Volume 15 Number 1 Spring 2020 ADAPTATIONS COA LETTER FROM THE EDITOR DAN MAHONEY College of the Atlantic Magazine ADAPTATIONS EDITORIAL Editor Daniel Mahoney Editorial Advice Heather Albert-Knopp '99 Lynn Boulger [if we] for once could do nothing, communities and local farms together, Dru Colbert Darron Collins '92 perhaps a huge silence and volunteer plants will sprout from the Jennifer Hughes might interrupt this sadness rubble. Dialogue will grow, informed by Rob Levin Caitlin Meredith of never understanding ourselves. the "huge silence" of our present moment. Amanda Mogridge -Pablo Neruda, Keeping Quiet Chris Petersen Eloise Schultz '16 Adaptations: Finally, in praise of poetry Karen Waldron Adaptations: In these weeks of social and the copper beech growing outside of Editorial Consultant Jodi Baker distancing, I am spending time with my The Turrets, in praise of the Broad Reach DESIGN family, catching up on house projects, and Campaign and Kenyon Grant's amazing Art Director Kenyon Grant reacquainting myself with several authors infographic, here is a poem by Russell ADMINISTRATION whose books fill my office shelves. These Edson entitled, The Fall: President Darron Collins Provost Ken Hill are old friends, writers I've loved for years, Associate Academic Deans Judy Allen, Chris Petersen, writers I find myself returning to again There was a man who found two leaves and Bonnie Tai, Karen Waldron Dean of Admission Heather Albert-Knopp '99 and again: Harryette Mullen, Joan Didion, came indoors holding them out saying to his Dean of Institutional César Aira, Denis Johnson, Douglas parents that be was a tree. Advancement Lynn Boulger Dean of Student Life Sarah Luke Kearney, Pablo Neruda, Jane Mead, and Director of Communications Rob Levin Lester Bangs. I have leaned on these To which they said then go into the yard and books for a long, long time, their pages do not grow in the living-room as your roots marked by my fingerprints and coffee may ruin the carpet. BOARD OF TRUSTEES stains. Recently, I've been digging back into Bangs When he writes about music TRUSTEE OFFICERS He said I was fooling I am not a tree and be Philip S.J. Moriarty, Chair Ronald E. Beard, Secretary he is writing for his life-each review a dropped his leaves. Marthann Samek, Vice Chair Jay McNally '84, Treasurer Beth Gardiner, Vice Chair desperate plea for his readers to listen a little deeper. Even now, when I read his But his parents said look it is fall. TRUSTEE MEMBERS LIFE TRUSTEES review of Van Morrison's Astral Weeks I am Cynthia Baker Samuel M. Hamill, Jr. in awe: " Timothy Bass John N. Kelly most of all in 'Madame George' Michael Boland '94 William V.P. Newlin where [Morrison] sings the word 'dry' and Take good care. Alyne Cistone John Reeves Barclay Corbus Henry D. Sharpe, Jr. then 'your eye' twenty times in a twirling Sarah Currie-Halpern melodic arc so beautiful it steals your own Amy Yeager Geier TRUSTEE EMERITI breath, and then this occurs: 'And the love Winston Holt IV David Hackett Fischer Cookie Horner William G. Foulke, Jr. that loves the love that loves the love that Nicholas Lapham George B.E. Hambleton loves the love that loves to love the love Casey Mallinckrodt Elizabeth D. Hodder Anthony Mazlish Sherry F. Huber that loves to love the love that loves. I Lili Pew Philip B. Kunhardt III '77 Nadia Rosenthal Phyllis Anina Moriarty read the line and hear the lyric and the Abby Rowe ('98) Helen Porter moment wraps me tight in its arms. That is Henry L.P. Schmelzer Cathy L. Ramsdell '78 Laura McGiffert Slover Hamilton Robinson, Jr. strong medicine. Laura Z. Stone Dr. John Wilmerding Steve Sullens William N. Thorndike EX-OFFICIO Adaptations: This issue of the COA Claudia Turnbull Darron Collins '92 Magazine will reach you right about when Steve Ressel is on Otter Cliffs waiting for The faculty, students, trustees, staff, and the yellow spotted salamanders to return alumni of College of the Atlantic envision to their natal pools. Soon after, libraries a world where people value creativity, will reopen, giving our communities a intellectual achievements, and diversity of stronger heartbeat as we emerge from nature and human cultures. With respect and compassion, individuals construct meaningful isolation. Archivists will compile records of lives for themselves, gain appreciation of these times for future generations because the relationships among all forms of life, and that is what we do for each other. Students safeguard the heritage of future generations. will travel to different parts of the world and come to see themselves more COA is published annually for the College of the Atlantic Community. clearly. Food equity programs will bring coa.edu Front cover: Milky Way over Mount Desert Rock. Photo credit: Sean Todd, the Steven K. Katona Chair in Marine Studies. Back cover: Photo credit: Nikolai Fox '00. LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT DARRON COLLINS ADAPTATION IN THE TIME OF COVID-19 My fingers hunt and peck this letter in mid- After an all-day session with the COA March, right in the maw of the COVID-19 COVID-19 emergency response team, we pandemic. Want to see adaptation unfold held a community dialogue on Friday, the live and with fervor right in front of your last day of the term. There were still blank eyes? Consider this: During the last week of spots on the map, but adaptation had meant Winter term we made the difficult decision prioritization and rapid decision making. to move our entire Spring trimester to an Philosophy professor Gray Cox, who was a online format. student in COA's pilot program during the summer of 1971, addressed the crowd at one I pause on the word difficult. Yes, it was point. He reminded all of us that COA was difficult in the sense that the circumstances founded to do something radically different were tough. For so many, and especially the for the greater good. He reminded us that least fortunate among us, the COVID-19 every class is, in part, a class on educational pandemic is difficult in the truest sense of philosophy and practice. He reminded us the term and is unlike anything we've con- that, especially in these times, it is our calling fronted. But the decision to move online, and as a community to do something extraordi- not to say it was made lightly, wasn't a dif- nary. We needed, I realized, to confront this ficult one to make, because it became quite challenge and, using our own special kind of obvious that it was the only one we could human-ecological Aikido, emerge as a stron- sensibly make. ger and more creative institution. In this issue After joining the Wednesday faculty meeting By the time you're reading this we will be in 3 News during Week 10, the last week of the term, I the middle of that online Spring term and expected some resistance when the conver- that human-ecological adaptation will be 6 Coda sation turned to moving Spring term online. unfolding with even more fervor. Some fac- BY RICH BORDEN COA, as we all know, is about learning by ulty will be working through online sessions 12 Strike and Functional Extinction doing, learning through projects, learning of ornithology, where students across a dozen BY SONJA JOHANSON '95 in the field in its many forms, learning col- time zones will be gathering bird data from laboratively, and learning in close contact their own home-based field sites. A cohort of 14 Alumnus Profile: Alex Borowicz '14 BY ELOISE SCHULTZ '16 with your faculty and student peers. Online faculty will be teaching the Human Ecology instruction has always felt antithetical to that Core Course, in pairs, to eighty or so first- 16 Salamanders and the Snowman BY DAN MAHONEY ethos. But the faculty rose with a stoic confi- year students and providing them the tools dence: We've got this, they said. We need to, to chart their own courses for their COA 24 A Space Left to Grow: The COA Hill and will, adapt for the sake of our students. It careers. Computer scientist Dan Gatti will BY SAGE FULLER '22 won't be easy. It's not how we would prefer to be working with ecologist John Anderson 28 Alumna Profile: Helena Shilomboleni '09 teach. But we will put our collective shoulder to take a difficult, but prescient, last-minute BY ELOISE SCHULTZ '16 behind this and push hard-and what we jog through a course entitled Plagues, Panic, 30 How to Share a Harvest create is not going to look like your standard and Prevention: Natural History of Infectious BY DAN MAHONEY set of online courses, of that you can be sure. Diseases. What we're evolving toward, again using Gray's words as reference, is a kind 36 Broad Reach Copper Beech BY ROB LEVIN After a quick lunch in Take-a-Break, I was of decentralized, place-based education. off to the All College Meeting. I love ACM, I'm energized by that idea, and I believe 38 From Research to Recognition BY ARIELLE GREENBERG and I love speaking to large groups, but I'd that as everyone in our community works be lying if I said I wasn't nervous when I together to co-create Spring term 2020, we 43 Donor Profile: Kim Wentworth announced the following: "We have to get will continue to learn, synthesize, perceive, BY PRESIDENT DARRON COLLINS '92 as many of you as possible home, and we're and adapt in a way that could only be done 45 Your Exquisite Corpse is Due Today going to have to move Spring term to an at COA. BY JOSH WINER '91 online format." And, yes, there were more 50 Alumni Profile: Melissa Relyea Ossanna '91 questions than answers, and there was anx- Enjoy this edition of COA Magazine through BY ELOISE SCHULTZ '16 iety, and disappointment, and distress. But the lens of adaptation. Know that we hold all 52 there was also so much compassion. That so of you close to our hearts as you adapt in your BY DAN MAHONEY many of our students, in the midst of such own ways during these challenging times. disruption, were first and foremost focused 59 In Memoriam on the wellbeing of the COA community, Darron 62 Alumni Notes the communities of our local towns, and 68 Community Notes the global community reinforced for me just how much we at COA value each other, our 72 Crossword neighbors, and our fellow humans. 73 From the Archives BY NIMISHA BASTEDO '15 COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE 1 NEWS TRANSFORMATIONAL CAMPAIGN FOCUSES ON PEOPLE, PLACE The biggest fundraising effort in the history of the college was launched into its public phase in summer 2019 before an excited crowd at the annual Champlain Society reception. The $50 million Broad Reach Campaign for College of the Atlantic's Future endows new student scholarships, creates state-of-the-art, environmentally sustain- able academic and residential spaces, and supports COA's transition to a fossil fuel-free campus. The biggest fundraising drive in the school's history had already raised $44.4 million in gifts and pledges by spring 2020. "The overwhelming show of support and L to R: College of the Atlantic Trustee Ron Beard, Nell Newman '87, and COA enthusiasm from our community of alumni, President Darron Collins '92 at the Broad Reach campaign launch party. trustees, and friends reinforces the ongoing vitality and centrality of our mission," said the first faculty position endowed by the the college. At the heart of the campaign COA President Darron Collins '92. "At campaign, the Joanne Woodward and Paul is a $22 million project that will reimagine COA we cultivate students' passions and Newman Chair in the Performing Arts, the north end of campus, including the abilities to take on the wicked problems at named after her parents. 30,000-square-foot, high-energy-perfor- the boundary between humanity and the mance Center for Human Ecology, a new environment, and if ever there was a need "Your investment in the future of this art gallery and experimental theater, and for a College of the Atlantic in this world, college is an investment in humanity and a new welcome center for college admis- it's right now." the planet that sustains us all," Newman sions, which will act as an intentional said. "front door" for the college. COA alumna Nell Newman '87, the founder of Newman's Own Organics, The Broad Reach Campaign developed For more information, visit coa.edu/ joined the Broad Reach Campaign launch out of a strategic planning process which broadreach reception to announce the creation of drew from stakeholders across all areas of Left: Taking a virtual tour of the Center for Human Ecology. Right: Nell Newman '87. 2 COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE STUDENT HELPS PLOT MAINE'S CLIMATE COURSE council includes leaders from the political, Wright has been busy with climate justice CLIMATE education, conservation, government, and work while at COA. She has led climate TRIKE business sectors, among others. strikes and rallies, traveled to Katowice, STRTKE Poland as a delegate to the twenty-forth The group's first meeting in fall 2019 Conference of the Parties to the United coincided with the global Climate Action Nations Framework Convention on Week and the United Nations' Climate Climate Change (where she worked with Action Summit. At their second meeting young Swedish climate activist Greta in early 2020, Wright was given a featured Thunberg), helped form the Maine Youth speaker spot, which led to a standing for Climate Justice group, and is a leading Ania Wright '20 speaks at a climate strike ovation in a packed room at the Augusta member of COA climate justice group organized by students from College of the Civic Center. Earth in Brackets. Atlantic and Mount Desert Island High School. College of the Atlantic student Ania "It may feel like a drop in the bucket, Wright said she was inspired to work Wright '20 is making use of her academic but Maine has the opportunity to set an locally after her trip to the UN Climate work in climate justice as the formal example for the US and the world. We are Change Conference in Poland. Youth Representative appointee to Maine in a unique situation where we have the Governor Janet Mills' new, thirty-nine- will and resources to create an equitable "The place we can have the most impact, member Maine Climate Council. and just climate plan for the state," Wright right now, is on the local and regional said. "There is room for the climate council level," Wright said. "The international Convened to advise the Governor on to grow, by establishing bolder goals and space isn't enough; we need to work. Time strategies to meet the state's ambitious encouraging diversity, equity, and inclu- is running out." goals on renewable energy generation and sion in its plan, but I am excited to be a part reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, the of a process that has so much potential." NEW ARTIST RESIDENCY BLOOMS An artist residency program has been created by COA and the Marion Boulton 'Kippy' Stroud Foundation, in collabo- ration with The Fabric Workshop and Museum, the aim of which is continuing Stroud's legacy of contributing to the exploration of the arts on Mount Desert Island. Stroud was the founder of the Acadia Summer Arts Program, also known as Kamp Kippy, which hosted hundreds of artists and their guests and Stills from In the Body of the Sturgeon, 2017, by Mary Reid Kelley and Patrick Kelley. families over its nearly three-decade run. The first artists to visit COA as part of Museum of Art, The High Line, Kuns- The Kelleys held a Human Ecology Forum the College of the Atlantic Kippy Stroud thalle Bremen, the Hammer Museum, the while they were on campus, filling the Artist-in-Residence Program spent a ICA Boston, and SITE Santa Fe. Thomas S. Gates, Jr. Community Center month on campus at the beginning of Fall with students, faculty, staff, and friends of term, winning over hearts and minds with "Mary and Patrick's work is extraordinary. the college for a screening of their video their incredible creativity, brilliant social To a certain extent, visually eccentric, and piece, In the Body of the Sturgeon (2017), commentary, and friendly nature. narratively poetic-it is very different from which premiered at Tate Liverpool. For work shown here before," said professor the month of September, the pair occupied Mary Reid Kelley and Patrick Kelley Catherine Clinger, the Allan Stone the Ethel H. Blum Gallery with the tools combine painting, performance, and a Chair in the Visual Arts. "Their resi- and activities of their art making, working distinctive wordplay-rich poetry in their dency provided a rare opportunity for our on ideas for future work, and spending polemical, graphically stylized videos. students to engage with two artists with a time with students. Their work has been shown in solo exhi- world-renowned practice and to view some bitions at Tate Liverpool, the Baltimore of their remarkable work." COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE 3 CHAMPLAIN INSTITUTE CONTINUES TO GROW to SXSW Film Festival co-founder Nancy and many other critical issues. The event Shafer, Brooklyn Museum curator Ashley is free and open to all, with registration James, and New York Times food editor beginning in May. Sam Sifton took a close look at times in our history to see how art has shaped For more about the Champlain Institute the conversation around critical issues of visit coa.edu/champlaininstitute. the day-and how today's culture wars are being fought on canvases, on the big A Note on Summer Events screen, and in the pages of novels. College of the Atlantic is closely moni- toring the COVID-19 outbreak and US All institute presentations were held in a Centers for Disease Control recommen- spacious tent on the seaside lawn of the dations on large gatherings. We have Art historian John Wildmerding signs books Kathryn W. Davis Center for Interna- an amazing slate of thought-provoking after a talk at the 2019 Champlain Institute. tional and Regional Studies, providing lectures, conversations, film screenings, plentiful space for every event and cool and other events planned for this summer The third-annual College of the Atlantic ocean breezes. Book signings and cocktail and maintain hope that we will all be able Champlain Institute drew a record crowd receptions were also held in the Davis to gather safely on Mount Desert Island of over 600 registrants for five days of Center and on the porch of the early twen- in a few months. Although there are no talks, screenings, receptions, and book tieth century structure. immediate plans to postpone or cancel the signings during summer 2019. Champlain Institute, Coffee and Conver- For the 2020 Champlain Institute, July sation, or any of our other summer events, Art: Dissent and Diplomacy brought a 27-July 31, guests will take on the topic of we are actively making contingency plans diverse group of experts to campus to November 3-What's at Stake?, exploring to offer our lectures and Champlain Insti- examine how art, creativity, and even food the issues at the heart of the presidential tute sessions via livestream should that influence society and political systems. election including immigration, the second be necessary. We will communicate any Guests ranging from author Imbolo Mbue amendment, SCOTUS, the environment, changes to the events on the COA website election integrity, the state of democracy, and via email. HOMESTEADING including a field trip to the homestead of little as possible, taking into consideration Devina Viswanathan '16 and Jacob War- that no person, homesteader or otherwise, tell '12, featuring their straw bale house, can live without altering the landscape in hand-dug well, raised-bed gardens, and some capacity." lots of paths through their beautiful woods. Jesse Snider '21, another student in the class, said that he "was struck by the The course examined the practice of self-assuredness of the homesteaders we homesteading from a variety of angles. visited. Perhaps this comes from realizing From a food systems perspective, home- the 'dream' of living exactly how you want steading represents a means of divesting to live. As someone who is fairly fearful At Jacob and Divina's homestead. from the global food system through the of failure, listening to homesteaders talk practice of subsistence agriculture and about the trial and error learning processes During the Fall term, professors Kourtney food preservation. From an anthropolog- they went through helped me realize that Collum, the Partridge Chair in Food and ical perspective, homesteading raises in- 'failure' is really just experiential learning." Sustainable Agriculture Systems, and Da- teresting questions about why some indi- vis Taylor, the Cody van Heerden Chair viduals eschew conventional lifestyles and An immersive, dynamic, experiential class in Economics and Quantitative Social Sci- seek significant degrees of self-sufficiency, that leads from failure to a bevy of other ences, team taught a new course, Home- intentional living, and commitments to questions and possibilities? That is right in steading: Theory and Practice. The course ex- non-commodified production. According line with the ethos of College of the At- amined homesteading as an economic and to Veronica Nehasil '21, "the wish, among lantic. cultural practice, and used Maine, a center many homesteaders we read about, and all for homesteading activity in the United of the homesteaders we visited over the last Taylor and Collum plan to offer the course States, as an ideal jumping off point. The ten weeks, is to live in a way that impacts again in 2022. course had a significant field component, the environment, specifically their land, as 4 COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE NEW TRUSTEES College of the Atlantic College of the Atlantic is pleased to announce the appointment of two new members to our board of trustees. Cookie Horner, of Mount Desert, and Claudia Turnbull, of New York and Bar Harbor, bring a wealth of essential skills, vitality, and experi- ence to the COA board. "On behalf of all our trustee colleagues, I offer my hearty con- gratulations and a very warm welcome to Cookie and Claudia," chairman Philip Moriarty said. "The COA board is an incredi- bly generous, engaged, and dedicated group, and I can think of no two people to bring aboard to help make that even more so." NINA (COOKIE) HORNER Originally from Philadelphia, Cookie Horner summered as a young girl with her Guggenheim Museum Associate Curator Ashley James, left, family on Mount Desert Island, eventually speaks with Africa Pop Studio Curator Hannah Traore during the 2019 Champlain Institute. moving to Maine in 1972 and to the MDI area in 1975. She worked at the MDI Hos- pital in labor and delivery for sixteen years and as school nurse at Mount Desert Island High School for seventeen years. Since retiring, Horner volunteers for Hospice Volunteers of Hancock County and leads their Evensong Hospice Singers. She also has served on the boards of the Abbe Museum and Friends of Acadia, worked on the volunteer trail crew in the park, and co-chaired the year-long Acadia Centennial Cele- bration with Jack Russell in 2016. A registered Maine Guide, Horner is an avid outdoorswoman, fly fisherman, and hiker. For her 50th birthday, she through-hiked the Maine Appa- lachian Trail. Horner has six children and eleven grandchildren with her husband, Dr. Bill Horner. Their daughter, Jennifer Judd-Mc- Gee, attended COA ('92). Horner received an AAS from Bennett Junior College and a nursing diploma from Chestnut Hill Hospital School of Nursing at the University of Penn- sylvania. CLAUDIA TURNBULL Claudia Turnbull began teaching meditation in 1974 and now works at the Johns Hop- The COA Homesteading Thoery and Practice class. Front row, L to R: Adele kins Center for Psychedelic and Conscious- Wise '21, Indigo Woods '21, Zeya Lorio '22, Natasha Diamondstone-Kohout '22, ness Research, investigating the results of Rose Jackson '20. Back row, L to R: Kourtney Collum, Rebekah Heikkila '20, Veronica Nehasil '21, Pepin Mittelhauser '20, Davis Taylor, Regan Greer '22, psilocybin experiences had by religious pro- Jesse Snider '21. Selfie photographer: Leta Diethelm '20. fessionals and long term meditators. She is a member of The Heffter Institute Board of Trustees and has been a member of the Goddard College Board of Trustees. Turnbull has been happily married for forty-one years and has raised two children, a forty-year-old son and a thirty-seven- year-old daughter. She is an avid organic gardener and a capa- ble and enthusiastic cruising sailor in the family's classic wood sailboats. She holds a master of arts degree in consciousness studies from Goddard College. COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE 5 Coda by RICH BORDEN This piece is the closing epilogue-Coda-from my book Ecology and Experience: Reflections from a Human Ecological Perspective. It has a few ties to the preceding R ichard J. Borden's biography is chapters of the book, but also offers a pretty good stand- impressive. He holds the Rachel alone reflection of my thinking. Carson Chair in Human Ecology and teaches psychology, community plan- ning, and the history and philosophy of human ecology. Borden served as COA's academic dean for twenty years. He is past The best thing about the future is president and former executive director of that it comes one day at a time. the Society for Human Ecology, as well as a founding member of the human ecology Abraham Lincoln section of the Ecological Society of Amer- ica. He has authored, co-authored and edited several books, and published more Only that day dawns to which we are awake. than seventy research reports, journal ar- Henry David Thoreau ticles, and essays. But this is only a partial biography of Borden; a fuller biography would include his love of cooking and old- am sitting in one of my favorite spots, on the north- time fiddling, walking in Acadia, and his ern end of Eagle Lake in Acadia National Park, a love for sharing with students everything mile or so from our house. It is a brilliant mid-winter he loves. Borden has been the rock-steady afternoon. The sunshine of a January thaw warms the heartbeat of COA for over thirty years and day with a misleading hint of spring. The ice around will teach his last class, Human Relations, the lakeshore has opened in a band of sparkling water. during the 2020 Spring term. We thank For the moment at least, the gap is too wide to reach the colorful ice shacks where local residents huddle him for his years of dedicated service. over narrow holes, waiting for trout and landlocked salmon to trip their baited lines. A faint smell of detri- tus from last summer's ferns and leaves rises through a patch of bare ground in the melting snow. If I sit qui- etly, the sound of winter wildlife filters from the trees. A chorus of chirps and trills from chickadees, juncos, and grosbeaks fills the air. Further off in the distance I hear a raven's croak, the chatter of a red squirrel, and the drumming of a pileated woodpecker. The night- time tracks of snowshoe hare, white tail deer, and coy- otes crisscross through the snow and trees beyond the water's edge. * A coda in musical terminology is a brief look back and closing repetition of a composition's main themes. In this case, it is also an opportunity to step back from the complexity of life and recount the splendor of its unity. 6 COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE Things will stay this way in the weeks and months Following defeat of the French at Quebec in 1759, ahead, until late April when the ice is out. Spring in the Acadia region was finally open for British settlers. Maine comes in fits and starts. Yet each day brings Abraham Somes, James Richardson and their families something new. As the ground thaws tree buds start founded the first permanent European settlement in to swell. Clusters of arbutus and shadbush flowers 1761-at the urging and offer of free land from Sir erupt throughout the woods. Horsetails and pussy Francis Bernard, governor of the Massachusetts Bay willows push their way into the warm sunshine. The Colony. The village of Somesville was established at fiddleheads of ancient ferns unfurl, as if to greet their the northern tip of Somes Sound. The sound's five- primeval dragonfly and water strider cousins. Loons mile long arm of sea divides the island into eastern begin their mating season on fresh water and join re- and western lobes. turning grebes, mergansers, and ducks. The trees be- gin to leaf-every day in different shades of green. The long migration of warblers from Central and South IF I SIT QUIETLY, THE SOUND OF WINTER America and the evening uproar of tree frogs affirm the coming summer. WILDLIFE FILTERS FROM THE TREES. A The granite bowl surrounding the lake is a time- CHORUS OF CHIRPS AND TRILLS FROM less vista of trees and sky. To the south lies Pemetic Mountain. On my right is the eastern slope of Sar- CHICKADEES, JUNCOS, AND GROSBEAKS gent Mountain; to the left, the west face of Cadillac. These are the prominent landscape features that drew FILLS THE AIR. FURTHER OFF IN THE Samuel de Champlain to land on these shores in Sep- tember of 1604. Champlain named the island Isle des DISTANCE I HEAR A RAVEN'S CROAK, THE Monts-Deserts for its barren mountain peaks. He also laid claim to it-along with much of the North Atlan- CHATTER OF A RED SQUIRREL, AND THE tic coast-as New France. DRUMMING OF A PILEATED WOODPECKER. Nine years later, at the invitation of the local Penob- scot chief Asticou, a small group of French missionar- After American independence in 1776, new commu- ies was welcomed and aided in starting a colony. The nities sprang up in other sheltered harbors around the cultural history of the island dates back 6,000 years island. Final determination of the border between as a summer encampment for Native Americans. The the United States and maritime Canada, along the rich natural resources of berries, game animals, finfish, St. Croix River, however, would not be resolved until and shellfish were sun-dried or smoked to sustain the 1783. When Maine separated from Massachusetts in long winter months in their mainland communities. 1820, as the twenty-third US state, the island's pop- The new French settlement of Saint Saveur is widely ulation had grown to a thousand inhabitants. Princi- thought to have been located on the island's southern pal occupations were farming, lumbering, fishing, and shore, known today as Fernald Point, at the mouth of shipbuilding, which were often combined in the annu- Somes Sound. The mission's leader was Pierre Biard, al activities of residents. a Jesuit priest and former professor of theology at the University of Lyons. The settlers erected a fort, plant- One of the first summer visitors to Mount Desert Is- ed crops and set about baptizing the natives. Their ini- land was Thomas Cole, founder of the Hudson River tiative was cut short, however, when Captain Samuel School of landscape painting. Cole's trip was in 1844. Abigail from the British colony of Virginia arrived on He boarded at the Schooner Head farm of William his ship Treasurer. Abigail and his crew plundered the and Crosha Lynam. Captivated by the island's beauty, settlement, killed several inhabitants, and took the he returned several more times with other artists, in- remaining men, including Biard, as prisoners. The cluding Fitz Hugh Lane, William Hart, and Frederic boundary dispute between British New England and Church. It was Church who named Eagle Lake, where French Acadia remained a heated one for the next 150 I am now sitting, in a glorious oil painting from atop years. No other European colonies were attempted on Cadillac Mountain. The stunning portrayals by the Mount Desert Island during that time. The sole ex- Hudson River artists captured the interest of wealthy ception came in the summer of 1688, when Antoine collectors in Philadelphia, Boston, and New York. On de la Mothe Cadillac and his bride resided here brief- Church's fourth trip to the island, in the summer of ly to explore his land grant of MDI and surrounding 1855, he brought along a party of twenty-six people. coastal areas. But Cadillac soon moved westward to This pattern continued as other "rusticators" from found the city of Detroit and later serve as governor of eastern cities followed and found accommodations in French Louisiana. the households of local residents. As the influx of visi- COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE 7 tors grew, a new era of larger and progressively fancier friends foresaw an opportunity to join the new park hotels began. system. Dorr pushed untiringly to achieve the goal. On February 26, 1919, President Wilson signed the The island's gilded age was severely threatened in Au- legislation for Lafayette National Park. It was the first gust 1873 by an outbreak of typhoid and a few weeks national park east of the Mississippi, and the only later by scarlet fever. Several hotels were forced to one created entirely by gift of lands. The name was close. Tourists fled the town. The problem was traced changed to Acadia in 1929. to septic infiltration into wells caused by rapid over- building. National news of the outbreaks spread. The park continued to grow. More than 11,000 acres Newspaper articles warned that the island's name, were added through the generosity of John D. Rocke- Mount Desert, might be its fateful prophecy. Without feller Jr. Between 1913 and 1940, Rockefeller created the earnest action of residents and hotel owners, it may fifty-seven miles of graveled carriage roads that mean- have come true. The proposed solution was to build a der through the forest, around lakes, and over sixteen system of aqueducts and pipelines to connect the wa- beautifully designed granite bridges. It is ironic, per- ters of Eagle Lake and the town. Construction began haps, that a family that made its wealth in oil would the following May at a frantic pace. By July a newly go to such lengths to preserve a horse-drawn tradition. laid system was providing safe water to the hotels and The beauty of "Rockefeller's roads" became an unri- dwellings of Bar Harbor. With the help of well-placed valed refuge for summer hikers, horseback riders and newspaper articles and publicity, disaster was averted. open carriages-as well as a spectacular winter net- The resort reopened to a successful 1874 season. work of peaceful ski trails. By 1880 Bar Harbor had thirty hotels. Tourism be- The Great Depression and World War II put a damp- came its major industry. Rodick House, in the center er on MDI's opulent lifestyles. The devastating fire of of town, was the nation's largest summer hotel of the 1947 delivered the coup de grace. The blaze consumed time-with 400 rooms and a dining hall that served 17,000 acres, nearly half of it parkland. Five major ho- 1000 guests. The island's emergence as a leading resort tels, sixty-seven palatial summer estates and 200 year- attracted the wealthiest and most prominent Ameri- round homes were destroyed. The natural beauty of cans. Many of them, including the Rockefeller, Van- Bar Harbor that had drawn people from all over the derbilt, Ford, Astor, Carnegie, and Pulitzer families, world was erased. Most of the lavish estates destroyed began to build "cottages" of their own. Despite the by the fire were not rebuilt. Many others were aban- unpretentious name, they were actually magnificent doned and fell into disrepair. The town struggled to mansions with as many as fifty rooms. rebuild in the charred and barren landscape left be- hind in the fire's wake. Without the summer allure, on which it financially depended, the is- land's future was bleak. EVERY PLACE HOLDS A STORY OF NATURAL, CULTURAL, As the natural ecology recovered, a new AND PERSONAL ECOLOGY FROM WHICH TO BEGIN. MY legion of summer visitors gradually ar- rived. But the permanent and summer YEARS OF CONTEMPLATION ALONG THE TRAILS OF residents who had not abandoned the island wanted a more balanced econo- THIS ISLAND ARE MERELY A CONTINUATION OF SELF- my. The notion of a college seemed an ideal counterpart to the seasonal cycle TAUGHT LESSONS AND PRACTICES OF CHILDHOOD. of tourism. Leslie Brewer, a Bar Harbor businessman, and Fr. James Gower, par- ish priest of the town's Catholic Church, Amid this rapid development, a group of prominent led the initiative. Brewer and Gower were childhood summer residents initiated a movement to protect sig- friends. They graduated from Bar Harbor High School nificant portions of the island. Under leadership from in 1940 at the top of their class and were co-captains of Harvard College's President Charles W. Eliot, they the football team. After college and service in WWII, set out to establish a nature reserve for future genera- both men returned to their home. They knew many tions. George B. Dorr, also a Boston summer resident of the academic and affluent summer residents who and friend of Eliot, accepted the task of directing the might offer assistance to recreate the town's future. effort. With help from George Vanderbilt and other supporters, the acquisition of mountain tops, wood- College of the Atlantic was chartered in 1969 and lands and other spectacular and fragile land parcels opened for classes in 1972. Its educational focus of began in 1901. When Congress established the Na- human ecology-the interdisciplinary study of the re- tional Park Service in August 1916, Dorr and his lations of humans and the environment-is credited 8 COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE to James Gower. The idea of human ecology is what edly arrested, however, when high above in the clear brought me here. It has shaped my life ever since. Fr. blue sky my eye catches the silvery reflection of an air- Jim died while I was working on this final chapter. The plane. Before it slips past the crest of Cadillac another opportunity to write a tribute to his life was given to takes its place. The line of jets crisscrossing the Atlan- me. He is very much on my mind as I sit here looking tic is ceaseless. I am not alone. A continuous stream out across Eagle Lake. The foregoing island-in-time of humanity passes overhead, thousands every hour, portrait is entwined by these feelings. So are many day and night. The wooly contrail of each aircraft is a themes from the preceding pages-of space and time, telltale warning of atmospheric residue. I am remind- death and life, ecology, imagination, beauty and love. ed of other human impacts on the air and environ- ment. Some are the sulfurous byproducts of inland Back in the middle of the book, we equated the bio- coal-fueled power plants and industry, blown down- rhythm of a heartbeat to Earth's yearly revolution wind across New England. Others come in the form around the sun. I would like to revisit the analogy. of nitrate compounds released by petroleum usage. At Instead of heartbeats-to-years, the algorithm will use one point, in the summer of 1984, the acid level of fog the second hand of my watch-the ratio being roughly measured in Acadia National Park reached a pH value the same. A minute of time through this lens corre- equivalent to commercial vinegar. Things have im- sponds to sixty years. Adding a few more seconds cov- proved since the 1990 amendments to the Clean Air ers the duration of my life. It also frames the landscape Act, but chronically high levels of acidity still remain surrounding me. Evidence of the '47 fire that roared in the island's air and water. across the island clearly remains. Off to my right a few acres of old forest were somehow spared, as the blaze Two hundred years ago a galloping horse was the fast- swept down the entire western shore of the lake. Only est form of communication. Today we travel near the half the shoreline on the other side burned, when the speed of sound and communicate with the speed of October winds shifted and pushed the inferno over light. These changes have happened with astonishing Cadillac Mountain and down onto Bar Harbor. The rapidity. They are accompanied by an equally amazing fire line defines two unmistakable patterns of forest degree of unconsciousness, not only of society's ener- ecology. The arching hemlock and white pine, with gy dependence-but also about the fossil fuels that annual rings dating back hundreds of years, stand in make it possible, and what they really are. A return to stark contrast with the other side-all of which has our wristwatch analogy, one last time, illustrates the regrown in my lifetime. We are linked in time; and I point. Petroleum (oil and natural gas) comes from tiny feel the difference. marine zooplankton and phytoplankton that died, ac- cumulated on the bottom of large bodies of water, and Three minutes, by my watch, mark Cole's first trip to became trapped beneath layers of inorganic sediment. MDI and Church's painting of this lake. Champlain's The organic material was then converted to complex landing and naming of the island come four minutes hydrocarbons by the enormous forces and heat of sed- later. I must wait at least two hours to sense the arrival imentary compression. Coal is made of much larger time of the first indigenous people half-dozen mil- non-marine organisms, primarily ferns and trees, also lennia ago-and the true origins of human ecology in laid down and compressed beneath layers of rock. Pe- this place. In another two hours, a mile-high glacier troleum and coal are hundreds of millions of years old. covers everything. Ice sculpted the island geology over Both are the residual accumulation of past life forms thousands of years-carving the central fjard, round- and solar energy that required hundreds of millions of ing mountaintops, and chiseling lakes a hundred feet years to form. To experience that range of time I must deep, like the one before me. This time tomorrow, the sit here, counting the passing seconds, for decades! sweep of my second hand will find the island still cov- ered by ice. The seconds-to-years conversion will also Worldwide, a hundred million barrels of oil and show Homo sapiens not yet out of Africa. Still thou- twenty million tons of coal are consumed every day. sands of years lie ahead before they begin the venture This gorging on the past is given little thought. The around the world. This is one of the clearest demarca- accelerating dependence on fossil fuels, like the expo- tions, perhaps, to an ecology of humans. nential growth of human population, seems to escape comprehension. We have heard these warnings for de- The solitude of this winter day is ideal for contemplat- cades. The point here, however, is not about environ- ing the synchrony of Pleistocene Africa and North mental risks; my concern is the limits of experience. It American ice sheets. In summer, millions of visitors really is difficult to bring these gaps into mind. Before come to Acadia. The carriage road and trails around throwing a birch log into our woodstove, I can count the lake swarm with hikers. Today no signs of human- its fifty-odd annual rings since the 1947 fire cleared ity can be seen. A handful of fish shacks dot the ice the landscape of my backyard. The stored energy in of one cove, but they are hidden from view behind a each layer of wood and the sunlight streaming through stand of trees. This reverie of seclusion is unexpect- the window are fairly easy to connect. The context that COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE 9 links my car key, our kitchen range, or a light switch is impulse behind questions of sustainability is growing. much less easily recounted. Yet all of these actions are Climate change and other anthropogenic issues have ecological facts of life. We live in a human ecological begun to pass the threshold of economic and political world. It stretches beyond our individual lives-much concern. further even, than our existence as a species on this planet. The act of enfolding subjective experience and exter- nal reality is deeply personal. Its representation defies Human ecology is a way of looking at the world. As abstract formulae, written words, or coded rules. Na- a philosophical perspective, it seeks an understanding ture and mind are too fleeting to be seized. A story's of how the world really is, how it was, never will be flowing stream or the timeless repose of meditation again, and how it could be. I have had the opportuni- are perhaps the closest we come. My mandala for the ty to work and live in an educational community that contemplation of life is life itself-in the ever-chang- shares these aims. These ideals are by no means limit- ing patterns of ecology. Everyone can find a private ed to higher education. IfI had my way, every school- spot to know some place this way, around the seasons child would begin their life of learning in personal and across in the depths of time. The experience of be- discoveries of their ecological context. There is noth- ing alive in this evolving world will flow from there— ing special in the brief snapshot of Downeast Maine to other places-and all events. Ownership and assets portrayed above. Every place holds a story of natural, do not measure the quality of life. Life is measured in cultural, and personal ecology from which to begin. the quality of our experience. All the world is open to My years of contemplation along the trails of this is- experience. The richness of the living world, converse- land are merely a continuation of self-taught lessons ly, may well depend on our caring enough to do so. and practices of childhood. Had schools back then offered such a curriculum, this book would have been This world by itself is a wonder. The experience of be- easier to write. It pains me to realize how little early ing here, in celebration of the whole of life, is to make education has changed in the interim. Some strides the most of it. When the time comes, as my wife Pa- have been made here and there. Yet I am often re- tricia paints it, "to go back into the soup," I am pre- minded by alumni, with high hopes of applying their pared to meet it as a homecoming. Everything else is interdisciplinary education as teachers, who discover mystery. the inflexibility of traditional structures. Irrespective of these impediments, I remain hopeful. The intuitive 10 COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE WHY I GIVE FLY BLACK SOCIETY Elena Tuhy- Walters '90 COLLEGE COLLE ATLANTIC OF THE Black Fly Monthly Giving Society THE BLACK FLY SOCIETY "I gave my first gift to COA shortly after graduation when I was the interim public affairs director. I could see from the is for everyone! inside that every contribution, no matter the size, helped the college's mission. By making a recurring donation through the Black Fly Society, I hope to allow the college to address the expenses it has every month, not just at the end of the calendar or fiscal year. COA provided a magical time in my The Black Fly Society was life and I give back to help students expand their horizons, established to make donating to provide for students' basic needs, and provide more than a living wage for faculty and staff." COA's Annual Fund easier and greener. Anyone can join this Elena Tuby-Walters went on from COA to earn a JD degree swarm of sustaining donors by from Cleveland-Marshall College of Law, and has served as as- setting up a paperless, monthly sistant prosecutor for the Columbus, Obio City Attorney's Office online gift. since July 2019. Follow the instructions at coa.edu/blackflysociety If you want to give by mail: COA Annual Fund 105 Eden Street Bar Harbor, ME 04609 (Please make checks out to College of the Atlantic) Questions? 207.801.5624 COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE 11 ARTIST'S STATEMENT: This series of erasures SONJA JOHANSON '95 is part of a found poetry project, The Po- eming, that takes place each October, in which poets reimagine horror novels. Strike Twelve such an uproar. The noise could break the face of the bronze moon the chimes questioning everything 190 erasure, Anne Rice, Taltos, pg. 190 previously published by Nightjar Review megastrobili, Eastern Redcedar, Juniperus virginiana 12 COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE These particular erasures use the Anne Rice novel Taltos as their tion. Both native plants that are threatened by habitat loss and source text. I elected to perform these erasures using plant mate- introduced plants are represented. In selecting materials for these rials as a way of celebrating and mourning our current ecological erasures, I looked for plants that were accessible in the landscape state; the breakneck speed of climate change and globalization is during the month of October, and sought diversity of form, tex- easily observed by those working in horticulture and conserva- ture, colour, and botanical structures Functional Extinction what comes naturally after someone dies the door closed the view explained How dreadful conversation the clue. we to know. , don t want erasure, Anne Rice, Taltos, pg. 230 previously published by Menacing Hedge leaf margins, American Chestnut, Castanea dentata COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE 13 ALUMNUS PROFILE From Mount Desert to the Danger Islands: Alex Borowicz '14 BY ELOISE SCHULTZ '16 S cant other visitors have come to the Danger Is- choerus grypus), Borowicz decided to dedicate his se- lands, a cluster of ice-covered rocks off the tip nior project to the species' recolonization of the area. of the Antarctic Peninsula, but Alex Borowicz "You're not doing human ecology if you have a sin- '14 is far from alone. He's surrounded by Adélie pen- gular goal," he reflects. Writing a thesis on gray seals guins (Pygoscelis adeliae): seven hundred and fifty-one led him to explore the intersections of economic and thousand, five hundred and twenty-seven pairs, to be environmental policy, and to anticipate the ways that exact. Borowicz knows because he's counted them, thinking in a singular way could lead to new problems. clicking tallywhackers in each hand while the birds "Climate change presents the biggest test of human waddle around their nests "like people going into a ecology," he says, "because you have to work at the in- rock concert." He was one of five researchers to locate terface of many systems." and document the supercolony located in the Danger Islands. In addition to ground counts, Borowicz and The Antarctic's extreme and vast landscape is one rea- his colleagues from Stony Brook University trained son that Borowicz returns there; he's also drawn by a an algorithm to determine the population's size from sense of urgency and curiosity for what's still unknown. drone imagery. By estimating the penguins' range and After finishing his PhD in ecology and evolution at abundance, the researchers hope to learn more about SUNY Stony Brook, he plans to continue working in the factors behind the colony's success. conservation while keeping one foot propped in the Antarctic. In 2020, he will return to survey Chinstrap It's far from Borowicz's first trip to the Antarctic; he's penguins (Pygoscelis antarcticus) in the South Shetland been traveling there since his last year at COA. Before Islands with a combination of ground counts and ae- then, he served as a deckhand on COA's research ves- rial mapping. Many of these areas have never been sel Osprey, which he considers one of the best prepa- surveyed before, but with the aid of drone technology, rations for the turbulent Antarctic seas. "It's hard to he'll be able to get a more precise reading than satel- learn how to run a boat well if you only ever learn lite-based estimates. Chinstraps like to nest in steep in good conditions," he jokes. While still a student, slopes and in scree, which makes them hard to distin- Borowicz worked closely with captain Toby Stephen- guish from rocky shadows. "All told," says Borowicz, son '96 to pilot Osprey to COA's research islands and "we're looking for several million penguins, but we other offshore projects. Finding connections between can't be sure exactly how many." The team's research fieldwork and courses such as Biogeography, he says, will provide insight into the environmental and cli- inspired his own research. After learning that Mount mate-linked factors driving this species' population Desert Rock was a pupping site for gray seals (Hali- decline. But first, he says, they've got to be counted. 14 COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE THE THE 2 S SALAMANDE TH Spotted salamander (Ambystoma maculatum). Photo: Steve Ressel. A rapidly changing climate means that many species will likely depend on their ability to migrate away from or adapt to increasingly less favorable climatic conditions. Professor Steve Ressel's study of spotted salamanders (Ambystoma maculatum) challenges long-standing dogma that amphibians are inherently salt intolerant. Are these salamanders adapting to or just simply tolerating their environment, and what exactly does a snowman have to do with it? 16 COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE RS AND BY DAN MAHONEY E SNOWMAN THE WAIT yellow-spotted, jet-black salamanders. This urge is what leads spotted sala- In Maine, that migration happens over manders to migrate en masse in search It is a typical April night in Bar Har- a couple of nights, usually in April. of vernal pools. bor, Maine, but professor Steve Ressel, the Kim M. Wentworth Chair in En- The spotted salamanders (Ambystoma Once the right pool is found, the con- vironmental Studies, is on edge. At any maculatum) have been waiting too. For gress of spotted salamanders will par- moment he might hightail it from the most of the year these shy amphibians warmth of his home and head into the ticipate in a nuptial dance so vigorous, conceal themselves under logs, leaves, the water around them may appear to freezing drizzle that fills the air out- rocks, or in burrows and tunnels made boil. Male spotted salamanders deposit side. He is itchy, full of excitement, by other animals. In winter, they hiber- their sperm before they even meet the waiting like a kid waits for the last day of school-he has that same fire in his nate in protected areas below the frost females. After littering the bottom of line. But when temperatures are just the vernal pool with sperm-bearing eyes. Ressel is waiting for one of the above freezing and it has rained enough capsules, they then wriggle and gyrate, most puzzling and thrilling wildlife to soak the ground, spotted salaman- nuzzling with abandon every female spectacles in New England: the emer- ders sense it is time to move, and not they contact. The females lay their eggs gence and mass migration of glistening, only time to move, but time to breed. in gelatinous masses shortly thereafter. COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE 17 ALONG WITH GNOMES AND NYMPHS, manders were considered one of the 'elemental spir- its' representing earth, water, and fire, according to SALAMANDERS WERE CONSIDERED ONE OF the system of the 16th-century alchemist Paracelsus. The shy amphibians were long thought to be born of THE 'ELEMENTAL SPIRITS' REPRESENTING fire. The idea probably arose because salamanders of- ten lived under logs and were sometimes unwittingly EARTH, WATER, AND FIRE, ACCORDING transported to home hearths. When the fireplace was lit, distressed salamanders rushed out of the blaze- TO THE SYSTEM OF THE SIXTEENTH- giving the appearance of arising from the flames." CENTURY ALCHEMIST PARACELSUS THE SPOTTED SALAMANDERS OF OTTER POINT There are vernal pools all over Mount Desert Island and in Acadia National Park. Most of them are forest- ed, full of rich dead plant material, and protected by a canopy of trees. The vernal pools at Otter Point are an exception to this. They are located on top of massive granite cliffs 150 feet above the high tide zone. The pools are exposed, mere depressions on granite rock, making them susceptible to large temperature fluctu- ations. They often have elevated salt concentrations due to sea spray blown in from storms. Many studies have shown that spotted salamanders avoid pools with increased salinity levels, so the question is why does a small group of spotted salamanders keep using the vernal pools of Otter Point to breed? This is the ques- tion that brings Ressel to the cliffs every April. In 2015, Ressel and a small group of COA students went out to Otter Point to collect some preliminary data. They noted the vernal pools were created by fresh water from the uphill forest running down the cliffs. After the spring rains, there could be up to eighteen vernal pools on Otter Point. Ressel was pretty sure the pools had little-to-no salinity in them, but a student suggested they take a measurement just to be sure. Spotted salamander. Photo: Kenyon Grant. What they found was shocking. The salinity levels in Having done their part, the adults return to their for- the pools that contained breeding adults varied from ested upland hideouts, leaving the next generation to 0.4-30 parts per thousand (ppt). For comparison, un- fend for themselves. diluted seawater is 35 ppt. They noted adults in the higher saline water were in obvious distress, flailing After the eggs hatch, spotted salamander larvae must about awkwardly at the bottom of the pool. They also grow quickly and leave the pool before it dries up for noted that some of these high-saline pools contained the remainder of the year. If they remain in the pool adults one night, but were devoid of spotted salaman- too long they will dry up as the pool dries up or they ders on another, suggesting that individuals vacated will become easy prey for birds and other predators. the pools when salinity levels became too high. For It's a complicated but fairly straightforward schedule Ressel, questions of why have developed into questions using the natural cycle of the vernal pool as an am- of how. If spotted salamanders are able to tolerate dif- phibian incubator/launch pad. The pools appear and ferent levels of salinity when breeding and developing, then disappear, like magic. then where exactly is the threshold? Are these spotted salamanders just barely getting by with the increased In fact, magic and salamanders have been intertwined salinity levels or have they actually adapted to live in for centuries. According to an article in the journal these conditions? Animals, " along with gnomes and nymphs, sala- 18 COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE Photo: Emma Ressel. According to Bruce Connery, biologist and Acadia TO HARNESS A SALAMANDER National Park's former Wildlife Program Leader, rangers have known about the spotted salamanders One of the COA students has who helped with the since the early 2000s, but no one had the time or re- study is Elizabeth Signore '19. Signore decided to fo- sources to properly study this population. Then came cus her senior project on mapping the movements of Ressel. "Steve has creatively managed to conduct the spotted salamanders during mating season on Otter study using very little funds, equipment, lab or office Point. To do this, she applied to the Federal Govern- space. Without careful consideration on Steve's part ment for a permit to conduct research in a national of the field design, specific field/lab experiments, care park. In short order, she was forced to step out of the and welfare for the animals involved in the study, and relative comfort of being an engaged student and step related considerations, any results or findings would into the territory of established researcher. For an un- be ignored or disregarded by peers and the scientific dergrad, this type of application can be a daunting community due to slipshod research methods." task. Signore completed the application and was giv- en permission to conduct her study mapping spotted Since collecting that initial data, Ressel and COA salamanders. According to Ressel, this sort of out- students have returned every April to the cliffs to of-the-classroom experience really helps fine-tune a conduct research on the spotted salamanders. Ressel young scientist's thought process. says he has been moving slowly on this study for a couple of reasons. The action takes place during the Signore applied for funding from the Maine Space Spring term, when he is teaching. He also wants to Grant Consortium in order to cover the cost of devel- have students help with the study, but because of the oping a workable harness for the salamanders. "While nature of the research, he can only use three or four I was waiting for the weather to get warm in the students at any one time. He says thus far, the extra spring, I came up with a bunch of possible harness de- hands have been great, "the students who have been signs. I couldn't test them until the salamanders came working on the study longer serve as mentors for new- out from hibernation, so I came up with about twelve er students having their first experience with this type ideas. I spent quite a bit of time in the hardware store of research." looking at plumbing supplies. I discovered I needed COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE 19 Reserva Biológica Tirimbina, Costa Rica. Photo: Steve Ressel. something that wouldn't stretch at all for the salaman- Four Foot Farm, and released back into the wild. For ders or they would be able to get it off. What finally her Otter Point study, the harnesses stayed attached ended up working, and staying on the salamanders on average between three and seven days, with a max- overnight, were little strips of self-adhesive velcro." imum of fourteen days. Signore noted that this type of Signore's harness could be affixed quickly, just behind study is the first documented attempt to test a non-in- the front legs of the spotted salamanders. Small trans- vasive external harness for salamanders. mitters were glued to the harness and then a dot of black light poster paint was applied to the harness to According to Connery, " we are learning that a pop- aid in its retrieval. ulation of species might have common characteristics and backgrounds, but what a local group or population She tested her design by holding harnessed salaman- exhibits, has adapted to, or uses to sustain its popula- ders caught at Four Foot Farm, a Bar Harbor proper- tion can be somewhat to radically different; thus the ty owned by COA alumnus and trustee Jay McNally more we learn of the variance or full breadth of a spe- '84. Signore explains that by using McNally's private cies or population's existence, the better we are able to property, she was able to work with salamanders, test understand how to manage the species/population in her harness designs, and not worry about federal per- different areas, regions, etc. Building a more thorough mits. "Jay loves offering his farm to students to con- or broad understanding is likely to help biologists, duct research, so this was perfect." After catching the scientists, and managers understand how changes or spotted salamanders, Signore attached the harnesses stresses could affect the long term viability of a local and held the salamanders overnight in a tank with or entire population of a species." This is why Ressel's vegetation similar to that of Otter Point. When the work on salamanders is not only important to Acadia harnesses were still attached twenty-four hours later, and the rocky shorelines of downeast Maine, but to all Signore realized she had a good design. The spotted of us adapting to rapidly changing environments. salamanders were then photographed, taken back to 20 COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE Ressel is not only interested in spotted salamanders on the individual? Was this a special physiological adap- MDI-he leads the charge on a long-term assessment tation? A combination of things? of amphibians in forested uplands too. COA students have been the direct beneficiaries of this research, of- Doing doctoral research in the massive diversity of the ten accompanying Ressel to these sites and assisting tropical rainforest made a huge impact on Ressel, not with data collection. And Acadia National Park's ed- only from the perspective of one who studied many of ucation program took dozens of school groups to the the species found there, but from a human ecological same amphibian-rich sites to learn a little about the point of view. "The tropical rainforest is a complicat- scientific process and identifying species. Connery ed landscape. In some ways it has an aura of, 'oh my points out that Ressel "is really a champion of teach- god, if we don't save this we are doomed Why are ing students in real world situations." we destroying it?' But these are complicated questions. Complicated because many of the people asking these questions do not live there." THE QUESTIONS In southeastern Pennsylvania, where Ressel grew up, THE TROPICAL RAINFOREST IS A COMPLICATED summers were elusive. He was never quite sure the summer had arrived until he found a box turtle in his LANDSCAPE. IN SOME WAYS IT HAS AN AURA backyard. "We'd keep animals as pets for a couple of weeks until our parents got on us about releasing them back into the woods." There would be a variety of ani- OF, OH MY GOD, IF WE DON'T SAVE THIS WE mals for Ressel and his friends to see and handle in the ARE DOOMED WHY ARE WE DESTROYING woods around his neighborhood. "We would prop a box up on a stick with a string and then put in bread to IT? BUT THESE ARE COMPLICATED QUESTIONS. lure birds It never worked but we did it every single summer because that is what you did, you were never COMPLICATED BECAUSE MANY OF THE PEOPLE inside." ASKING THESE QUESTIONS DO NOT LIVE THERE. When it came time to apply for college, Ressel sat down with his father at the kitchen table trying to pick a major. He had no idea. He went down the list and only chose "biology" because he liked being around animals. It was a question Ressel answered without much thought, but by answering the way he did, he started off a process of questions and answers that would come to define how he approached his work. For his master's degree, Ressel studied the western fence lizard (Sceloporus occidentalis) in California. He was questioning how the presence of parasites in adult blue-bellied male fence lizards affected their ability to mate. "I became a biologist that summer," Ressel notes. "I spent six months in a field station and my purpose in life was to get up and go catch lizards. As a kid, I caught lizards all the time, but this was some- thing completely different. Out in the field, I was only thinking about the lizards and about the question I was asking. It was a huge shift and pretty exciting stuff." Sweet Pea Farm, Mount Desert Island. Photo: Steve Ressel. Ressel's doctoral research found him traveling to Pan- For many years, Ressel and professor John Anderson, ama's tropical rainforest to study frogs. The question the William H. Drury, Jr. Chair in Evolution, Ecolo- he wrestled with had to do with mating calls and the gy, and Natural History, brought students to the Cos- underlying muscle physiology of a frog's throat. Why ta Rican rainforest during the two-week intersession was it some frogs were able to call and call, he won- between Winter and Spring terms. It was an incredi- dered, whereas others had weaker calls that petered ble and exhausting experience for all involved. During out after a short time? Was this a question of health of the 2019 Winter term, Ressel changed it up by con- COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE 21 ducting his entire class in Costa Rica. This gave stu- When you step into true rainforest you are stepping dents a chance to be in the rainforest environment for into this great green monotone mass where nothing is a longer period of time. Because of the sheer magni- moving. The longer you are there the more that green tude of everything that is found there, the Costa Rica mass opens up and the forest slowly reveals itself to course is just an introduction for students, and that is you." the whole point. Ressel points out, "one of the things about the tropics for first timers, is that you have this perception of once you step off the plane you're go- ing to be surrounded by a living ZOO and animals will THE SNOW MAN be everywhere That is just not what Costa Rica is. Ressel has always been fascinated by animals that are WE ARE LEARNING THAT THE POPULATION radically different than himself. "You wonder what it is like to be a turtle or a frog. And then you start to OF SPECIES MIGHT HAVE COMMON think about reptiles living in the extremes of Maine." Most every January, you can find Ressel teaching CHARACTERISTICS AND BACKGROUNDS, his Winter Ecology course to eager students ready to brave freezing temperatures to engage with Maine's BUT WHAT A LOCAL GROUP OR POPULATION arboreal landscapes. The class heads immediately off campus to North Woods Ways, the wilderness retreat EXHIBITS, HAS ADAPTED TO, OR USES of Registered Maine Guides and traditional skills teachers Garrett Conover '78 and Alexandra Conover TO SUSTAIN ITS POPULATION CAN BE Bennet '77. That first weekend is mainly about get- ting students introduced to being outside in the win- SOMEWHAT TO RADICALLY DIFFERENT ter, learning how to read the landscape, and getting practice using snowshoes. Ressel notes, "the longer we 2015 Winter Ecology class observing snowy owls on top of Sar- gent Mountain in Acadia National Park. Photo: Steve Ressel. 22 COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE Ressel and Emma Damm '22 at Otter Point, Acadia National Park. Photo: Austin Schuver '17. stay outside in winter, the more winter opens up to For the listener, who listens in the snow, us." And if I think about how "winter opens up," I am And, nothing himself, beholds reminded of what poet Wallace Stevens calls, "a mind Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is. of winter": The speaker of the poem is trying to be present in a The ,Snow Man winter day, to "have a mind of winter" so winter can -Wallace Stevens open its doors to him. But for human beings to see like the snow man, we must challenge our own assump- One must have a mind of winter tions and biases: winter wind is not cold and misera- To regard the frost and the boughs ble, we are. Winter wind is winter wind, period. Ac- Of the pine-trees crusted with snow; cording to the poet, Stevens, and the biologist, Ressel, if you open yourself to the experience of winter (or And have been cold a long time any experience) you will see, "nothing that is not there To behold the junipers shagged with ice, and the nothing that is." The process and movement The spruces rough in the distant glitter in the poem is Ressel's process, is COA's process, and, ultimately, is the process of human ecology: curiosity, Of the January sun; and not to think emersion, unfolding, connection, and then reporting Of any misery in the sound of the wind, out. In the sound of a few leaves, Thanks to Bruce Connery & Elizabeth Signore '19. Sourc- Which is the sound of the land es for this article: Nature Magazine, Animals, and The Full of the same wind Heart of New England. That is blowing in the same bare place COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE 23 The COA Hill BY SAGE FULLER 22 PHOTOS BY GALENA CONRAD '22 A Space Left to Grow THE BEST EXAMPLE OF HUMAN ECOLOGY I KNOW IS A BIG PILE OF DIRT AT THE ENTRANCE TO THE COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC. The COA hill is a temporary new addition to our campus, appearing in spring 2019. Situated on the lawn just south of the arts and scienc- es building, the hill stands around three meters tall and is covered in grasses and broadleaf plants. Students clamber up the slope to sit at the top: an ideal spot for studying, stargazing, and talking with friends. The hill was created as a byproduct of the excavation of the North Lawn to make space for COA's new Center for Human Ecology. As earth was removed, it was deposited as a heap on the playfield. At first, this hill was a naked pile of rocks, rubble, and soil. Yet by the middle of August, it had erupted with life. When students returned from summer break, they discovered a lush grassy knoll on campus. Swaths of crabgrass cov- ered the north side of the hill, while the south side was overrun with clover. Scattered across were a few bright spots of flowering yarrow, lobelia, and aster. Even on a pile of discarded earth, nature always finds a way to create life. During the Fall term, Suzanne Morse, the Elizabeth Battles Newlin Chair in Botany, taught the introductory botany course Weed Ecology. The course helped the students gain an understanding of what a weed is, through learning plant identification and natural history, while also having conversations with local caretakers of the land. Morse used the AT FIRST, THIS HILL WAS A NAKED PILE OF ROCKS, RUBBLE, AND SOIL. YET BY THE MIDDLE OF AUGUST, IT HAD ERUPTED WITH LIFE. 25 Pasture thistle growing wild. hill as an example of what can happen when a place is layer of earth for the sake of our new building, the left to its own devices. As the class soon discovered, earth is always able to heal. And weeds are its balm, the hill was a home to a variety of weed species, from the first to reach out and make it green again. They dandelion to plantain to garden yellow rocket. spring up in parking lots and wedge their way through the cracks in sidewalks and nestle in at the bases of According to Anna Davis, farm manager at COA buildings. They grow not just beside our civilization, Beech Hill Farm, "weeds are nature's way of protect- but inside it. ing itself." Although many people have a negative view of weeds, some people prefer to use the term "volun- I am enamored by weeds and their perseverance. teer plants." These volunteers are how nature fights While taking Morse's class, I became especially pas- back against disturbance. They are the natural ground sionate about the hill and decided to take it on as my cover that follows after upheaval, as seen right here on final project. In mid-September, a series of transects the hill. were established on the hill in the form of ten lengths of orange string draped over the sides. Faculty and students alike remarked on its odd appearance, but DEBRIS DOES NOT DISAPPEAR AFTER IT were all satisfied and often amused by the explanation that it was for science's sake. In mid-October to early IS REMOVED FROM A SITE. IT REMAINS November, I collected data on species richness and di- versity on the hill using these transects. I climbed up A PIECE OF OUR WORLD, A PLACE FOR and down the sides of the hill identifying plants and avoiding the wasp nest that had established itself in GROWTH AND CHANGE LIKE ALL OTHERS. the southwest side. The data points I collected help to look at the hill quantitatively, and they also establish a baseline data set for future research, depending on When humans tear up the earth in our acts of creation, how long the hill will remain. we rarely think about the process. Our eyes are set on the future: great buildings where we can live and work The most common plants on the hill by far are clo- and learn. But before there are buildings, there are pits ver and crabgrass, followed by the same turfgrass that to be dug and debris to be carried away. This debris can be found all over campus. Mixed in throughout does not disappear after it is removed from a site. It the greenery are common garden weeds like yarrow, remains a piece of our world, a place for growth and plantain, and dandelion, as well as some less abundant change like all others. species like common figwort, field sorrel, goldenrod, and hawkweed. As the Center for Human Ecology continues to form, the hill also grows. Crabgrass reaches for the sun and Also seen on the pile were more rare flowers, like gar- clover spreads across the soil. Although we tore up a den lobelia and New England aster. These brilliant- 26 COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE View of the hill from ly colored plants may not be volunteers at all; they be dealt with accordingly. But here on the hill, these the Arts & Sciences building. may have been scooped up from their old home on the weeds are greenery and beauty. Perhaps they are not North Lawn. weeds at all, or maybe we have simply been too nega- tive in our view of weeds. Creating the Center for Human Ecology required digging up part of the lawn, troubling some who con- I have seen people race to the top of the hill just to sidered it sacred space. But perhaps this sacred space stand and stare at our campus. There is a great affec- has not disappeared from campus. Perhaps it has sim- tion for the hill already, and as it continues to bloom ply moved. with life, I believe people will love it more and more. It is a space for photography and art as well as science. The importance of a place is not defined by its physi- This hill is the essence of interdisciplinarity. cality. Just because the North Lawn has changed does not mean that its beauty is gone. It is with us in every Human ecology means understanding that nature flower across campus, and especially so in the bloom- will always grow with us. Through weeds, the earth ing purple petals on the hill. reclaims its space. Plants turn a forsaken pile of dirt into a grassy hill for us to wander on. Yarrow grows Throughout Morse's class, we found it useful to un- beside rocks and rebar, and asters flower by concrete. derstand weeds through their context: certain plants Life finds a way to return. and their relationships with certain people in a certain place. In this case, we have weeds growing on a hill Acknowledgements: Thank you to Suzanne Morse for men- on a small campus of dedicated, curious students. We torship and help in the field, Daniel Gatti for help with often think of dandelion and crabgrass as invaders to data analysis, and the Weed Ecology class of fall 2019. COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE 27 ALUMNA PROFILE Scaling Climate-Smart Agricultural Innovations for Food Security: Helena Shilomboleni '09 BY ELOISE SCHULTZ '16 W hat does it mean to grow food sustainably and the global agricultural trade system was." Shilombo- equitably when most of the world's food-in- leni met cotton farmers struggling to support them- secure people are farmers? The answer, says selves and their families while competing with large- Helena Shilomboleni '09, is key to understanding the scale production from other countries and incurring challenges associated with meeting food security to- massive debt. "Trade is important," she recalls think- day. Shilomboleni works for the global partnership ing, "but not to the extent that it's damaging farmers. CGIAR's (formerly called Consultative Group on In- What kind of sustainable agricultural systems should ternational Agricultural Research) Climate Change, we be supporting to help farmers make a decent live- Agriculture and Food Security Program, where she is lihood?" part of a team doing research and working with lo- cal partners to introduce climate-smart innovations The experience led Shilomboleni to learn more about for smallholder food systems in East Africa. From ways to support sustainable and equitable food and ag- drought-resistant seeds to seasonal weather prediction, ricultural systems. After COA, she pursued a master's her research highlights locally informed best practices and then a doctorate at the University of Waterloo, for farmers to face new realities of climate change. in Ontario, Canada specializing in food security, and examined contributions from the African Green Rev- As a student at COA, Shilomboleni immersed her- olution Forum and the food sovereignty movement. self in courses on social movements and internation- Now a postdoctoral fellow and scaling specialist, Shi- al development, where she focused on the impacts of lomboleni is based in Nairobi, Kenya where she works globalization on governance. When she felt that she with partners in that country, Uganda, and Tanzania needed to pursue a deeper study, Shilomboleni says, to share knowledge on improving market access op- her professors at COA encouraged her to seek out portunities for smallholder farmers as well as address- experiential opportunities. She spent a year studying ing the obstacles faced by small- and medium-sized abroad with the International Honors Program on a enterprises that serve them, such as agro-dealers, food course called Rethinking Globalization. She traveled to processors, wholesalers, and retailers. These agribusi- Tanzania, India, New Zealand, and Mexico, meeting nesses are an important link between farmers and members of marginalized communities who have ex- markets, enabling access to improved inputs such as perienced the negative impacts of globalization. "We seeds, and better-paying buyers of their produce. In spent time in Mexico with the Zapatistas, learning addition to shedding light on the climate-related chal- about their movement against NAFTA. In Tanzania, lenges faced by Africa's smallholder farmers, she says, we spent time with the Masai, learning about the im- her research helps build solutions for sustainable ag- pact conservation has had on their livelihoods. But it riculture to contribute positively to food security and was really in India," she adds, "where I saw how unfair ecological resilience. 28 COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE NOW IN ITS THIRTEENTH YEAR, COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC'S STUDENT-RUN, SOCIAL JUSTICE-INSPIRED SHARE THE HARVEST FOOD EQUITY PROGRAM CONTINUES WHY TO INGRAIN ITSELF INTO THE FRAMEWORK OF THE MOUNT DESERT ISLAND FOOD SYSTEM. How to FOOD JUSTICE FOR ALL ON Share a Harvest MOUNT DESERT BY DAN MAHONEY ISLAND 30 COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE KESIDE Left: Share The Harvest fundraiser, 2017. Photo: Junesoo Shin ('21). Top right: Left to Right: Jenna Farineau '18, Ivy Enoch '18, Rayna Joyce '20. Photo: Aubrielle Hvolboll '20. Bottom right: Peppers from BHF Photo: Aubrielle Hvolboll '20. S hare the Harvest (STH) is a collaboration between students at College of the Atlantic and farmers at COA Beech Hill Farm. Rayna Joyce '20, Ana Zabala '20, and Indigo Woods '21 are the current program coor- dinators. Throughout the year, they work to ensure the Mount Desert Island community has access to the space, knowledge, and resources it takes to sustain an equitable food system. The mission of the program is to fill critical gaps in food access on MDI, make fresh, local produce available to the whole community, and generate conversations and actions to address the root causes of food insecurity. COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE 31 SQUASH support your local THE farmer SYSTEM Top: Share the Harvest fundraiser 2019. Photo credit Darron Collins '92. Bottom: T-shirts designed by Jenna Farineau '18. Most of STH's work happens from June to November, when volunteers deliver produce boxes to housing complexes around the island and provide participants with vouchers they can use to purchase fresh food at the Beech Hill Farmstand or the Bar Harbor Farmers' Market. According to co-coordinator Joyce, "we accept applicants loosely based on the state income guidelines, but also recognize that those numbers are often arbitrary and do not account for other circumstances that are not financially based. So we operate on an honor system, trusting that because someone has reached out to us, they are otherwise unable to access or purchase local and organic foods on a consistent basis." This past season the STH program served roughly 140 households on MDI, an increase from 113 households last year. Share the Harvest is able to function due to fundraisers and generous donations from the community. For the past six years, STH has held the STH Farm Dinner at Beech Hill Farm. 32 COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE COMMONGROUND CELEBRATE ITH MOFGA LIVING COA's own Kourtney Collum & Suzanne Morse at STH fundraiser, 2017. Photo: Junesoo Shin ('21). The dinner teams STH volunteers with Havana, 1994 COA grad Michael Boland's award-winning Bar Harbor restaurant. Tickets sold online secure an individual a spot for a four-course meal sourced almost completely from COA Beech Hill and Peggy Rockefeller farms. Funds raised during this event go directly towards supporting the program's services for the following year. In addition to the the farm dinner, the past year saw a return of a student-run pop-up restaurant. STH co-coordinator Ana Zabala '20 notes, "the idea to host a pop-up restaurant is one that was passed down to us from former student coordinators. We heard stories of past pop-up restaurants: of meals prepared entirely with gleaned and donated food, and of crowded kitchens of students working together in common cause. These events created both community and financial support around the work that Share the Harvest does. We called the event Squash the System and invited the entire MDI community. It was a great time to eat together and have all sorts of engaging conversations." COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE 33 Candles, flowers, and friends. Share the Harvest, 2017. Student volunteers cooked in the new commercial kitchen at Beech Hill Farm and then served food to approximately sixty people. Students, faculty, and members of the MDI community gathered around large tables to enjoy butternut squash and celeriac soup, a salad of cabbage, beets, and carrots, and homemade assorted breads. After the meal, guests were encouraged to move to the farmhouse to enjoy apple crisp and live music. "Towards the end of the evening, as we washed dishes, we felt satisfied that the fundraiser aligned with the goals and mission of our program. We could not have done it without the help of many friends who offered their homes to us for the evening, helped us cook, baked bread, served food, washed dishes, and played music. We are thankful to be a part of this community," Woods recalls. This echoes what Lally Owen '14 had to say 34 COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE Left: Share The Harvest fundraiser, 2017. Photo: Junesoo Shin ('21). Top right: 2019, STH coordinators: Indi- go Woods '21, Rayna Joyce '20, and Ana Zabala '20. Photo by by Darron Collins '92. Bottom right: At STH din- ner, guests are served appetizers and cocktails in the shelter of the Beech Hill Farm farmstand. about the ethos of the last student initiated pop-up restaurant. "Eating not just to eat, but more consciously feeding yourself and other people. The idea of being held by something that you make, or holding other people offering nourishment in that way." Share the Harvest is a vital bridge between the COA and MDI communities. The produce deliveries, the farm stand vouchers, the education forums, the farm dinner, and the pop-up restaurant all serve as catalysts: opportunites for the community to connect over food, support each other's projects, and celebrate the life we make together. COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE 35 $10M the from largest The the single Shelby C Davis history Charitable ceremony POUR concrete The Kim M. Wentworth Chair 2019 Fund December last 2019 in The Joanne Woodward Paul Chair i A. Cox Chair in Studio Sciences in the Arts Performing The McNally McNally Fossil-fuel Chair in Human Ecology Endowed for Human Ecology Apri) donates $100 ,000 and Trust Medical Free Horizon Fund Arts Bar The Harbor Bank Alida and Bright Bankand Trust Est. Camp Fund, October The Joan and Dixon Stroud Fund Process and Gerri The The C 2018 The Rach Griffiths Chair for the Administrative Center Campus The Justine: Scholarships Est. June 2019 The Anne Franchetti Fund S. Faculty Andrew The The Cody van Heerden Chair in Economics and Quantitative Social Sciences Chairs The Roc and Helen McGreg Housing The Judith Blank and Steve Alsup Fund Larry Lutchmansing Fund ansing Fund The Helen Caldicott The The John M Waterfront director endowment the Waterfront THE Student Working on anonymous $1.25M gift six townhouse units to the north of campus CAMPAIGN Andrew and Kate Davis we Bob and Arlene Kogod participation, raising over $9M AN INFOGRAPHIC RENDERING OF THE 100% board $7.5M 2:1 challenge grant 000' 005$ sabpaid college aut to author triend Mane WIS sayem doug planned gift COPPER BEECH (FAGUS SYLVATICA) OUTSIDE THE TURRETS AT COA. A Broad Reach THE CAMPAIGN FOR COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC'S FUTURE If there is one central theme to The Broad the first to support the effort, combining Reach Campaign for College of the Atlan- forces to give a total of $9 million. This set tic's Future, it's people. People in the form in motion a tide of major gifts that would of exceptional students from forty-two total $42 million by the time the campaign states and fifty-five countries that will go was announced, and $44.4 million by the on to create businesses, energize and lead time of this writing. The gifts have includ- climate and social-justice movements, and ed a 1:2 challenge grant of $7.5 million thrive in a world where knowledge is the from Anne and Bob Bass, a $5 million gift greatest currency; people in the form of a from Bob and Arlene Kogod, a $1 million dynamic faculty dedicated to a transfor- gift from the estate of David Rockefeller, mative, interdisciplinary pedagogy where and a $10 million gift from the Shelby everything is always up for debate; people Cullom Davis Charitable Fund, led by in the form of community members of our Andrew and Kate Davis-the largest sin- small, yet global corner of Maine, who join gle gift in the history of the college. us for a wealth of cultural offerings and support our mission as a year-round eco- Speaking at a groundbreaking ceremony nomic and intellectual engine. for the Center for Human Ecology held last spring, Andrew Davis noted that his People from all facets of the COA com- family had supported COA philanthrop- munity worked in a collaborative process ically for three generations, even though to create the Broad Reach Campaign. A none of them had attended school here. six-year strategic plan completed in 2015 The reasons, he said, were nothing short identified twenty-nine priorities meant to of global, and, as people, especially youth, cultivate and build upon COA's strengths around the world wake up to the idea that and fulfill the college's most important we are facing a planetary climate emergen- needs. Two years later, this became the $50 cy, his words seem quite prescient today. million Broad Reach Campaign. Com- prised of eight key elements, including "We have made an investment in College $3.5 million to become the country's first of the Atlantic in the belief that, one day, fossil fuel-free college campus, $8 million graduates from COA will be a part of the in student scholarships, $7.5 million for solution to what ails the planet. Like the endowed faculty chairs, and $22 million philosophy that drives our business, it is for the transformation of the north end a long term investment, one in which we of campus, creating new academic spaces, have invested multiple times over mul- performance art facilities, and a welcome tiple years, and one in which we take pavilion and front door for the college. In great pride," Davis said. "COA stands in line to be completed by 2021, when COA a unique position, not suitable for all but will celebrate its fiftieth incoming class, essential for some. There are plenty of the campaign builds a thriving, energetic, excellent four year colleges in which one intellectually challenging College of the can major in anything from accounting to Atlantic well into the twenty-first century. zoology. But where do the exceptional go? Where can a student find a way to design The Broad Reach Campaign was launched an education fitted to precisely the goals publicly in July 2019, but fundraising work of that student instead of accepting a pre- has been underway since COA's trustees ordained set of requirements? If the field voted unanimously to begin the campaign is the world's environment, the answer is, in October 2017 and subsequently became right here." 37 I THINK I HAVE A LOT TO OFFER BY COMING AT THIS WORK FROM THE PERSPECTIVES OF BEING BOTH A RESEARCHER AND AN ARCHIVIST. COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE From Research to Recognition Breaking Open Gender Identity through Archival Research A cademic research can be pretty exciting, full of explora- BY ARIELLE tion, mystery, and treasure-hunting. Discovering a new GREENBERG prehistoric species. Unlocking a formula that explains a previously inexplicable economic model. Or, in the case of COA ART BY LYDIE senior Elliot Santavicca '20, mining archives to shine light on CONANT '22 the untold experiences of gender-nonconforming people of ear- lier times. The following are excerpts from a conversation with Elliot and their faculty director, Jamie McKown, the James Russell Wig- gins Chair in Government and Polity. ON THE LEADING EDGE terms of how a person might have con- sidered their gender. As one example, I ELLIOT: I always find this thing I'm do- found out about Samuel Pollard, who was ing a bit hard to describe, but basically it's born female but lived in Nevada as a man a research project that's interested in gen- and eventually went on the lecture circuit der-nonconforming individuals who lived speaking about his experiences. in the United States around the turn of the last century and who were crossing gen- JAMIE: One cool thing is that work on der lines. My primary source is newspaper this subject is coming out all the time-it's databases, with a heavy reliance on online a busy area of scholarship. Elliot, you're on sources including digitized newspaper ar- the leading edge. It's really exciting. chives and ancestry and genealogy data- bases-but I work with microfilms as well. E: At the beginning of my third year, I took a term off from school. I spent time I'm looking for anything that seems in- thinking about what I wanted to do when teresting, any stories I can find that have I started back up: I wanted to be excited something uncommon or compelling in about my independent work. I knew that COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE 39 I loved being in the library. As a kid, my The ArQuives in Toronto, and others. dream job was to be a librarian, and I have been a work-study student at the library After the residency, I talked to Jamie about the whole time I've been at COA. I was what else I could do that could incorporate also interested in queer theory, and I real- my interests in archiving and queer histo- ized that you can't do that kind of theoret- ry. We started with an independent study ical work without historical context. to look at something from the nineteenth century around gender nonconformity. As So I started paying more attention to his- I started searching, my interest centered tory, to how things such as gender identity around unraveling individuals' stories formulate and shift over time and are im- through research. That work became the pacted by other period-specific factors. I germ of my senior project, which is basi- took a couple classes about history in other cally the culmination of three terms' worth contexts with Jamie. of work. J: I teach a couple of different classes BEYOND LANGUAGE that connect politics and history within a broader context. History isn't just "here's E: One of the central struggles in doing stuff that happened in the past." It's about this work is around language. As I talk- how historic texts-essays, transcripts of ed to archivists at these places, questions speeches, newspaper articles-reflect ideas arose about how to talk about queer and and conceptualizations. Those ideas aren't trans identity within these past historical merely "historic"; we can look at how they moments. Do we use today's terminology, inform larger conversations and questions, which didn't exist then? Do we use out- such as what defines gender. moded language we consider offensive to- day? Every meeting with Jamie is a dance In my classes, we do small "recovery proj- we both do around terminology. ects"; for example, instead of assigning the same landmark speech everyone has read, I J: In many cases, there just were not have students form teams to go find mate- enough lexical possibilities available. Even rial to study. They may, for example, locate thinking about sex and gender-the way a speech that has never been properly tran- in which someone could understand their scribed before. own lived experience-the possibilities "BABE BEAN" were more limited in the historical times It's refreshing for students to go find we're focusing on. But in another way, the things. The search itself is exciting: it's possibilities were also more open. great for students to find something no one's found before, as is knowing that your E: It's problematic both around the re- work can then be used by others. I am able porting we're finding from the turn of the to teach speeches I never used to have, twentieth century as well as contemporary speeches found by students. And now in- scholarship. The media of the time is de- stitutions such as the Library of Congress scribing people living without, or outside have projects involving crowd-sourced of, identification and labels, but scholars transcriptions of things like hand-written will label them using current terms such as letters, work that would have previous- a "trans men." ly taken years to complete, or which may have never been done at all. But it's a lot more nuanced than that. We can't assign categories to these people. And Not every student loves this kind of re- in most cases, there's no way for us to ever search, but some find their passion in it, know what labels they used for themselves, as Elliot has. if any. I feel very strongly that I shouldn't slap a term on someone, a term that didn't E: While I was taking Jamie's class on exist in their time and that they might not suffrage, a librarian friend sent me a list use even if they had access to it. And as of queer archives, libraries, and museums. a scholar, when I synthesize my research, I decided to do a residency on queer ar- I don't want to stick an idea in someone chives, for which I traveled to archives in else's head about who this person was as five different cities-including the Lesbi- if it's a fact. It is unfair, unethical to make an Herstory Archive in New York, Cornell those kinds of assumptions. University's Human Sexuality Collection, 40 COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE J: What's fascinating is that because we're also didn't have to pick one: there's a weird doing the primary work ourselves-read- sense of freedom mixed in with a kind of ing through archival materials-instead of invisibility. In terms of language, I don't just going to secondary source materials, put a lot of labels on myself. If I can give we realized that some contemporary his- others that option, I can give it to myself. torians have read context that isn't there in order to draw some conclusions other than what was presented in the newspapers of QUESTIONS AROSE ABOUT HOW TO TALK ABOUT QUEER the time. AND TRANS IDENTITY WITHIN THESE PAST HISTORICAL Journalists and historical scholars often ap- propriate a person's story in a well-mean- MOMENTS. DO WE USE TODAY'S TERMINOLOGY, ing way, toward a positive, empowering goal. But it's still a kind of colonizing of WHICH DIDN'T EXIST THEN? DO WE USE OUTMODED someone else's story, and you can't trust re- ports from a newspaper to give a true sense LANGUAGE WE CONSIDER OFFENSIVE TODAY? of how someone self-identifies. On rare occasions, we find something that tells a person's story in their own voice, in frag- ments. But mostly we are committed to PUTTING TOGETHER A starting with the story as it is, as we find it, HISTORICAL PUZZLE and not overlaying too much on top of it. J: The individuals we're researching often E: These complex issues around labeling had to be transitory, especially once their and lexicon present problems at the ar- gender-nonconforming status was dis- chiving and research levels as well. For covered. So they are hard to pin down at example, at the Lesbian Herstory Archive times. The website Ancestry.com has been in Brooklyn, materials are labeled with a huge boon: it helps locate where some- outdated terminology or with terms peo- one is. And it can help triangulate where ple wouldn't be familiar with today, and someone was and when, to help us go back vice versa. For example, if, as a researcher, and forth between newspapers and map I want to look for historic materials about out a timeline. gender nonconformity, what words do I need to look for in an index? E: The biographical threads of the people I'm researching eventually just disappear: One partial solution is certainly cross-in- for most of them, we don't have a complete LYDIA LOTTA SAWYER. dexing. The Digital Transgender Archive story. Sometimes that might have been be- ALIAS HERMAN WOOD began because someone was doing their cause they were trying to disappear: they dissertation on a part of trans history and didn't want to be tracked on a census re- realized it was really hard to find things. cord. This was a few years ago when not as much was digitized, so they set up a resource so I have found some fascinating materi- other researchers could do this work more als, such as a story from 1902 about a fe- easily. The archive offers centuries of mate- male-born individual who was married to rials around trans history, and is searchable a woman. I actually discovered an article both by the original terminology of the in the New York Times about them that was day and modern terminology. I have issues in support of same-sex marriage: it posits, with the way this particular archive is set what's the issue with two women being up, but the idea is better than using only married (even though we don't know that one term or the other. both individuals identified as women)? But that particular author was taking such a I identify as trans myself, so thinking different perspective from other reports through this historical context always re- about the same story. lates back to how I think about my own J: In the majority of stories we've found, gender. Even though I can never meet the the focus has been on trans men, or wom- individuals whose stories I'm discovering, I en living as men. And they aren't stories have something in common with them. It's about threats or violence: often, as in the also been fascinating seeing these individ- case Elliot mentioned, the focus is on the uals who didn't have access to a label but issue of marriage, and the accompanying COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE 41 AMAZING DOUBLE LIFE OF GIRL WHO LIVED FOR YEARS AS A MAN anxiety about women's rights. Because of J: Digitization is what makes this all pos- the time period, there's this overtone about sible, especially when you're a student at a suffrage: "They want to vote, what's next?" small school on an island in Maine. And ,of course, this kind of project-queer ar- But as Elliot said, there's a pretty wide chiving-isn't talked about very much at range of attitudes in the media we've other institutions, nor would a student at found. You'd think, "oh, it's the Victorian another kind of college be able to shape era, everyone must have been so repressed their own path the way Elliot has. Here around gender nonconformity," but that's at COA, you can take an idea and move not necessarily at all what we saw. it through a few different formats-from residency to independent study to senior E: I'll say that I haven't come across many project, for example. This is made possi- stories of trans women: this may be due in ble by the flexibility of the curriculum, part to the use of historical terms I don't and would be impossible for undergrads at know about. Or maybe because those most other institutions. stories don't get as much attention. I E: I plan to continue this did find newspapers EVEN THOUGH I project after graduation from San Francisco and eventually turn it into a where there was a lot CAN NEVER MEET book if feasible, and I want of mention of trans to pursue archival studies in women as sex work- THE INDIVIDUALS graduate school. But right ers; that was the most now, I work for the South- common kind of sto- WHOSE STORIES west Harbor Public Library ry I saw. Unlike the on their digital archives, stories of trans men I I'M DISCOVERING, and frankly, I wouldn't be found, which focused upset to work at the South- on their professions I HAVE SOMETHING west Harbor library for ten Cora Anderson as Ralph Kerwineo. or family lives, trans more years. I've become re- women seem to have IN COMMON ally interested in local his- mostly been equated tory. I'm from Michigan, with sex work. Trans WITH THEM. but at this point, I'm pret- men are not talked ty attached to Maine. I've about in a sexual way fallen in love with the is- in the materials I've found. land and the community and I'm planning to stay around here. This is much more of a J: We typically find a lot of passing refer- home than I've ever had before. ences to someone who is "cross-dressing," who is making unconventional clothing Long-term, though, my goal is to end up choices for their gender. Many of these are working as an archivist in an LGBTQ-fo- wartime stories-women dressing as men cused institution, and to use archives to to serve in the military, or to secure a job. improve them. I think I have a lot to offer The issue is, such stories are not necessarily by coming at this work from the perspec- about how someone wants to be identified tives of being both a researcher and an ar- in terms of their gender. chivist. WHAT THE FUTURE HOLDS I'm certain that no matter what else I do, I'm going to be a researcher for the rest of E: When I started this project, I didn't my life. know how to use these kinds of resources. With Jamie's help, I learned how to do re- search, but also about how archives func- tion. And now I see history as a foundation for everything else, always. Cora Anderson in Real Life. 42 COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE L to R: Meghan, Grant, Charlotte, Kim, Finn, Mark, Frances Anne, and Katie Wentworth. Photo credit: Brian Sager. DONOR PROFILE Kim Wentworth BY PRESIDENT DARRON COLLINS '92 T here's nothing better for uplifting the spirits and tion, partially because we're New Jersey natives and engaging one's mind than a walk in Acadia with therefore have a finer, more nuanced appreciation for Kim and Finn Wentworth. They're athletic in our beloved Garden State. I was thrilled when the their approach to such a walk-physically and intel- Wentworth family and COA partnered to create the lectually. The conversation will cover everything from Kim M. Wentworth Chair in Environmental Studies, the beauty of the moss beneath your feet to the disaster and equally as excited about writing this donor profile. that is the Pacific Ocean plastic gyre. "I've been passionate about the fate of our planet since I was fortunate to meet the Wentworths during my first I was a little kid," Kim noted when I spoke with her summer back on MDI as president of COA, in August on the phone this winter. "I was always a nature girl 2011. We hit it off immediately, partially because of and found comfort being out-of-doors and quickly our shared passions for the outdoors and conserva- discovered that the very Earth itself was in peril." COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE 43 In so many ways, Kim embodies the ethos and the address those kinds of massive, complex questions, dual mission of College of the Atlantic: collectively and we know that there's no better institution to take focused on both the will to inspire a healthy, sustain- that on than COA." able environment right here on Mount Desert Island, and cultivating generations of leaders to help steward Professor Steve Ressel is the inaugural holder of the us through the most pernicious social and ecological Kim M. Wentworth Chair in Environmental Studies. concerns affecting the planet. The Wentworths are excited not just about helping with an investment, they are also excited to really get The Wentworths first came to MDI as newlyweds in to know Steve and his work better, and add to that 1984 and, after renting for years, purchased a home on work with their own talents. the beautiful Northern Neck of Long Pond in 2001. "I'll never forget the hike Finn and I took up Flying Speaking of talent: Kim is a leader in New Jersey Mountain back in 1984-I was mesmerized by the public lands management and conservation. She was view south out of Somes Sound and into the open the former chairperson of the Morris County, NJ ocean," Kim remembered. "When we had our chil- Parks Commission, managing 20,000 acres of public dren, Grant and Mark, who happened to be very tall lands within thirty-five miles from New York City, and talented swimmers, we knew we had to live near and is a trustee of the Community Foundation of New swimmable water, hence the preference for warmer Jersey. Both she and Finn have focused an incredible freshwater!" amount of time, talent, and treasure protecting the open spaces of the Garden State. Both Grant and Mark cut their teeth in the wilds of MDI-"they swam like otters," Kim told me-and Terrance Nolan, senior vice president at the Open would build on those experiences: they would both Space Institute, noted that, "Their passion for the go on to swim the English Channel. Grant swam the environment is a shared passion. They don't just waters separating Cape Cod from Nantucket while support something and walk away. They are the rare Mark beat away the sharks from a kayak. Grant has supporters who know the details of complex conser- swum the Strait of Gibraltar. Mark developed terres- vation projects and also jump in with both feet to help trial passions for farming and conservation, and is now overcome obstacles. In a word, they are selfless." a council member of the Save the Redwoods League in California. I closed our call this winter with the question, "Why COA?" "With the chair at COA, we also wanted to address the legacy issue: we, the baby boomers, didn't do enough," "COA has proven itself-you're the number one Kim told me. "We may have recognized some of the college committed to the environment in the entire problems early on, but we need to inspire and equip country," Kim said. "I think that's just the tip of the future generations to be able to improve some of the iceberg." conditions we face." Join me in thanking the Wentworth family for the "You know what it was like going to the shore in New tremendous boost they've given COA. And be ready Jersey," she recalled, "with the plastic and the debris to exercise your brain if you ever join Kim or Finn for strewn all over the place. Our investment in COA a walk in the park! is about equipping students to both understand and 44 COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE Your Exquisite Corpse is Due Today Josh Winer '91, lecturer in photography, has a unique way of introducing students to photog- raphy, collaboration, and the unexpected. The following text is pulled from the first assign- ment, and the photos are what emerged from the first day of class during the Winter term. The idea of the Exquisite Corpse originates with a drawing game, invented by the Sur- realists Yves Tanguy, Marcel Duchamp, and Andre Breton in Paris around 1925. The Surrealists were looking to create art that engaged the unconscious, often using dreams and automatic drawings as raw material. Games were seen as a way to unlock the mind, leading to new insight and inspiration. Similar to the game of Consequences, where players took turns writing lines to create an absurd story, they modified the same idea to create a drawing game. We think of this as a precursor to Mad Libs. The name is thought to have emerged from an earlier game of Consequences, where they'd inadver- tently created the sentence "The exquisite corpse will drink the new wine." We'll borrow this strategy, with a few logistical changes. Splitting up into small groups, each person will make one picture, in order, and print it out immediately. The second person will make a picture that responds to, or begins with, a part of the first picture. And so on. The finished piece will be the collective work of everyone who participated. This type of work stimulates experimentation, depends on collaboration, and elicits questions of authorship and originality. It's also totally unpredictable and typically really fun. The group will first decide the orientation of the image (horizontal or vertical) and pick ONE of the following constraints that each participant will adhere to: Photograph an object that is within reach, trying to fill the frame Photograph a subject that is predominantly one color Photograph a part of the body Photograph the sky Photograph moving water 1. Consider the orientation carefully, especially as you consider the constraint of your choosing. If your end result will be assembled from left to right, shoot your pictures in the landscape mode. If your end result will be assembled from top to bottom, shoot your pictures in the portrait mode. Horizontal images should be made from left to right and vertical images should be made from top to bottom. 2. Having picked a shape and a theme, the first person will have five minutes to make a picture and return. 3. DO NOT show your picture to your team. NO PEEKING! 4. Print the picture immediately and CUT IT IN HALF. Really. DO IT. Give the right side/bottom of the picture to the second person. They'll use this as their left/top edge, making a picture that begins at the intersection. Consider this edge part of your second picture. 5. Keep the left/top side of the first picture; we are not done with it 6. The second person will now have five minutes to make a picture and return. 7. Print it out immediately and cut it in half. Really. DO IT. Give the right hand side/bottom to the third person. 8. The third person will finish the sequence. -Josh Winer '91 Lydia Pendergast '23, Celeste Crowley '21, Jara Lastra '22 COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE 45 46 COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE Ash Welch '23, Crystal Guzman '23, Maggie Hood '22 Emma Ober '21, Xavi Stevens '20 Henry Barkey '22, Julia Houédé '23, Maya McDonald '21 COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE 47 Philéas Dazeley--Gaist '23, Kelsie Shields '21, Emmy Avery Witham '20 Hunter Bischoff '21, Patrianna Anderson '21, Lótus Carmo '22 Millie Jacoby '21, Nick Ressel '22, Liz McNally '22 48 COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE ALUMNA PROFILE The Extra Mile (or 99) Melissa Relyea Ossanna '91 BY ELOISE SCHULTZ '16 A fter finishing her first marathon, Melissa Rely- "My extended family is the running community. Run- ea Ossanna '91 was restless for the next thing. ning has become a huge part of my life. I remember When she saw that Gary Allen was organizing the moment I decided I was going to be a runner. I the Great Cranberry Island 50K, she recalls thinking, have multiple sclerosis and was at a point with that "That's just a few miles more." Then, she was invited by disease where I was feeling strong. I happened to be a friend to participate in a fifty-mile trail race in Itha- at Don's Shop and Save (now Hannaford) the day be- ca, New York, and it wasn't long before the 100-mile fore the 2011 MDI Marathon and the store was just race started looming in her mind. "It's such a bad idea, full of runners-they seemed so excited, happy, and just stupid," she jokes. "And then I signed up for one." motivated. I went back home and told my husband, 'I'm going to run the MDI Marathon.' He said, 'Okay, One hundred miles has since turned into her favor- but you don't run.' That was nine years, an appearance ite distance. "It's a challenge. And you don't know if on the Today Show, and dozens of profiles in running you'll finish or not," she says. "So many things can go magazines ago." wrong." You could say that Ossanna has adapted herself to the Ultra-distance runners must be comfortable with sol- patterns and resilient features of Mount Desert Island, itude for the tens of hours that it can take to complete living by the permacultural practices that she studied a race. Races usually start before sunrise and end in at COA. "All of things that came up were things I the small hours of the following night, and conditions hadn't thought of, and they appeared to me because I that would be bearable for marathon distance become was here," she says. "It's amazing for a small island off dangerous. "You have to anticipate yourself in the el- the coast of Maine to have these opportunities." After ements," says Ossanna. "You have to understand the graduating, Ossanna was hired by The Jackson Labo- chill of the night, and how the temperatures descend ratory and then earned her doctorate at the University as the sun goes down." From the effort, however, she of Maine. Now she works as a clinical research scien- gains the opportunity to be fully present in the entire tist for Eli Lilly. The best part? Working from home, rhythm of a day. where she can stay connected to the community and landscape she loves. Even when she's not racing, Ossanna often hits the road at the crack of dawn: "You can get eight miles in Ultrarunning has given Ossanna another way to ap- during an early morning, and see amazing views from preciate the world around her: a value, she reflects, various mountaintops." On the island, she's gotten in- that was built into the fiber of her degree in human volved with Crow Athletics, a running club that orga- ecology. "Protecting the world starts with appreciat- nizes races across Maine, and regularly trains with the ing it, and COA really teaches that appreciation from COA Black Fly Trail Running Club. many different perspectives. In today's world, we need to build a force of people who do give a damn, because we're in a fight for our lives." 50 COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE CONNERS 179M - Phone BY DAN MAHONEY In the Human Ecology Abroad in Taiwan (HEAT) program, students spend an entire term immersed in the language, culture, and history of Taiwan. The ten-week course allows students to develop Chinese language and intercultural communication skills in a vibrant, youthful, and progressive society. T eam taught by Bonnie Tai, associ- colonial history, and have interviewed art- ate dean in teaching and learning, ist-activists about what makes Taiwanese About ten years ago, Tai went to Taiwan and Suzanne Morse, the Elizabeth art political and older residents about their on sabbatical. She was studying Taiwanese Battles Newlin Chair in Botany, Human experiences during the Japanese colonial Buddhism at the time and learned that the Ecology Abroad in Taiwan (HEAT) is a period, among many other engaging top- Tzu Chi Foundation (a Buddhist human- three-course expeditionary program lo- ics. itarian organization) operated a Chinese cated entirely in Taiwan. The dual focus Language Center in their university in of HEAT, Chinese language learning and According to Tai, the birth of the HEAT Hualien. "After making some connections intercultural understanding, make this an program was a direct result of the events of there and in other parts of Taiwan, my amazing immersive opportunity for stu- September 11, 2001. "After 9/11, there was thinking about how we might incorporate dents and co-teachers alike. Students study a lot of discussion on campus about how the place and the culture into our studies Mandarin, explore local food systems, we needed to teach more courses about at COA began to evolve. I started to think and participate in intercultural education. cultures in different parts of the world. We about using Taiwan as a base for Chinese As part of the HEAT program, students were developing our academic priorities language immersion and cultural explora- complete independent studies about topics and as a group decided Asia and Africa tion." Chinese is the most spoken language of their choosing. Students have written were underrepresented in our curriculum, in the world. Chinese-speaking countries travel essays and epistolary poetry, studied so these regions were elevated to academic are increasingly important to the global beekeeping, calligraphy, Chinese painting, priority areas of study." economy, global politics, and especially 52 COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE Tain View of rice paddies and cabbage fields on the east coast of Taiwan. Photo credit Malia Demers '18. This is why intercultural education for me is SO important: we need to be able to celebrate cultural differences in societies, and the best place to start is inside the class- room. With the HEAT program and its combination of the language learning component, intercultural education, and my independent study, a documentary about rituals in Mazuism, I was able to understand the importance of intercultural education from first-hand experiences and theories we read. -Vanessa Taylor '19 Top: Dharma Drum Mountain monastery during the Chi- nese New Year. Photo credit Suzanne Morse. Middle: Bonnie Tai with Chester Hardina Blanchette '21 and Rainer Mcintosh Round '21 in Tainan. Photo credit: Suzanne Morse. Bottom: Light display during New Year's celebrations in Hualien. COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE 53 in environmental politics. She felt it was and well-supported history of ordaining HEAT made the move to Tainan because really important for students to experience women as Buddhist nuns and teachers." It the former capital city of Taiwan offered cultures and philosophies in the region as was the first country in the region to legal- additional opportunities for students to well as ways of thinking and knowing dif- ize same-sex marriage and it prides itself engage with: proximity to Dutch colonial ferent from their own. in protecting citizens' civil liberties. "Tai- and Qing dynasty-era sites, the World wan is really open to collaborations with Vegetable Center, and more experiential Taiwan is a unique place. It is often con- universities and other NGOs around the language learning opportunities. For Tai, sidered the most democratic country in world. It needs allies; collaboration for the it is important to offer students the oppor- the region; however, as of this writing, Taiwanese is a powerful form of soft di- tunity to learn a language that is not al- only fourteen other countries recognize plomacy." phabetic but rather pictographic and tonal. Taiwan's sovereignty. In deference to the "For students interested in how language People's Republic of China, Taiwan is not Two groups of COA students have tak- influences how we think and how we know recognized by the United Nations (as of en part in the HEAT program. The first the world and engage with it, learning 1971) and the United States stopped rec- cohort was based in Hualien City, Tai- Chinese gives them a whole different way ognizing it in 1979. Tai points out as an wan, during the 2017 Winter term, and to think about what it means to be human example of its leadership concerning gen- the second found their way to Tainan, and how to communicate with other hu- der equity, "Taiwan has an incredibly rich Taiwan during the 2019 Winter term. mans." Learning Chinese, I've begun to notice just how crucial spatial intelligence is to my mind, my conceptions of the world, and communication. Before the Lunar New Year break we added words like at Zài), here/there Zhèlì/ BE Nàlì), left/right ( Zuobian/ Yòubian), next to Pángbiãn), nearby GC Fùjìn), in front/behind Qiánmiàn/ É Hòumiàn), inside/outside Lìmiàn/ É Wàimiàn) above/below (Em Shàngmiàn/ TO Xiàmiàn), and middle Zhōngjiãn) to our vocabulary. An entire new cache of syn- tax ensued. I began to visualize the spaces that verbs, subjects, and nouns inhabit in a sentence. -Josie Trople '18 54 COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE I spent most of my free time in Taiwan cycling through motor chaos to get to small art galler- ies around Tainan. On these trips, I became obsessed with getting to know local artists, local art, and all the average, street-trash, ob- jecty-stuff in between. I began to draw connections between these physical things, both found and carefully constructed, as traces of the vague, politically complex no- tion of a single Taiwanese identity. -Leelou Gordon-Fox '21 Top left: Peanuts on the stalk. Photo credit Suzanne Morse. Top right: Volunteers sing and pray on the ground floor of a Tzu Chi Hos- pital. Photo credit Malia Demers '18. Bottom: Malia Demers '18 (left) and Shir Kehila '18 practice their Chinese Calligraphy. COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE 55 I enrolled in the HEAT program with the main intent of improving my Man- darin speaking, writing, and comprehension. A part of the program re- quired us to choose and research a topic that would ground our working definitions of human ecology in the new landscapes and cultures that we were being introduced to. I chose to study apiology. -Leta Diethelm '20 How can I meditate on the tension in my throat without putting it there? In meditation, there must be no pursuit of a particular sensation, likewise with the zuihitsu there must be no pursuit of particular content as one al- lows the experience to reveal itself in the experience. -Chester Hardina-Blanchette '21 Left: Leta Diethelm '20 with Mr. Bee at Dansui Farm. Photo credit Suzanne Morse. Right: Rice paddy outside of Kenting Baisha Bay. Photo credit Suzanne Morse. 56 COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE Making mushroom soup during a cooking class. Photo credit Malia Demers '18. In Taiwan, I have learned about the experiences during the Japanese occupation before World War II. After spending almost five years in Western countries, I felt at home when I arrived in Taiwan. My skin color did not stand out, I felt as if I understood the language and the culture, the personal space, humility, and the landscape-the mountains and rice fields were similar to our landscapes in Japan. I wonder to what extent the familiarity came from the influence of the Japanese occupation in Taiwan? Many elders here still speak Japanese. When I get a cup of tea at a food stand or when I am waiting for a train or a bus, many elders come to talk to me in Japanese. -Makiko Yoshida '18 COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE 57 When I first came to Taiwan, I was permeated with questions of travel. Why travel? Why teach in Taiwan? This last visit, two years after the first, we grappled with questions of narrative. What stories have been told over time? Who tells the stories? Who draws the maps? What is encoded in the character? The brush strokes? The scope is complex, layered. Taiwan is a dynamic place, shoved up from the sea along three intersecting plates. The long, sweet potato-shaped place is Formosa from a distance. Emerald green mountains, folded, reaching up to the sky and down into the turbulent sea. Waves of migration is another story, from the first peoples who both stayed and continued on to live throughout Austronesia, wayfinding with the stars. And then much later, in quick succession, the colonial waves washed over this place, Spanish, Dutch, Chinese, Japanese, English, and American. Much of this time, this distant and folded place was also conceived as the edge, the hedge for China, the middle kingdom, the center of the world. Narratives are inscribed in the words and perhaps more importantly in the characters themselves. How do these strokes inform how one describes and knows the world? How can the future be down and the past up? Is it because we are all moving to our future death, returning to the earth? Existential dread inscribed into a gesture? Or is it that when you write from top to bottom, the future flows ahead of you in black characters on red paper and the past is stamped there showing you what has passed. The reference. Painting. Writing. Be present in the moment, and in the moment, inscribe harmony. Never paint a bird alone. Completeness comes with the relationship, the tension with another. To be centered. To be at the center (#), China (Zhõngguó +) the central kingdom. What does it mean when, each time you name your language and place, you say it is the center of the world? -Suzanne Morse, the Elizabeth Battles Newlin Chair in Botany The COA cohort preparing to hike the gorge in Taroko National Park. 58 COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE IN MEMORIAM LESLIE BREWER 1922-2019 I met Les just after his eighty-fifth birth- seems to be everywhere at key junctures budgets, enrollment, or academic policy. day. It was at my first COA board meeting for the island-organizing his Beta The- It's all about the students and their work and we had been seated next to each other. ta Pi friends to help stop the 1947 fire's -what actually goes on at the college day He leaned over, introduced himself, wel- march down Cottage Street, running the to day. The presentations are consistent- comed me, and gave me a memorably firm Village Improvement Association, helping ly excellent and Les loved them, always handshake. His warmth and energy were the hospital, the YMCA, and St. Saviour's asking the students provocative questions palpable from that first meeting and we Episcopal church, which was so central to and alternatively beaming with pride and immediately became friends. But we really his life. Spearheading the creation of the shaking his head in wonderment at how got to know each other when he moved to unified MDI High School, an incredibly far COA had come since he and his Bar an assisted living facility in Portland called important and complicated and thorny Harbor High School classmate Father Jim The Cedars and I began occasionally driv- project, ten years in the making. Gower got together for that fateful coffee ing him up to Mount Desert Island. fifty-two years ago this fall. Les couldn't contain himself; he liked to There was a nice, serendipitous symmetry start things and he loved helping others. Les would often speak of his long associ- to these rides, as he had driven my Aunt When I asked him about these activities, ation with First National Bank, where he Betty to COA meetings later in her life, he said the same thing he said when people was a director from the early '60s to the and our trips quickly settled into a lively asked him about COA: "I just wanted to late '90s. He'd marvel at how the stock had rhythm of their own. When I'd arrive at do something for others." grown in value since he owned it-up over The Cedars, Les, who was very prompt, a hundredfold if you reinvested the divi- would invariably be waiting in the foyer People don't just start colleges-it's a hard dends (which of course Les did)-and he'd with his suitcase. He'd get into the front thing to do. But if there were a checklist use the analogy of a snowball growing in seat usually with some gentle teasing about for how to go about doing it, the essential size as it rolls down a hill. the state of my car's interior and a related ingredients would include: land, someone twinkle in his eye and we'd set off. to run it, and money to pay the faculty and I really like that analogy with the snowball staff. Les helped find all of these for the -in this case representing Les's life-ac- He was the original, founding board chair fledgling COA: negotiating an amazing cumulating relationships and impact and at the college and I was the new rookie deal to lease The Turrets and the surround- experiences and friendships on its journey. one, and I'd always ask his advice about ing land for $1 a year for the first three To create a large snowball you need a long particular topics and he would inevitably years, raising $65,000 from the local com- hill and really sticky snow. Les had a very give pithy, calm, incredibly wise counsel. munity through a series of teas (the COA long hill, a ninety-seven-year hill, and his I learned an enormous amount in those endowment is now over $60 million, al- unique mix of personal characteristics- conversations about business and life, and most a thousandfold larger), and somehow his patience and kindness and curiosity, his legacy and priorities, and, importantly, the convincing the former Harvard School of optimism and loyalty and warmth-meant power of kindness, and, not incidentally, Education Associate Dean Ed Kaelber to that his snow had great adhesion, translat- we also had a delightful time. become the college's first president. ing into a Cadillac Mountain-sized, a Les- sized snowball of a life-for which we can In looking at his service to the island over He loved interacting with students. His all be unbelievably grateful. the last seventy-plus years, it's almost im- favorite board meeting was the June meet- possible to overstate Les's impact on Bar ing, which consists entirely of a series of -Will Thorndike, COA Trustee Harbor and the broader MDI commu- seniors presenting their capstone projects. nity. Like the movie character Zelig, he No committee meetings or discussion of COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE 59 The first piece of mail I received upon ar- time at Moss Haven. I had to maneuver riving here, as College of the Atlantic's my truck as delicately as possible across the new president, wasn't a bill, or a change- crushed stones, knowing a small slip in the of-address memo, or some other commu- clutch would send a spray of pink granite niqué from the postal service; it was a moth buckshot through the windows and into orchid, Phalaenopsis amabilis. It was Tom's the frog pond. Tom and I would pause in welcome to me and my family; it contin- the entryway and meditate on Richard Es- ues to flower and to scent our home and to tes' print, D Train, cruising across the East multiply its spider-like roots in a desperate River from Brooklyn to downtown, silent search for its native Sumatran soils. It con- and empty. About a month after Tom's tinues to be my memory touchstone of this death, I ran across southern Manhattan, man we all loved so dearly. crossed the Brooklyn Bridge, and returned via the Manhattan Bridge. I stopped at My personal experience with Tom and what I thought was a random hole in the his philanthropy began with that orchid. fence and snapped a quick shot on my iP- THOMAS A. COX It can never represent the magnitude, the hone-it turned out to be the exact view diversity, and the outpouring of love that of Estes' D Train. Like the orchid and 1933-2019 was Tom's giving-to COA, to Friends of Plutarch's lessons, Tom's caring and pres- Acadia, to Maine Coast Heritage Trust, ence will be with us forever. The following eulogy was delivered to Mount Desert Island Hospital, and by Darron Collins at Tom Cox's me- all the other institutions he loved here on After the D Train meditation, Tom would morial service on July 12, 2019. MDI, to say nothing of what he supported hold court on his couch, he to the north, throughout the world. But I suspect there's me to the south, with Buddha watching an orchid analog between Tom and each intently just to our west. Newspaper clip- and every one of those institutions, people, pings, books, hand-written notes, yellow- and ideas. ing, typewritten pages single-spaced, fine- ly cut carrots, and cucumber sandwiches Tom's second gift to me was Plutarch's es- with no crust. These were the accouter- say, On Listening. I kind of breezed through ments of our meetings, Tom as sensei, me it when he gave it to me eight years ago, as grasshopper. Tom gave time imbued but I've read it three times prepping for with the quality and attention few oth- this talk and cannot shake one paragraph er human beings could ever muster. In a where Plutarch, speaking with his pupil world of distraction, he gave focused time. Nicander about the dance that must occur between listener and speaker, says, And after the mentorship, there was the gift of joy, the celebration of a session ...it is important (to) peel off any excess in brought to a close by a vodka martini. Let's style-we ought (not) to behave like garland be honest-it was a glass of unadulterated, weavers (who) pick blossom-laden plants, and very cold vodka. Even in his last year he plait and weave them into something pleasant would shake that vodka so hard I thought but barren, (we must) consider flowery, showy he might lose his balance. Tom enjoyed life language to be the "fodder of the drones." with the vigor of that shaken drink. His smile and laugh drifting from his deck will I'll always wonder if Tom would have linger forever in the spruce forests between thought my orchid-heavy opening para- Moss Haven and Little Long Pond. graph was too flowery. But I know now that, in gifting Plutarch, Tom gave me When we wander down to the Turrets the gift of self-reflection; it may have tak- Great Hall I will most certainly make a en eight years, but Tom, I promise it has silent toast to Tom with my glass of cold finally gotten through! I promise to be a vodka for his great philanthropy. But here, better listener and practice self-reflection. now and publicly, I'd like to toast Tom by Tom gave the gift of mentorship and, in announcing that, to honor his life, his love so doing, he gave the gift of patience, of for this island, and for his appreciation of listening, and of a promise for a refined in- beauty, College of the Atlantic is creating tellect. Mentoring sessions with Tom were the Thomas A. Cox Chair in Studio Arts. Swedish massages for the brain and facials Thank you, Tom. We miss you terribly. for the self. Cheers. And Tom gave time, such glorious time! For me and for so many of us, he gave 60 COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE One evening in the spring of 1972, as I was ty to like people who disliked each other." preparing to move to Bar Harbor to help "On the surface he was a mathematician," start a brand new college, I got a call from Rich Borden writes, "deep down he was a my dear cousin Carl Ketchum, who had healer. I don't recall him saying an unkind received his doctorate in math and phys- word." ics from MIT and was teaching at SUNY Albany. I had known him since childhood. He epitomized COA's tradition of self-sac- Our grandmothers were twins, though rifice for the good of the institution. In Carl's side of the family got the calcu- the financial crisis following the fire of lus gene. The next year we hired our first 1983, Carl left campus and took another mathematician, and Carl was the commu- job for a year in order to reduce faculty nity's choice. He taught Math, Physics, and costs in a time of need. For several years Oceanography. He taught Programming in he maintained a classic boarding house in Pascal before anyone had a computer. He Bar Harbor that was the epicenter of the had a deep knowledge and love of Planet downtown community. His roomers were CARL KETCHUM Earth (the title of one of his most popu- visiting and single faculty, students, boat lar courses); his Weather and Climate class builders, and local computer heads, and 1941-2019 anticipated our current focus. He was they closed out each workday with festive not only a passionate mathematician but communal dinners, each resident cooking deeply concerned with the art of teach- once a week. Carl disdained academic hier- ing. Janis Steele '86 writes, "He opened archy and considered his students as equals the door to the wonders of math. I finally in the learning adventure. He co-taught a broke through and grasped the structure of course with Fran Pollitt '77 when she was functions. It felt like a moment of enlight- an undergraduate. "Courage and humility enment or epiphany." Generations of COA marked his decision. He gave up control in students overcame their math phobia un- class management, while I was spreading der his guidance. my wings." Alexandra Conover Bennett '77 remembers "his remarkably fluid mind Carl learned from his colleagues and they which could ponder deeply from multiple learned from him. Dan Kane and Carl perspectives. A superb teacher and a very taught Frontiers of Physical Thinking, in- sensitive soul and friend." troducing COA to the ideas of Stephen Hawking. I co-taught a course with him In 1989, love called Carl away from COA called Creativity in Mathematics and Poet- to marry Lorraine Stratis and begin a new ry. Former president and founding faculty teaching chapter in New York City, but he member Steve Katona writes, "Carl was a never forgot his experience at COA. Lor- wonderful colleague, sincerely committed raine writes, "his early years at COA were to the college's mission and deeply engaged so important and meaningful to him. He in helping us explore ways to teach it and cared very much about interacting with his act it, discussions that took countless hours students. He wanted to make a difference during the college's early years." in their lives." Laura, his daughter, recalls, "he really loved finding a student who in- Carl was as deeply invested in colle- tensely disliked math and showing them gial morale and rapport as he was in his new ways to think about it." teaching. He loved working at COA and his excitement was infectious among fac- Almost fifty years after that first phone ulty and staff. Marie Stivers recalls him call, in the spring of 2019 when I was as "sooo handsome, with a great smile teaching the COA history class, Carl was and always enthusiastic." When faculty scheduled to appear as one of our featured growled at each other he would organize guests. But that was not to be. He died on an encounter group. As long-term Person- March 17, just before the term started, and nel Committee chair, he restructured the we dedicated that class to him. Carl's self- faculty contract and salary system on the less energy and vision in the college's in- principles of human ecology. He served as fancy are among the reasons COA is what informal ombudsman for a humane work- it is today. We miss him greatly. place and equitable compensation. Former professor Don Cass recalls "his ability to -Bill Carpenter, disagree without criticizing, and his abili- COA founding faculty member COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE 61 From left to right: George Sharrard, Dominique Walk '09, Linda Mejia Black '09, Sarah Keebler '08, Laura Howes '09, ALUMNI NOTES Dan Noonan, Sarah Jackson '09, Michelle Schatz (Allied Whale alum '07), and Sam LeHardy. Alumni featured heavily in Bill Carpenter's Big Bang class in the 2019 Spring term. His last class at COA, it focused on COA's founding and early years. In 1975 addition to founding faculty, trustees, and staff, alumni visitors include: After a career in reporting, communica- tions and media, CHRISTINE PALM ran Jill Tabbutt ('71) Andrea Lepcio '79 for State Representative in her home state Bill Ginn '74 Chellie Pingree '79 of Connecticut. She serves the Connecti- Cathy Johnson '74 Barb Sassaman '79 cut River towns of Chester, Deep River, Barbara Dole '76 Steve Demers '80 Essex, and Haddam, and her main focus is Craig Kesselheim '76 Matt Gerald '83 on the environment (along with protecting John March '76 Jay McNally '84 women's reproductive rights and promot- Alexandra Conover Bennett '77 Scott Swann '86 ing gun safety). Last year she introduced Phil Kunhardt '77 Barbara Meyers '89 a bill to mandate the teaching of climate Fran Pollitt '77 Christie Anastasia '92 change in all public schools; it passed the Jim Frick '78 Darron Collins '92 House but was not called in the Senate. Jonathan and Nina Gormley '78 Pam Parvin '93 She is reintroducing it this coming session Cathy Ramsdell '78 Michael Boland '94 with the hopes it passes both chambers and is signed into law. 62 COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE 1978 in his school either decamped to nearby JACKSON GILLMAN has continued Massachusetts (where the clock is ticking) to perform solo as the Stand-Up Cha- or are homeschooling. meleon for forty-plus years. He broke his thirty-year hiatus from group theater this year. He developed yet another dialect for the lead in Be My Baby as an irascible 1984 Scotsman. Then he got "scrooged" to play 2019 was a year of learning for ANNA Ebenezeer, the great-great-great grandfa- HURWITZ. In June, she received her ther of Emmalina Scrooge in an updated masters of information and library science sequel of that holiday classic, at the Mari- from the University of Washington's iS- on Art Center. He started playing the re- chool where she focused on archives and al-life role of professor a couple years ago, special collections. In July, she went on a teaching Wide World of Story each January genealogical expedition with her family to for Colby College's Jan Plan. And he con- Lithuania; guided by local archivists and tinues his favorite role as father to son and historians, she believes they found the very daughter who are still teenagers, but not house her paternal grandmother lived in for long! Jacksongillman.com before she fled Vilnius just ahead of the Holocaust. It was a surreal and very im- pactful trip, especially given what is hap- ELIZABETH TOVA BAILEY'S film, pening in the world today. In September, based on her book, The Sound of a Wild she started a full time job as a contract Snail Eating, was a 2019 finalist for the assistant archivist at the Gates Archive in Jackson Wild Best Education/Institution- Seattle where she's been able to put theory al Film. into practice and hone her skills. If you're ever in Seattle, please get in touch! 1980 CYNTHIA JORDAN FISHER has lived 1987 in Charlottesville for the past twenty-six In November 2019, NELL NEWMAN was years, working with families and children, inducted into the Connecticut Women's birth to three years, through her small Hall of Fame. business (babiesbytheblueridge.com). She recently took her postpartum doula expe- rience and training and used it to begin a nonprofit which is budding and growing 1991 in great ways these days (nearbybaby.org). MELISSA RELYEA OSSANNA has MAINE Cynthia and her colleague are offering taken her hobby of running to an extreme. training to women who then provide peer- In addition to working full time as a clin- based doula support, regardless of income, ical research scientist in breast oncology, to families once home with their newborn. she logs many miles on MDI, as well as in The doulas are, in many ways, providing locations around the country for very long the villages that many of these marginal- races. Last year she attempted the Grand ized families have left, in Honduras, Af- Slam of Ultrarunning, four historic 100- ghanistan, Mexico, Venezuela, and more. mile races in one summer, but the altitude at Leadville, CO inhibited her from fin- ishing all four races. For 2020, she decid- 1982 ed to try for three 200 mile races in three months; those races start in August. Me- STU DICKEY SUMMER is on sabbat- lissa has found that the challenge of run- ical this year and is spending much time ning 100 miles and further brings rewards researching the adverse effects of various that just cannot be found in "regular" life. vaccinations. New York State elimi- It's even more magical since Melissa has nated religious exemptions precipitously been successfully managing her multiple this past summer and has all but eliminat- sclerosis by running for nine years now. ed medical exemptions, too. Forty students Top to bottom: Jackson Gillman; Anna Hurwitz; Melissa Relyea Ossanna. COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE 63 a Top row, left to right: Bri Druga; Nishi Rajakaruna. Middle row, left to right: Nate Pope; Walt Drkula; Jivan Sobrino-Wheeler. Bottom row, left to right: Alexander Paul Desmond and Lisa Kay Rosenthal; Ana Puhac at the International Consultation on Urban Food Agenda. 64 COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE 1994 a Human Ecology Forum in which she de- NISHI RAJAKARUNA, biological sci- scribed that adventure and her work with ences professor at California Polytechnic Ocean Exploration Trust. State University, will travel to North-West University in South Africa this spring as part of a prestigious honorary appointment 2004 by the university's School of Biological In June of 2019, after practicing with her Sciences. husband for eight years, DR. BRI DUGA opened a collaborative practice, called the EAT Healing Arts Collective, in Dover, NH. MORE She is the paleo chiropractor, and in her KALE 1997 office she integrates the fundamentals TAMMY PACKIE has been working for of the paleo lifestyle with neurological- over a year to start a new chapter of Trout ly based chiropractic care, Lyme disease Unlimited in the MDI area. Their efforts support, nutrition counseling, and genetic have been successful and in September they lifestyle counseling. were officially labelled as the Downeast Chapter of Trout Unlimited. TU's main goal is to protect cold-water fisheries and the watersheds which support them. 2006 MIHNEA TANASESCU, FWO Post- doctoral Research Fellow at the Political Science Department, Vrije Universiteit in 2000 Brussels, is an editor of a new book called ALLISON WATTERS launched her The Edges of Political Representation: Map- business, Brooklin Canvas Design, doing ping, Critiquing and Pushing the Boundaries. marine canvas and upholstery. Find them bit.ly/39RIwhK online at brooklincanvasdesign.com Urban naturalist GABRIEL WILLOW 2007 was on the cover of the June edition of PC NATE POPE successfully defended his Magazine and he's one of the faces of the PhD thesis in ecology, evolution, and be- new Swarovski Optik campaign, featured havior at the Dept. of Integrative Biology, in their #gobirding "Sharing the joy of University of Texas, Austin in April 2019. birding" blog post. 2009 2003 MICHAEL DIAZ-GRIFFITH has been HOPE ROWAN published her second named executive director of Sir John book, Ten Days in the North Woods: A Kids' Soane's Museum Foundation, a New Hiking Guide to the Katahdin Region. As York-based foundation that supports Sir with Hope's previous book, Ten Days in John Soane's Museum in London through Acadia, the book is written from a fiction- a program of lectures, gatherings, fellow- al child's point of view. The publisher de- ships, and study tours inspired by Soane scribes these books as "a new way to inter- and his world. In February, Michael was OF THE est kids and get them excited about being named one of House Beautiful's 2020 Vi- outdoors." sionaries for his advocacy of antiques as the sustainable alternative to newly pro- 1 ATLANTIC duced furniture. He would love to hear ALLISON FUNDIS co-lead the National from COA friends through Instagram (@ Geographic expedition (with Robert Bal- michaeldiazgriffith) or email (michaeld- lard) to find Amelia Earhart's plane. Alli- iazgrifhth@gmail.com), and invites the son came back to COA in January 2020 for COA community to tune into his podcast, Top to bottom: Julian Forrest Rosehill; Michael, Jack Joseph, and Emily Keller; Diana Chava Adler. COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE 65 Sam Miller-McDonald Renae Lesser Curious Objects, which explores the hidden LISA KAY ROSENTHAL married A1- histories of antiques and works of art. It is exander Paul Desmond on June 22, 2019 ALAN FERNALD, an MBA candidate at available on all podcast platforms. in Salem, Massachusetts. The couple met UMass Amherst, started a new position as ten years ago during Lisa's senior year at corporate responsibility, diversity & inclu- COA, when Alex was working as a chef sion intern at Voya Financial. in Bar Harbor. Starting in the fall of 2019, LAURA HOWES got married this past Lisa will attend the University of Maine September to her partner Dan Noonan, School of Law as a Susan Calkins Public whom she met in Boston. See their alumni Interest Fellow. The newlyweds are excited 2012 group photo on page sixty-two! to begin married life together in beautiful WALTRAUD "WALT" DRKULA Scarborough, Maine! was promoted to vice president, project management at BORN Group in NY. MICHAEL AND EMILY KELLER wel- comed their new son Jack Joseph Keller on November 26, 2019. 2010 RENAE LESSER co-founded Big Sky ANDREW COATE-ROSEHILL and his Education and Strategy last year. Big Sky partner Sarah Rosehill welcomed their helps schools and organizations explore SAM MILLER-MCDONALD is living second child, Julian Forrest Rosehill, on difference and power through experiential in Edinburgh, Scotland while finishing May 27, 2019. Four-year-old big sister A1- and transformative programming for youth his PhD at University of Oxford's School exa loves giving him cuddles and making and adults. They also help schools and or- of Geography and the Environment. Be- him smile. ganizations carry out participatory organi- tween writing essays for publications like zational assessment and change projects. New Republic and Current Affairs, and ed- They work with K-12 schools, colleges and iting a climate politics magazine called The 2011 universities, community groups, and non- Trouble, he and Matt Maiorana '10 have profit organizations. just launched a new magazine called Ep- NINA WISH ADLER and husband Da- ilogue. Check it out at epiloguemag.com. vid Adler had their daughter Diana Chava Adler on May 4, 2019. 66 COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE S AM. AM, INK AM, AM. AM. AM, Casey Acklin and team Aneesa Khan 2014 ADRIAN FERNANDEZ JAUREGUI is mental policy and regulation at the Lon- ANA PUHAC started a new position as living and working in the tech industry in don School of Economics. urban food system planner at Food and Montreal. Agriculture Organization at the United Nations. 2017 2016 PORCIA MANDANDHAR got a grant JIVAN SOBRINO-WHEELER was NATALIA ZAMBONI VERGARA start- from the Gates Foundation to work at the elected to the city council in Cambridge, ed a new position as bilingual youth spe- World Health Organization for a three- Massachusetts. cialist at Boulder County, Colorado. month period. 2015 2017 2019 CASEY ACKLIN is spending the year ANEESA KHAN, executive director of JULIA CLEMENS got married in Octo- working as an AmeriCorps Vista volunteer SustainUS, is having a busy year! After be- ber 2019. in Nevada. He's working with an organi- ing featured in a video on the APlus media zation called Dementia Friendly Nevada, outlet describing the work she does with which is a statewide grassroots initiative the youth climate change movement, she GILLIAN WELCH was named an Island to build communities that are respectful, was on the NPR talk show 1A to discuss Institute Fellow for 2019-2020. Gillian is educated, supportive, and inclusive of peo- the role of youth activists in the fight for on Vinalhaven supporting the work of the ple living with dementia and family care climate justice, and was chosen as one of nonprofit Our Island CARES (Commu- partners. Vice.com's 11 Young Climate Justice Ac- nity Addiction Recovery Education Sup- tivists You Need to Pay Attention To. She's port). currently pursuing her MSc in environ- COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE 67 COMMUNITY NOTES Photo by Steve Ressel HEATHER ALBERT-KNOPP '99, In January, faculty members NANCY the COA Champlain Institute, Clinger dean of admission, presented a session ANDREWS and DRU COLBERT spoke with Dr. Sheila Canby, Curator called "Major Issues: Moving Beyond the launched the first publication of The Emerita, Department of Islamic Art at Traditional Major and Minor Conver- Journal of the Higher Institute of Nervous the Metropolitan Museum of Art, on sation" at the National Association for Activities with a reading and perfor- subjects which included: the monumental College Admission Counseling's annual mance at the Jesup Memorial Library. The reopening of the New Galleries for the Art conference in Louisville, Kentucky. inaugural issue of the journal (winter 2020) of the Arab Lands, Turkey, Iran, Central Co-presenters included admission leaders features poems by Colbert and drawings Asia, and Later South Asia in 2011; South from Bard College, Hampshire College, by Andrews. Each subsequent issue of Asian printmaker Zarina (Hashmi); and St. John's College. the journal will pair artists, craftspeople, and rare wonders found within the Met researchers, scientists, workers, writers, galleries. During the Coffee and Conver- or poets back-to-back; their work will sation summer series, Clinger paired In January 2020, The Ellis-Beauregard be seen in context with one another, and with Casey Mallinckrodt, Wadsworth Foundation announced five $5,000 create dialogue, ideas, visions, thoughts, Atheneum museum object conservator and awardees of The Ellis-Beauregard and dreams from the space between the COA trustee, for "Conservation & African Foundation Project Grant, including works. Future publications seek to pair Material Culture," concerning conser- Danielle Byrd '05 and faculty member the likes of young and old, blue and red, vatory practices and issues of ownership NANCY ANDREWS for "Fruity Time," lichen specialist and poet, playwright and and repatriation as collections respond to a series of live telecasts (currently using economics researcher, printmaker and the decolonize museums global movement. Instagram @fruity_band). "Fruity Time" homemaker, social activist and painter. During the year, she worked with the features Andrews and Byrd as the musical Marion Boulton Stroud Foundation and duo Fruity, playing songs with electric Philadelphia's Fabric Workshop and guitars, chatting with special guests, and CATHERINE CLINGER, the Allan Stone Museum to establish an artist residency at focusing on creativity and queerness in Chair in the Visual Arts, worked with four COA. The month of September, Clinger downeast Maine. experts in the field of art to share their hosted the inaugural COA Kippy Stroud perspectives, talents, and practices with Artists-in-Residence and MacArthur COA and the greater community during fellow Mary Reid Kelly and Patrick Kelly. the summer and fall of 2019. During "Can Islamic Art Change Minds," a session at 68 COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE DARRON COLLINS, COA's president stown, Massachusetts where the two and class of 1992 graduate, ran the In response to an invitation to help in the met over forty years ago as college class- Mountain Lakes 100, a 100-mile ultra- Journal of Rural Development's fall 2019 mates. Baker-White is painting a series of marathon on the Pacific Crest Trail celebration of the 150th anniversary of landscapes in response to images Donovan in Oregon. He did it as a challenge to Gandhi's birth, faculty member GRAY has been recording with her cellphone himself and in preparation for his fiftieth COX authored Pollinators for a Truly camera. In turn, Donovan is writing poems birthday (April 6, 2020 in case you'd like Smarter Planet: Using Gandhian Tradi- in response to Baker-White's paintings. to send a gift). "It was the hardest physical tions of Dialogical Reasoning to Frame and Their collaboration Light, Sky, Land, and thing I had ever done and it was extraor- Foster Rural Development. In January, he Edges: A Collaboration Between Painter dinary." He raced alongside 175 others and also had a chapter appear in a Routledge and Poet will be exhibited at the Wendell completed the course in just over twenty- book on Gandhi and the Contemporary Gilley Museum in Southwest Harbor in eight hours. His trail notes for the course World, "Gandhi's Dialogical Truth Force: the fall of 2020. were published in the Dec/Jan issue of applying Satyagraha models of practical Ultrarunning Magazine. rational inquiry to the crises of ecology, global governance and technology." He From November 2018 to July 2019, faculty also published a poem in Bateau 2019, At member DAVE FELDMAN served as KOURTNEY COLLUM, the Partridge the Corner of the Plaza across from Worker's interim vice president for education at Chair in Food & Sustainable Agriculture Stadium. During his winter sabbatical as the Santa Fe Institute. He returned to Systems, coauthored four conference part of his ongoing research on AI, he teaching full time at COA this fall. His papers including ones presented at the took part in MIT's "Summit on AI in second book Dynamical Systems and Chaos Agriculture, Food, and Human Values Latin America" along with a follow-up (Princeton University Press) was released conference and the Society for American hackathon, as well as the AAAI's "AI, in August. This December he spoke at a Foresters National Convention. With Ethics, and Society" conference in New rally organized by Indivisible MDI on the colleagues at UMaine, she continued work York. eve of President Trump's impeachment. on a USDA project researching honey and maple syrup production in Maine. This past summer the project funded MARTHA ANDREWS DONOVAN, This past summer, JAY FRIEDLANDER, eight undergraduate research fellows lecturer, came back to her native state four the Sharpe-McNally Chair in Green and through the Sustainable Food Systems years ago, moving to the small village of Socially Responsible Business, joined Research Collaborative, including three Bernard on the back side of Mount Desert provost Ken Hill and faculty member Jodi COA students: Adele Wise '21, Hannah Island where she has been documenting Baker, the Joanne Woodward and Paul Williams '20, and Qomaruliati (Ruli) her return to coastal Maine by posting Newman Chair in the Performing Arts, Setiawati '20. Sweetest of all, Kourtney daily photographs on Instagram. Donovan to lead the Human Ecology Lab in Ösaki- and student Leta Diethelm '20 expanded is currently engaged in a collaborative kamijima (HELIO), Japan. Together they COA's apiary to five colonies; you've never project with landscape painter Tracy led over twenty students from a half-dozen tasted honey so good. Baker-White, who is based in William- universities on a two-week exploration of CRITTERS DOODADS cones writings by dru colbert TLANTIC BAR HARBOR, MAINE HA-19 Nancy ANDREWS Left: The Journal of the Institute of Higher Nervous Activities, issue 1. Right: Darron is ready for the ultramarathon. COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE 69 Hiroshima, Fukushima and Osakika- addressing Maine's ecological systems, development of a mobile library and an mijima. Friedlander's sabbatical in the fall plants, animals, insects, geology, and ongoing program in literacy and youth of 2019 gave him the opportunity to bring conservation biology. She presented her development for rural Maya girls. his work at COA beyond Maine's borders. capstone project in partnership with the It took him to Canada, Iceland, the UK, Frenchman Bay Conservancy. She is the and Australia where he did presentations second in her family to achieve the Maine In September, faculty member CHRIS for faculty, enterprises, and local munici- Master Naturalist certification, as her PETERSEN co-organized a stakeholder palities on leveraging the UN Sustainable mother graduated in 2019 and currently meeting on water quality in Frenchman Development goals to spark innovation. In serves as a mentor for the Waterville class. Bay at the Schoodic Institute with Aaron Canada, Friedlander did a workshop for Dority of Frenchman Bay Conservancy business faculty and staff in Vancouver on and Hannah Webber of Schoodic Institute. teaching sustainable business. In Iceland, Faculty member HEATHER LAKEY This fall, Petersen was appointed to the he was part of the Maine delegation to the '00, MPHIL '08 has an article forth- Coastal and Marine Working Group of Arctic Circle Assembly, where he presented coming in the academic journal, Hypatia: the Maine Climate Council. In addition on his work in Maine, Greenland, the A Journal of Feminist Philosophy. In The to being a member of the Bar Harbor Faroe Islands, and Denmark to build the Many, The Wise, and the Marginalized: Marine Resource Committee and a board sustainable entrepreneurship ecosystem. The Endoxic Method and The Second Sex, member of Somes-Meynell Conservancy, In the UK, Friedlander consulted with Lakey proposes that Simone de Beauvoir's he continues to work with Frenchman Harlaxton College on integrating social magnum opus, The Second Sex, instan- Bay Partners, Downeast Conservation entrepreneurship into their curriculum tiates a version of the endoxic method, a Network, and the Downeast Fisheries and he also gave his inaugural lecture as philosophical strategy originally practiced Partnership. In March, Petersen will serve a visiting professor of social innovation by Aristotle. She argues that Beauvoir as a session moderator during Shellfish and sustainable business at the University improves upon Aristotle's endoxic practice Focus Day at the Fisherman's Forum in of Northampton. In Australia, Fried- through her heightened focus on minority Rockport. lander ran a series of ten workshops and groups. This article has its roots in Lakey's seminars in Brisbane, Melbourne, and graduate studies at COA. other locations. In July, STEVE RESSEL, the Kim M. Wentworth Chair in Environmental As part of her ongoing leadership of Studies, gave a titled, "How tolerant KENYON GRANT, director of creative the COA program in Mexico, KARLA are amphibians? Insight from a spotted services, graduated from the Maine PEÑA developed a Winter term program salamander (Ambystoma maculatum) Master Naturalist program (MMNP) in for immersion learning of Yucatec Maya, population that breeds next to the open March 2020. The MMNP is a nonprofit, which was field tested by three very enthu- ocean" at the 2019 Northeastern Partners volunteer-driven enterprise with an siastic students. She and her team at PICY in Amphibian and Reptile Conservation intensive and rigorous yearlong curriculum also worked with Lika Uehara '20 in the meeting, Stockton University, New Jersey. CHAOS AND DYNAMICAL SYSTEMS David P. Feldman Kenyon Grant (right). Dave Feldman's second book. 70 COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE Ressel attended the meeting with Sidney Anderson '19, Elizabeth Signore '19, and Emma Damm '22, all of whom participated in the study. A photograph of a snowy owl that Ressel took during his 2017 Winter Ecology course was featured in Maine Coast Heritage Trust's fiftieth anniversary publication Voices From The Coast. Ressel's Winter Ecology course was highlighted in the 2019 winter issue of Friends of Acadia Journal. Allied Whale staff member ROSEMARY SETON took a leave of absence from her duties as stranding coordinator to spend a year in Scotland pursuing her master's degree. She graduated from the University of St. Andrews with a master of science in marine mammal science in December 2019. Her dissertation on humpback whales was entitled: Coming and going: Have migrating humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) shifted their arrival and departure times to and from their feeding grounds in the Gulf of Maine? While pursuing her degree, she also took the opportunity to visit cousins and delve more fully into her Scottish ancestry on both sides of her family! DAVIS TAYLOR was named the Cody van Heerden Chair in Economics and Quantitative Social Sciences in December. According to Taylor, "Cody embodied the finest qualities of a human ecologist: great intellectual curiosity, dedication to rigor and detail, and an empathetic approach to improving the world. Cody and I shared a love of Maine, economics, and addressing challenging questions and problems. Being a part of Cody's deep dive into the institutional economics of the Maine lobster industry was incredibly rewarding." Rosemary Seton THE CHAMPLAIN INSTITUTE COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC November 3-What's at Stake? Monday, July 27-Friday, July 31, 2020 The Champlain Institute is a week-long ideas festival which hosts leaders from around the country and the world to share their expertise on pressing issues of our time. The focus of the 2020 institute will be November 3 - What's at Stake? During the week, we will explore the future of US diplomacy, climate change policy, income inequality, national security, the Sec- ond Amendment, the Supreme Court, and other issues that will be critical national topics leading up to the presidential elections next November. A Note on Summer Events College of the Atlantic is closely monitoring the COVID-19 outbreak and CDC recommendations on large gatherings. We have an amazing slate of thought-provoking lectures, conversations, film screenings, and other events planned for the summer and maintain hope that we will all be able to gather safely on Mount Desert Island in a few months. Although there are no immediate plans to postpone or cancel the Champlain Institute, Coffee and Conversation, or any of our other sum- mer events, we are actively making contingency plans to offer our lectures and institute sessions via livestream should that be necessary. We will communicate any changes to the events on coa.edu and via email. COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE 71 CROSSWORD BY KENYON GRANT ACROSS 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 1. A type of chopped salad 13 14 15 5. Nasser of Radiolab 10. Seasonal share at Beech Hill Farm 16 17 18 19 (abbr.) 13. A miscellaneous collection of things 20 21 22 14. Home of the University of Maine 15. Aries animal 23 24 25 26 16. A group of Ambystoma maculatum (see pages 16-23) 27 28 29 30 19. Pub drink 20. Wrath 31 32 33 34 35 21. Where Elliot Santavicca does their research (see pages 38-42) 36 37 38 39 40 23. The eye is this to the soul 24. Bed and breakfast 41 42 43 44 45 26. Author Gloria of My Life on the Road 46 47 48 49 50 27. Gerund suffix 28. Route or direction 51 52 53 54 55 56 30. Political event held in Philadelphia in July 2016 (abbr.) 57 58 31. Large antelope 32. English word with the most 59 60 61 62 63 64 definitions 34. COA Associate Dean in Learning 65 66 67 and Teaching Bonnie of HEAT (see pages 54-58) 68 69 70 36. The theme of this magazine 41. Allow 42. No, to Jacques Derrida DOWN 43. Person born in August 1. Trig. function 35. Residents of Bar Harbor, Mount 46. Minority majority 2. Hello (Portuguese) Desert, Southwest Harbor, and 48. Mo. with an opal birthstone 3. What HEAT students will be, at least Tremont 50. Monopoly property (abbr.) (see pages 54-58) 37. Storage spot 51. Amount of living matter in a habitat 4. COA's gained two new members this 38. Immeasurably small 55. Like a lizard or bull year (see page 5) 39. Also 57. Go on 5. Voodoo god 40. Move slowly 58. Doc's script 6. Prince Valiant's son, or a Spanish 44. First lady 59. A snowy one can be found atop alder 45. Brit. ref. volume Sargent Mountain during the winter 7. All (Spanish, feminine) 47. Cooking oil 60. It can be found just outside Turrets, or 8. Still 49. Grave on pages 36-37 of this magazine 9. Like a magician's card? 51. Arbor 65. "Look at me, I'm Sandra " 10. Want badly 52. Cove 66. Vivien of Gone with the Wind 11. The Crucible locale 53. Exceptionally good 67. Type of race 12. Iowa town, or defunct discount store 54. Reddish-brown color named for a 68. It's found in the Ethel H. Blum 17. Cat's cry cuttlefish Gallery 18. Japanese religion of nature spirits 56. Marsh plants 69. Martian crater, or the astronomer 22. Andean 57. The title of the piece by Rich Borden François after whom it was named 23. Hairpiece in this magazine (see pages 6-10) 70. Govt. IDs 24. Bed and breakfast 61. Bird-to-be 25. Bee relative 62. Seventeenth letter of the Greek 29. Despite that alphabet Visit coa.edu/coamagazine 33. Better than a burn 63. -do attitude to view the answer key. 64. Mercuries? (abbr.) 72 COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE FROM THE ARCHIVES Nimisha Bastedo's Graduation Speech 2015 Where is the tree's heart? This could sound like the beginning of a love them. They give us direction. They help us How can I help a child learn when they come poem, or maybe part of a COA student's decide how to actually do things. But I've to school without breakfast, or when they commentary on a painting. But it's actually heard myself and others at the end of a term come weighed down with anxiety from an a question that I got from a sixth-grader saying things like, "I feel like I know less than unstable household? What if this instability during my senior project in northern I did when I started this course because all I is caused by poverty and alcoholism and Canada. We were about an hour away learned was how much I don't know!" environmental degradation which in turn from the community, at one of the school's are symptoms of larger structures of power camps. This young girl was sitting up in a If we had questions to begin with, and and racism that have been imposed onto tree, looking down at me, quite seriously still have questions now, you might be these communities for over 100 years? wanting to know where the tree's heart was. wondering, "What has been the value of | looked up at her. She was waiting for an these four years?" What we may not realize Realizing how much is out of my hands- answer. is that we have actually arrived at some and how much is beyond my scope of answers throughout our time here. It's just knowledge-I could give up. Or, I could do Um.. I thought, what should I tell her? that we've learned to see answers as starting what we've been practicing here this whole points for new questions. In that sense, our time. I could invite other people into my I could have said, "Well kid, biologically many lingering questions are something to questions and build connections between speaking, trees do not have this muscular celebrate. They show how far we've come my work and theirs. The school cooks, organ you speak of, but as vascular plants, in acknowledging the complexity of things. the social workers, the policy makers, the they do have a form of circulatory system." They show how much we've learned. historians, and the environmental groups But knowing this girl had spent six years in are also pursuing answers. Anything we do a mainstream school system, I worried she At this point, I envisioned that I would prove in isolation could never be as powerful as might have been trained to let such a clear- to you just how profound our thinking had the collective insight and action that could cut answer extinguish her curiosity. She become by sharing some of the questions emerge if we each contribute our own might have just said "oh" and continued to that are currently on our minds. But when pieces of knowledge and partial solutions. climb the tree. I asked for questions, what I found instead For me, this is not only comforting, but it is were conversations, really interesting ones. empowering. If searching for answers about trees, hearts, Conversations about hope and lifecycles, or hands, we would do quite well to think like about motivation and community, about What I want to say now is that questions a kindergartener-with a flood of many more boundaries between cultures, about human are essential. But I hope we never questions: "Does the concept of a heart ecology and chickens, and about what it underestimate the power of engaging in and what it means to be a tree, not change takes to change peoples' minds. Every time conversations-of all types. The ones about across cultures?" And, "What exactly was I sat down to condense a conversation into daunting, interconnected problems And the historical context which gave rise to a single question that would represent what also the ones that begin with the simple and the theory of natural selection?" Or, "How was on my classmates' minds, I found it wonderful things of the world. would third-wave feminists interpret the impossible. story of the Princess Bride?" You know, when I was standing underneath My plan failed, but because of that failure that tree with the young girl still looking If you are thinking, "Wait a minute, after all I have had many other conversations. At down at me from her branch, waiting for we've invested into the education of our COA, we don't just become better question- an answer. "Where is the tree's heart?" I daughter/son/niece/nephew/friend, are you askers, we also learn that our questions finally said something like, "That's a great telling me that they're still asking questions and each of our areas of work connect question! What do you think?" And it led to like a kindergartener?" I can assure you: to other people's questions and work in quite the conversation about how the tree's yes, only our questions now might sound ways we might never have imagined, and name was Martha, and what the tree might a little more intellectual. We still have the the conversations go on forever. Realizing do when the students were not around, and curiosity of kindergarteners precisely this was comforting because it could be whether or not it hurts when her branches because COA hasn't fed us answers. Instead frightening if we thought we had to find all break. we've been asked many times, "Well, what the solutions on our own. do you think?" If anyone out there has ideas about where a When I leave here, I plan to return home to tree's heart could be, let me know. I am still This can be frustrating. Answers are, after northern Canada. Thinking about becoming very curious. all, good things. We crave them. We need a teacher there, I'm still filled with questions. 73 COA COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE 105 Eden Street Bar Harbor, ME 04609