An environmental studies major, Claire Naughton ’19 of Darien, Conn., delivered this year’s Senior Address at Commencement.

As she prepared for her address, Naughton reflected on her time at �ֲ���ý. Moments of failure are the best moments to learn, she says.

“I’ve really tried over these four years to live authentically, because you can’t always expect to be perfect, and it’s OK to be not OK at times. It’s OK to struggle and grow through your struggles.”

Video by Theophil Syslo

In her address, Naughton invoked the Icarus myth from Greek mythology.

While it’s well-known that the story, about Icarus flying too close to the sun, offers a caution against hubris, the lesser-known part of the myth is that Icarus was also told not to fly too low and let the ocean wet his feathers.

For Naughton and her classmates, “our doubts and fears drag us down” toward the ocean. “It’s time to believe in yourself and your victories and failures,” she said. It’s time to feel the heat of the sun on your back. It’s time to jump.”

Senior address by Claire Naughton ’19 on May 26, 2019

“I’m interested in places we don’t necessarily think of as the environment,” says Dylan Metsch-Ampel ’19 of Montclair, N.J.

Such as the built environment of Lewiston’s downtown, which was the topic of his environmental studies honors thesis, “Sense of Place in Kennedy Park: the Role of Urban Green Space in the Tree Streets Neighborhood.”

Metsch-Ampel’s research on Lewiston’s downtown park supported an effort, undertaken by the Healthy Neighborhoods Planning Council, to make the district a healthier, happier place.

Writing the thesis left him feeling that he’d had “a tangible effect on the community that I’ve been living in for four years,” said Metsch-Ampel, who was recently honored by the Harward Center for Community Partnerships for his outstanding community-engaged academic work.

Video by Phyllis Graber Jensen

As an Admission tour guide, Metsch-Ampel has had an effect on the �ֲ���ý environment, too.

“One thing I always tell prospective �ֲ���ý students and their families is that �ֲ���ý is a place that’s going to push you outside of your comfort zone while providing all the right resources and the right help.”

When Sarah Rothmann ’19 arrived at �ֲ���ý from Andover, Mass., she had three goals: good grades, fast times in cross country and track, and, by graduation, a job.

“I just didn’t want to take any risks,” she recalls. But as one semester led to the next, “I learned to step beyond” those initial goals. Way beyond, it turns out.

By senior year, Rothmann was editor of The �ֲ���ý Student while also serving as co-captain of her cross country and track and field teams. An English major, she completed an honors thesis on the autobiographic fiction of Charles Dickens.

Video by Theophil Syslo

A minor in education studies with experience in local schools, she discovered a connection between teaching and journalism that had eluded her.

“I thought it was an either/or,” she says of her interest in the two fields. “But I’ve learned that they blend very nicely.” As editor, she’s “almost assumed the role of a teacher to help my writers navigate a path.”

As for that job? She recently accepted a Fulbright Student award to teach English in the Czech Republic in 2019–20.

In early April, Daisy Diamond ’19 and her studio art classmates unveiled their artwork at the 2019 Senior Thesis Exhibition.

Diamond’s was a large sculpture, an assemblage of medical sutures, steel, fabric, clay, wax, and thread.

Video by Theophil Syslo

At the opening, she says, “it was cool to see how willing people are to really engage with art when you give them permission to touch things and push things.

“That kind of tactile engagement with an object can lead to a further, more intimate experience with artwork.”

As Diamond noted in her exhibition statement, she hopes that her big and wobbly sculptures will prompt racial questions around whiteness and white privilege — “how whiteness is constructed by thousands of moments, stitches of affirmation, wobbly and waiting to unravel.”

Chirayu Baral ’19 of Thane, India, shares his amazement at how easy it is to develop close relationships with �ֲ���ý faculty.

“They’re willing to listen to you,” says Baral, an economics and politics major, “and they’re willing to accept that they could be wrong and a freshman could be right.”

“They hold Ph.D.s from prized institutions around the world, but they interact with you with a sense of humility.”

Video by Phyllis Graber Jensen

Like most students, Carlyle Turner ’19 arrived at �ֲ���ý with certain traits already at work, like curiosity and a desire to learn.

�ֲ���ý has helped him build on those traits. A psychology major from Baltimore, he learned essential skills for today’s world, such as how to be constructively skeptical and critical — “to think for myself and not just accept what someone tells you, but challenge it.”

Video by Theophil Syslo.

In addition to his studies, Turner has been a member of the squash team and, last summer, had a Purposeful Work internship at Columbia University.

There, he joined a study looking at the long-term effects of stress and toxic chemical exposure on the health of New Yorkers who were under age 17 during the 9/11 attacks. His work involved field interviews with study subjects.

“It’s been very powerful hearing the life stories of such a diverse group of people,” he said. “I was put to the test in terms of thinking on my feet and remaining professional at all times.”

At the same time, he says, the experience helped him “become a more empathetic person.”

Credit for these liberal arts skills — critical thinking, healthy skepticism, and human empathy — goes to Turner’s professors, including his thesis adviser, Professor of Psychology Amy Douglass, as well as other adults at �ֲ���ý and beyond. “Without them, I wouldn’t love �ֲ���ý as much as I do,” he says.

“I came here with so many different interests,” says Walter Washington ’19. “I wanted to do music, I wanted to get into politics, I wanted to study the law more.

“I wanted to do all these different things, and also to become a person who can make things happen and make change happen. And I found all of those interests here at �ֲ���ý.”

Video by Theophil Syslo.

Today, counting down to graduation, Washington of Fleetwood, N.Y., is one of the best-known faces on the �ֲ���ý campus.

A politics major, he has served as president of student government for two years. A letter-winning defensive lineman for the football team all four years, he received the Stephen B. Ritter Award, given to football players with the highest GPAs. He has also sung with the Deansmen, the oldest of �ֲ���ý’ beloved a cappella ensembles, throughout his �ֲ���ý career.

“I was able to carry things out that I never imagined myself doing. And it started with just taking an opportunity,” he says.

Washington’s advice to new �ֲ���ýies? “Don’t be scared to branch out — don’t be afraid, because you never know what great things can happen from something so small.”

Psychology major Kudzaiishe Irene Mapfunde ’19 of Harare, Zimbabwe, discusses the power of place in Ladd Library’s Academic Resource Commons (ARC), where three years of working as a tutor and manager have taught her about how students learn from one another.