”

Slideshow: 10 images from Opening Day

�ֲ��ý News — Fri, 27 Aug 2021 17:59:44 +0000

Many having chosen �ֲ��ý without ever visiting campus, the 555 members of the Class of 2025 arrived on Thursday afternoon.

“The number of you that said ‘yes’ to �ֲ��ý sight unseen is unprecedented and admirable,” said Leigh Weisenburger, vice president for enrollment and dean of admission and financial aid, as she and President Clayton Spencer welcomed the Class of 2025 on Thursday afternoon.

Due to the pandemic, the campus was closed to Admission visitors from March 2020 until earlier this summer. Thus the entire Class of 2025 recruitment cycle was done virtually: virtual tours, virtual information sessions and interviews, and virtual admitted-student events.

“Seeing you live in front of my eyes feels unique, surreal — and so, so special.”

Following a whirlwind morning of getting COVID tests, securing �ֲ��ý IDs, and moving in, the new students, joined by their families and loved ones, gathered on the Historic Quad in front of Coram Library shortly after 3 p.m. for the traditional welcome.

More to Come

Coming up next week, you’ll see more coverage of yesterday’s Opening Day, this weekend’s AESOP trips, and next week’s Convocation and first day of classes.

Most avoided the sunny seats close to the Coram porch on the very hot day, choosing seats farther back, under the shade of trees.

“Seeing you live in front of my eyes feels unique, surreal — and so, so special,” said Weisenburger.

In her remarks, Spencer seconded that emotion. “They say that absence makes the heart grow fonder,” she said. “But that is not my experience. For me, it is presence, proximity, and the sharing of daily rhythms that deepens the bond between human beings.”

And while the new students are not yet into any kind of daily rhythm, their arrival was a crescendo moment. Indeed, the beat goes on.