COA THE COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE Volume 9. Number 2. Fall 2013 COA The College of the Atlantic Magazine Collaborations Letter from the President 3 News from Campus 4 COA's New Dean Heather Albert-Knopp '99 6 A Cornucopia of Books 8 Donor Profile Becky and Dylan Baker 11 Collaborations 12 Designing for Acadia Creating the Acadia Nature Center 13 Team Teaching An Introduction 17 Collaboration in Process Developing the Unexpected Journey 18 Evolving Democracy Dustin Eirdosh '04 in Madagascar 22 Tutoring as Collaboration The COA Writing Center 25 Collaborating to Conserve Communities Julie Massa '93 28 Aversion Short Story by Michael Griffith '09 31 Paintings by Alonso Diaz Rickards 12 Ghost Poetry by Moses Bastille '13 37 Alumni and Community Notes 38 In Memoriam 47 Take-A-Break A New COA Cookbook 48 Embracing our Interconnectedness Jesse Karppinen '13 49 East Peak by Blakeney Sanford '02 Site-specific installation, Ethel H. Blum Gallery Courtyard at COA Standing beneath the curved wave of Blakeney's East Peak, summer visitors experienced the cool of the ocean, delighting in the ways the sculpture's varied aqua tones echoed how water alters light. Although envisioned and designed by Blakeney, the piece was collaboratively assembled, with faculty, staff, students, alumni, and various family members all pitching in. COA Collaborations. Life is a collaborative enterprise. And a solitary one. To raise The College of the Atlantic Magazine a child - or educate a student - it does take a village, one ideally with parks, Volume 9 Number 2 Fall 2013 teachers, and caregivers. The creation of each human being, literally and figuratively, is a collaboration. But that person also must raise her- or himself. To Editorial Editor Donna Gold become full individuals we need to look inside, learn to reconcile the complicated Editorial Guidance Heather Albert-Knopp '99 pulls of our desires with our gifts and the world within which we live. Perhaps Marni Berger '09 Rich Borden that, too, could be seen as a collaboration, one with ourselves. Dru Colbert Ken Cline Michael Griffith '09 For most of us, college is a time when the internal and external are shaken up, Sarah Haughn '08 probably more extremely than at any other point in our lives. Our preconceived Jennifer Hughes Katharine Macko notions are challenged, along with our ways of questioning, the nature of our Editorial Consultant Bill Carpenter curiosity, and our ability to live on our own and make friends. Comfort zones? Alumni Consultants Jill Barlow-Kelley Those are shattered. Dianne Clendaniel Design And so, true learning begins. One of the very unusual, and yes, amazing qualities Art Director Rebecca Hope Woods of COA is the expansiveness of the "village" that educates our students. Within COA Administration the collaborative dance that the COA community performs fifty-two weeks of the President Darron Collins '92 Academic Dean Kenneth Hill year, it's not just the faculty that are challenging the students, or classmates, but Associate Academic Deans Catherine Clinger also the staff. As advisors, as committee members, as workstudy supervisors, Stephen Ressel Sean Todd as friends, COA's staff members equally engage with students in their learning Karen Waldron process. And for many - both faculty and staff the hours of service are Administrative Dean Andrew Griffiths Dean of Admission Heather Albert-Knopp '99 uncommonly generous. Dean of Institutional Lynn Boulger Advancement Dean of Student Life Sarah Luke There are many ways humans collaborate to create communities, and communities take many shapes. There's COA itself, along with the ten-week COA Board of Trustees community that each class forms. There are the communities that Julie Massa Becky Ann Baker Sarah A. McDaniel '93 Dylan Baker Linda McGillicuddy '93 helps to create by mentoring manufactured home renters to become Timothy R. Bass Jay McNally '84 cooperative home owners. And then there's the primal community that Dustin Ronald E. Beard Stephen G. Milliken Leslie C. Brewer Philip S.J. Moriarty Eirdosh '04 alludes to, as defined by the evolutionary theory known as multi- Alyne Cistone Phyllis Anina Moriarty level selection - which sees humanity as having evolved because we connect, Nikhit D'Sa '06 Hamilton Robinson, Jr. Amy Yeager Geier Walter Robinson we collaborate, and we help each other. Collaboration, say these evolutionary George B.E. Hambleton Nadia Rosenthal theorists, is what has made us human. Elizabeth D. Hodder Marthann Lauver Samek Philip B. Kunhardt III '77 Henry L.P. Schmelzer Anthony Mazlish William N. Thorndike, Jr. From a collaboration between two alumni separately plying their arts as painter Suzanne Folds McCullagh Cody van Heerden, MPhil '15 and writer, to team-teaching, to the over-the-top efforts of student designers Life Trustees Trustee Emeriti collaborating with each other and Acadia National Park to redesign the park's William G. Foulke, Jr. David Hackett Fischer Samuel M. Hamill, Jr. Sherry F. Huber central museum, this magazine concerns people drawing upon their inner John N. Kelly Daniel Pierce strengths to connect to others so as to enhance the lives of many. Susan Storey Lyman Helen Porter William V.P. Newlin Cathy L. Ramsdell '78 John Reeves John Wilmerding Henry D. Sharpe, Jr. The faculty, students, trustees, staff, and alumni of College of the Atlantic envision a world where people value creativity, intellectual achievement, and diversity of nature and human cultures. With Damn Gold respect and compassion, individuals construct meaningful lives for themselves, gain appreciation Donna Gold, COA editor of the relationships among all forms of life, and safeguard the heritage of future generations. COA is published biannually for the College of the Atlantic community. Please send ideas, letters, and submissions (short stories, poetry, and revisits to human ecology essays) to: Front Cover: Abiquiu, by Gabriela Niejadlik '14, for the Unexpected Journey class COA Magazine, College of the Atlantic "We were out in the desert and there was this incredibly deep and big sky that 105 Eden Street, Bar Harbor, ME 04609 dgold@coa.edu wrapped around like a different version of the ocean. It was collaborative in the most magical of ways: the convergence, this immersive experience between mostly strangers, bonding and constantly changing. Back on campus our journey continues WWW.COA.EDU on between us and inside of us. The class is hands down the best I've ever taken." (see page 18) MIX PRINTED WITH CERTIFIED Back Cover: Family & Alumni Weekend, October 11-14, 2013. Friends, families, and Paper from responsible sources WIND beautiful fall weather made for an unforgettable Family & Alumni Weekend of field FSC www.fsc.org FSC® C021556 POWER trips, lectures, panels, and class visits. Printed on recycled paper with vegetable-based inks on equipment using 100% wind-generated power. From the President: Darron Collins '92, PhD the Atlantic COVE Auto Max Friedlander, Maggie Collins, Darron Collins '92, and Alex Pine '14 take a ride in COA's solar-powered SUNN electric vehicle built by COA students from a kit, and purchased in partnership with the Seal Cove Automobile Museum. Photo by Sune Andersen '16. For the COA community, the most college or university in the country. committed to expanding the influence palpable effect of the recent We hold classes in the park, work of the college on the wider world, government shutdown was the collaboratively with park staff, use and increasing the opportunities for closure of Acadia National Park. park data, and share goals. Without faculty, staff, and students. Working As individuals, we were of course access to these resources, we've had with our community on the island, and frustrated by not being allowed to to pivot creatively during the fall with a widening circle of communities enjoy the trails, paths, rocks, and term of 2013. Acadia National Park is further afield, are essential to our beaches during the height of the fall not just our backyard neighbor, it's creativity, awareness, and intellectual foliage in what has been a particularly a partner in the truest sense of the growth. Collaborative partnerships beautiful autumn. But for the college term: one that bends and squeezes will continue to play an enormous role as an institution - not to mention our very form. Not having the park at COA. the ANP employees - the sixteen- underscored the essential role Acadia day closure presented a much larger plays in our curriculum. Enjoy and stay in touch, challenge. COA is a small college; partnerships We enjoy a more proximate enhance our offerings and our impact relationship - both geographically by orders of magnitude. As president, and thematically - to a United I am committed to keeping the size of States national park than any other the community small, yet I am equally COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE 3 NEWS FROM CAMPUS PHINN ONENS '13 AND MOLLIE BEDICK '13 CELEBRATE AFTER MEAGHAN LYON '16 BANDS A GULL PARTICIPANTS IN COA'S COMMENCEMENT CHICK ON GREAT DUCK ISLAND RIVERS: A WILDERNESS ODYSSEY JUNE JULY AUGUST Graduation speaker Dr. Paul Farmer of Alumni artists David Vickery '89 and In July and August, 30 high school students Partners in Health, now an honorary Blakeney Sanford '02 open the summer receive college credit by attending one human ecologist, tells COA graduates to season with a joint exhibit at the Ethel H. of COA's three Summer Field Institutes: "partner hard." Blum Gallery. Rivers: A Wilderness Odyssey, Farm to Fork, and Islands Through Time. President Darron Collins '92 gives Conway Anneke Hart '16 finds that gulls on Mount College's commencement speech. Desert Rock are much tamer than those Princeton Review rates COA a 98 out on Great Duck Island. Meanwhile, Tyler of 99 in academics, listing us as #7 for Hatchery students Leland DeWalt '14, Freitas '16, Meaghan Lyon '16, Ariana "professors get high marks" and "best Stevie DuFrense '14, Cayla Moore '13, and Rambach '16, and Kate Shlepr '13 campus food," #8 for "most liberal Robin Owings '13 present their ventures monitor the gulls and other birds of students," and in the top 20 for "best at Bar Harbor's Artemis Gallery, owned GDI, and Jane Strader '16 examines the quality of life," "great financial aid," "their by Deirdre Swords and trustee Cody van impact of sea level rise on Acadia's nesting students love these colleges," and "most Heerden, MPhil '15. seabirds. accessible professors." ALYSSA SEEMANN '16 SINGS MOZART'S THE DORR MUSEUM OPENS A RECORD 147 COMMUNITY MEMBERS "O ZITTRE NICHT, MEIN LIEBER SOHN!" "300+ OBJECTS TO DESCRIBE PLUNGE IN FOR THE BAR ISLAND SWIM IN THE COMMUNITY TALE SHOW HUMAN ECOLOGY" SEPTEMBER OCTOBER NOVEMBER COA opens with the largest entering class Some 200 friends, family, and alumni Having studied the issues throughout the ever: 105 first-years and 26 transfers, with descend on COA for lectures, activities, term, 13 students from eight nations, along 17 new internationals, and two MPhils. and reuniting during Family & Alumni with faculty member Doreen Stabinsky Weekend. head to Warsaw, Poland, for the 19th The College Database's 50 Colleges Conference of the Parties of the United Committed to Saving the Planet ranks More than 20 students talk about their Nations Framework Convention on Climate COA as #9, the first of the colleges (not science, education, and policy research Change. universities) on the list. during COA's third Student Science Symposium. Solar panels - 195 of them - - are installed Again, COA makes US News & World Report's on the Kathryn W. Davis Student Residence top 100 colleges, rating #12 for best value, Bugs are a delicacy at the annual Nature Village roofs and the Peggy Rockefeller and #6 for percentage of international of Halloween celebration at the Dorr Farms; an additional 6% of COA's annual students. Museum. electricity needs now comes from the sun. 4 CHECK OUT MORE STORIES AND PHOTOS AT NEWSWORTHY.COA.EDU $32 MILLION! COA COMPLETES LARGEST CAPITAL CAMPAIGN New faculty. More scholarships. A But the greatest achievement might people," said Will Thorndike, COA farm. A protectorate. A boat. That's be the alumni. During the campaign, board chair, during the August only a portion of what COA's three- support rose to 40.8%, placing COA campaign celebration held at the year "Life Changing, World Changing" among the nation's top twenty-five summer home of Mitch and Emily capital campaign has meant for colleges in percentage of alumni Rales. "With their help, the college the college. Overseen by Lynn donations. continues its pursuit of excellence, Boulger, now dean of institutional and our students and faculty continue advancement, and trustees William "The success of the college is made to win a steady stream of national and Foulke, Jr., Samuel Hamill, Jr. possible by the generosity and international prizes, scholarships, and and Hamilton Robinson, Jr., the support of some truly remarkable fellowships." campaign raised more than $32 million toward a myriad of COA needs. The success list is mind-boggling. COA TURRETS REVIVED now has an additional $12 million in its endowment for scholarship support, and six new endowed faculty chairs bringing needed faculty funding. These chairs are: the Partridge Chair in Food and Sustainable Agriculture Systems, held by Molly Anderson; the David Rockefeller Family Chair in Ecosystem Management and Protection, held by Ken Cline; the Allan Stone Chair in the Visual Arts, held by Catherine Clinger; the Richard J. Borden Chair in the Humanities, held by John Visvader; the Lisa Stewart Chair in Literature and Women's Studies, held by Karen Waldron; and the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Chair in Earth Systems and GeoSciences. With the campaign, too, came the Peggy Rockefeller Farms and an endowment to keep it going, the lovely 100-acre woodland known as the Cox Protectorate, and our new boat, the M.V. Osprey, roomier, speedier, and quieter than our other vessels. But that's not all. The campaign also brought COA $4 million to support faculty salary equity, $2 million to endow research travel for students, and $1 million to enhance the school's information technology infrastructure. Meanwhile, fundraising continued for the annual fund and COA thanks the E.L. Shea crew for giving us back our Turrets in such a splendid began for the renovation of Turrets. condition, with tight new windows and roof, solid stonework, and glimmering copper. The crew posed for this photograph one afternoon in the midst of repairs, echoing the 1890s photo of the original construction crew. Same great The school can't thank the donors craftsmanship, even if boaters have been exchanged for hard hats. enough - from those who gave $1 dollar to those who gave $6 million. COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE 5 knew something was missing. "People weren't enjoying their education," she says. In her sophomore year, she interned at a sea turtle protection project in Costa Rica and found herself spending a lot of time speaking with the people of the region, hearing their concerns about tourism, land use, and cultural change. "It was one of the most meaningful educational experiences I had," recalls Heather, "because it was applied, and in the real world - not just in books and papers." At the start of her junior year, she balked. She did not want to return to college. "Where will you go?" her mother asked, fearing Heather would drop out altogether. That winter she transferred to COA. A few years later, her brother Eben, now a lawyer, followed a similar route, transferring to COA from an Ivy. Heather's Costa Rica work led to a senior project investigating communities and tourism in Maine. As fellow alum Darron Collins '92, HEATHER ALBERT-KNOPP '99 COA's president, said in announcing her new role, "Heather brings all COA'S FIRST ALUMNA DEAN the essential attributes to this position extraordinary abilities to By Donna Gold solve problems, to analyze complex issues, to understand and represent Gardener and activist, organizer and from arugula to winter squash with the values of the college, to recruit adventurer, project consultant and her husband, librarian Erich Read, this program participants including young weaver, data cruncher and listener, year Heather also chaired MOFGA's students, to work effectively with all negotiator and strategizer, Heather search for a new executive director. of us at the college, and to simply Albert-Knopp '99, COA's new dean of and effectively get things done. As admission, might be just what you'd Perhaps what most distinguishes a graduate, she brings a special expect from the college's first alumna Heather is her ability to listen - perspective and is a great model for dean: very much the unexpected. and then judiciously to act. The prospective students thinking about Smart, savvy, and cheery, Heather is campus saw that quality while she COA." a quintessential COA grad: a person chaired personnel committee. They taking on the world in a personal, also saw her openness. As busy as Heather couldn't be happier. "I had local, and holistic manner. she is, Heather is one of the most such a remarkable experience here, approachable people on campus. and now I get to go out and find the As COA's director of summer people who are going to thrive at COA. programs for three years, she Born in a one-room cabin near I love being able to work with new and raised the net funds coming into the Lincoln, Maine, and raised in prospective students, and the mix of college by 250%. At the same time, Readfield, on the outskirts of Augusta, the work is really compelling: talking she became president of the Maine Heather chose to leave the state with people, thinking about how we Organic Farmers and Gardeners for school, heading to one of the promote the school, working with Association, or MOFGA, board. A nation's most challenging and elite the wonderful faculty and staff and gardener herself, growing everything private colleges. She did well, but students." 6 COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE The College of the Atlantic Guide to the Lakes & Ponds of Mt. Desert THE COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC GUIDE TO THE Lakes & Ponds By William V.P. Newlin, COA life trustee, with faculty member Kenneth S. Cline, of Mt. Desert Rachel Briggs '13, A. Addison Namnoum '14, and Brett Ciccotelli '09 Illustrated by Molly Parrish Co-published by College of the Atlantic Press of Bar Harbor, Maine and North Atlantic Books of Berkeley, California William V.P. Newlin with Kenneth 5. Cliss, Rachel Briggs, A. Addison Nameous, 1 Besti Clound Central to the College of the Atlantic approach to education are the connections made across all sorts of boundaries. So it makes sense that the very first volume under the new College of the Atlantic Press is a mega-collaboration: life trustee Bill Newlin and environmental policy faculty member Ken Cline co-teach a class to update Bill's guide to Mount Desert Island's freshwater, originally published in 1989. Co-authors of the new edition, in addition to Bill and Ken, are two students and an alumnus. The president writes the forward; faculty, staff, students, and DISCOVERING THE FRESHWATER GEMS alumni contribute poems, photographs, and scientific data. Other efforts come or MAINE'S LARGEST ISLAND from Acadia National Park personnel and beyond. And still, like the college for which it's named, the guide is personal, replete with warmth. See for yourselves in the excerpt from Bill's preface and the first entry from the Lakes section. - DG The lakes of Mt. Desert Island - many used it, year-round residents as well to swim in a lake called The Tarn, but of the largest locally called ponds - get as seasonal visitors, told me it became now, in the summer, The Tarn is nearly short shrift. There are over twenty-five their go-to book when looking for an entirely covered by rushes. Other lakes lakes on Mt. Desert, and over forty excursion in the interior of the island. In have suffered a similar fate. It was streams important enough to rate a time, however, the inevitable happened. clear that were the book to be reissued, name. Why, then, is the fresh water Its first printing sold out and the book it would need a thorough revision. of Mt. Desert largely relegated to the became unavailable. role of scenery only? In 1989 / set As / pondered my options, and as time out to change that by publishing The Something else happened, something passed, fate in the person of Ken Cline, a Down East Guide to the Lakes and more subtle. Nature is not static. The professor at College of the Atlantic, gave Ponds of Mt. Desert. / was gratified book had become out of date. It included me a nudge. by its reception. Many persons who a section that told the reader where Aunt Betty Pond Size: 34 acres/Maximum depth: 7 feet/Altitude: 210 feet/Game fish: none Aunt Betty Pond is a small, shallow pond, accessible only by foot or bicycle along a carriage road. It is the largest lake on the island that is not accessible by automobile, and as such is a quiet haven. In the summer, much of its surface is covered by various water plants, especially water lilies. So while fishing and swimming are both legal and possible, its main attraction is as a sight and a good place for a picnic. One of the prime attractions of Aunt Betty Pond is the variety of wildlife that one can find there. A friend once told me of spending nearly an hour watching two otters playing in the water. Aunt Betty Pond also boasts a lakeside bog, perfect for observing typical bog flora. I remember laughing at news reports of President Carter's being startled by a large rabbit during a visit to the Western wilderness. Imagine! Then one fine summer evening, as I was walking alone along Aunt Betty Pond, I was taken aback by a great crashing in the brush by the path. When I had summoned the courage to investigate, I found myself face-to-face with a monstrous bullfrog, the biggest I have ever seen. We world leaders have to keep on our toes. COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE 7 A Cornucopia of Books COA last ran a similar page in the 2010 Fall issue. Much has been published by our alumni and faculty since! (Stay tuned for films and albums in Spring 2014.) Children's Books and Young Adult Fiction Raven AND 7M Red Ball Chelsea (Mooser) Confalone '00 and Nick Confalone Ocean Monsters Penguin Young Readers, 2013 Did you know that the giant squid can grow to over forty feet long? This book features some of Earth's weirdest creatures: the gulper eel, the vampire squid, the ghost shark, and more. Sarah Drummond '05 Raven and the Red Ball Pomegranatekids, 2013 A story made from sixteen lovely woodcuts, with not a single word of text. Sara Wilson Etienne '00 Harbinger Putnam Juvenile, 2013 A psychological thriller set in a Turrets-like building. "Heart-wrenching, terrifying, hot, and un-put-down-able!" says veteran young adult novelist Tamora Pierce. Ryan Higgins '06 Wilfred Dial, 2013 A humongous, hairy, and lonely giant named Wilfred meets a brave little boy who sees something special in the timid giant. HARBINGER Demitria Lunetta '04 In the After HarperTeen, 2013 Wilfred A post-apocalyptic thriller in which a courageous girl must navigate a world BAN Huma overtaken by vile creatures rapidly devouring humankind. Coreysha Stone '00 One Little Alewife Counting Home 2012 The rhythmic journey of one alewife during spring spawning. Let's Go For A Woods Walk 2011 A lyrical amble through the natural world of the northern woods. ISLANDS Fiction of TIME Barbara Kent Lawrence ('93) Islands of Time Just Write Books, 2013 A Novel A girl, a Maine island, a summer romance. Years later, the "girl" returns. "Rich in emotion and introspection," writes Aislinn Sarnaki of the Bangor Daily News. Barbara Kest 8 COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE In the Lyme-Light Mindi Meltz '99 Portrats of these and Healing Lonely in the Heart of the World Logosophia, 2013 Called a "fiercely imaginative epic" in the Publisher's Weekly starred review, Lonely's voyage of discovery becomes "a prolonged reflection on why we live." Emily Bracale Nonfiction John Anderson, biology faculty member HTML5 Mastery Semantics, Standards, and Styling Deep Things Out of Darkness: A History of Natural History University of California Press, 2012 (see COA Spring 2013, page 57) Emily Bracale '93 In the Lyme-Light, Portraits of Illness and Healing 2011 The impact of Lyme disease on one's inner and outer life and the process of Emily's healing. Clinicians have called the book extraordinary and brilliant. Anselm Bradford '02 The HTML5 Mastery: Semantics, Standards, and Styling Apress, 2011 Aimed at web designers and developers who want to take their markup further with multimedia, interactivity, and improved semantics. Moving with the Liza F. Carter ('76) Seasons Moving with the Seasons: Portrait of a Mongolian Family Saltwind Press, 2013 Poetrait of a Mongolian Family With photos and text, Liza follows a traditional nomad family traveling through the unforgiving climate of Mongolia. John Cooper, music faculty member Linear Transitions c Lynne Music, 2011 Liza F. Carter A nine-volume series of developmental improvisation studies for jazz ensembles to "hyper-develop" a student's music fluency. Lise Desrochers, co-director of COA's food service Illustrated by Lauren Benzaquen '14, Carly Segal '13, Zuri Camille de Souza '14 Returning Take-A-Break: Recipes from the Kitchen of College of the Atlantic the Gift 2013 (see page 48) Steven Donoso Steven Donoso '80 Returning The Gift: Dialogues with Eckhart Tolle, Adyashanti, Timothy Wilson, and Laura Waters Hinson Resonance Arts Press, 2013 The narrative reads like a quiet visit with friends: spiritual teachers Tolle and SELECTED Adyashanti, and peace promoters Wilson and Hinson. Lining Lan - COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE 9 Dave Feldman, physics and math faculty member Chaos and Fractals: An Elementary Introduction Oxford University Press 2012 (see COA Fall 2012, page 46) Isaac Fer '07, editor Traveling the World for National Geographic by Thomas J. and Lynn B. Abercrombie Birch Landing Press, 2011 "We traveled aboard a magic carpet, the one with the yellow borders, National Geographic magazine," writes reporter, photographer and explorer Thomas THE SILENCED Abercrombie in this book edited by grandson Isaac. MAJORITY Amy Goodman ('79) and Denis Moynihan The Silenced Majority: Stories of Uprisings, Occupations, Resistance, and Hope Haymarket Books, 2012 A record of the events, conflicts, and social movements shaping our society today. OF MAINE Matt Arsenault, Glen H. Mittelhauser '89, Don Cameron, Alison Dibble, Arthur Haines, Sally Rooney, and Jill Weber Sedges of Maine: A Field Guide to Cyperaceae University of Maine Press, 2013 A fully illustrated guide to all Maine sedges, or grasses. William V.P. Newlin, COA life trustee, with faculty member Kenneth S. Cline, Rachel Briggs '13, A. Addison Namnoum '14, and Brett Ciccotelli '09, illustrated by Molly Parrish The College of the Atlantic Guide to the Lakes & Ponds of Mt. Desert Co-published by College of the Atlantic Press and North Atlantic Books 2013 (see page 7) Josie (Sigler) Sibara '94 The Galaxie and Other Rides Livingston Press, 2012 (see COA Fall 2012, page 32) WHALES Deb Soule '81 DOLPHINS How to Move Like a Gardener: Planting and Preparing Medicines from Plants Under The Willow Press, 2013 A guide embodying Deb's deep love and respect for the spirit of the medicinal plants she has worked with for almost forty years. Tara Stevens '08 Whales and Dolphins of Atlantic Canada & Northeast United States Boulder Publications Ltd., 2013 TARA 5. STEVENS A guide to help others identify and appreciate the twenty-seven species of whales and dolphins that make this region home. Toward Karen E. Waldron, literature faculty member, editor, Rob Friedman, editor a Literary Toward a Literary Ecology: Places and Spaces in American Literature Ecology Scarecrow Press, 2013 Essays theorizing literary ecology through a study of the interconnections between literature and the environment. Peter Wayne '83 The Harvard Medical School Guide to Tai Chi: 12 Weeks to a Healthy Body, Strong Heart, and Sharp Mind KAREN L WALDBON Ros PRIEDMAN Harvard Health Publications, 2013 (see COA Spring 2013, page 12) 10 COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE Park production of The Comedy of Errors. Dylan, known for his roles in Spiderman and Happiness, will be appearing in the soon-to-be released Anchorman sequel, The Legend Continues. Currently, he's doing the rounds of festivals with 23 Blast, an indie movie he directed about a Kentucky high school football star who suddenly goes blind. The Bakers joined the COA board early in 2013. Knowing the college from the Photo by Willa Baker '15. inside, as trustees, has only increased their enthusiasm for the school. "There's an extraordinary group of passionate people who sit on the board," says Becky. "We are amazed by all of them - we feel incredibly lucky to have been asked." Becky and Dylan Baker The feeling is mutual, says Darron. "Becky and Dylan bring a multi- New Parent Trustees layered interest to the college - - as proud parents, accomplished artists, By Donna Gold and intense professionals," he says. "As actors, they understand COA's "We weren't looking to be on the board of anything," say College of the Atlantic's transdisciplinary, hands-on approach new parent trustees Becky Ann and Dylan Baker as they settle into a spot of to learning, and appreciate the sun near the Kaelber Hall archway following the summer trustee meeting. As passion for the arts that so many of film, television, and stage actors, the Bakers are busy with their own lives. But, our students hold. Even better, they like their daughter Willa, who applied early decision to COA in 2011, they fell in have graciously offered to help us love with the school, "its sensibility, its idea of its place in the world, its belief in achieve our longed-for goal of a chair changing things," says Becky, sitting comfortably cross-legged on a low-slung in the performing arts." table on the red bricks. So when COA President Darron Collins '92 asked if they'd like to be parent trustees, they were quite excited. Raising money for this chair - a position encompassing theater, It was Becky who first heard about COA, having read a feature about the college speech, and communication - is the in the Education Life section of The New York Times. Willa wasn't even in high major task the Bakers have taken on school at the time, but Becky remembers telling her daughter, "You're going to as trustees, one they're devoted to as want to read this." She was right. COA stayed on Willa's radar, and remained high actors and human ecologists. While on her list when it came time for college tours. traditional academics separate and compartmentalize, explains Dylan, "When you get a little idea of the kind of people who are at COA, you become "human ecology seeks to grasp all the really attracted to it," says Dylan, staring out at Frenchman Bay. He recalls disparate subjects and bring them accompanying Willa on a visit to campus. The two sat in on the Future Studies together so that the whole - and class taught by Gray Cox, faculty member in political economics. "We figured we how each aspect operates as a part would excuse ourselves after fifteen or twenty minutes, but we got so wrapped of that whole - can be understood." up in the class that it ended before we knew it. I looked at my watch and it had The search for connection and been an hour and twenty minutes! I said, 'Willa, you've got to go here." comprehension that is human ecology is essential to the story of our lives Though Willa's passions tend toward science, she was raised in an active as human beings, he continues. In theatrical family. Becky started out on Broadway with the long-running hit Best the minds of the Bakers, enhancing Little Whorehouse in Texas. She has since acted in many on- and off-Broadway performance at COA means spreading plays, several movies, and such popular TV series as Kings and Girls. Most a message of connection and recently, she was in the 2013 New York Public Theater's Shakespeare in the understanding throughout the world. COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE 11 COLLABORATIONS "We're part of a complex web of personal, intimate connections," said College of the Atlantic commencement speaker Dr. Paul Farmer. The eminent medical doctor, public health advocate, overall humanist, and newly certified human ecologist told COA's class of 2013, "All social justice efforts require teamwork, and a global endeavor requires a great many partners to get things done. Partner hard!" he urged the crowd assembled under the translucent tent. "Whether you look hard at the life burgeoning in a pond or at labor migration, whether you get your news from the changing seasons or from The Colbert Report, looking hard, and looking critically, reminds us that there's no honest way to deny our connectedness and our complexity," the good doctor continued. It's fair to say that most of that audience already knew the importance of teamwork, sharing, collaboration. What's different about COA is that we recognize, honor, and credit these connections throughout our entire system. We don't assume that students only learn from teachers, or that teachers have all the answers. Our professors learn from each other and from students - and students learn from each other, from their teachers, from the community, and also from themselves, from their own observations and understandings. Collaboration flourishes where hierarchy is diminished. While we haven't eliminated hierarchy at COA, we do downplay it. Recently Ed Kaelber, our founding president, was reminiscing with Ann Peach, his former assistant, about the early days. "There was a lack of pomposity in those days," remembers Ed. "You may be director of admissions, you may be Ed Kaelber, you may be Ann Peach, but if there's a snowstorm, you pick up a shovel. And it worked." It still works. We may have a bit more division of labor nowadays - an army of Buildings and Grounds workstudies to chip ice, and even a miniature plow for the many walking paths meandering through campus - but that sense that we're all in it together, that all community members expect to be treated as equals, and learning comes from a myriad of sources is what collaboration, COA style, is all about. Of course, we've only scratched the surface - and a magazine can only convey the verbal and visual. May I suggest you put on a bit of jazz, maybe watch the video of Nathaniel Hilliard's 2013 senior project concert from the COA website (his music performed in collaboration with his mentor, faculty member John Cooper), maybe munch on a morning glory muffin from Take-A-Break, the cookbook by Lise Desrochers, co-director of food services, and remember that the stories here are samples, representations of COA's many collaborative efforts. -DG 12 COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE DESIGNING FOR ACADIA THE CLASS NATIONAL PARK PRACTICUM: DESIGNING THE ACADIA NATIONAL PARK NATURE CENTER THE INSTRUCTORS COA FACULTY & ACADIA AND COA STAFF THE LEARNING COLLABORATION By Donna Gold . 3 1 2 4 6 7 FIRST FLOOR PLAN "Opening the door of the Nature Center, the first thing to catch your eye is a monumental, three- dimensional model of Mount Desert Island illuminated by overhead lights. You hear bird calls from the back of the room you see a gallery-like space with visitors observing large art pieces. You notice the integration of art, natural history, and science. The use of natural materials and simple technologies gracefully blends the historical setting of the building into the modern age. The room has an open, inviting flow and you can't wait to explore the exhibits just as you would the outdoors." From the Acadia National Park Nature Center exhibition proposal "Mapping Climate Change," created by Alexandria Fouliard '13, Meaghan Lyon '16, Matthew Messina '16, and Ivy Sienkiewycz '14 Come 2016, it is possible that visitors to Acadia National Park will encounter something like the above in the Sieur de Monts Nature Center. They might then examine a 360-degree mural of the park, listen to a "sound tree" of native birds, or peer through a scope that shows, not distant flora, but changes in the park's vegetation over the past fifty years. More flexible visitors might even crawl into a model of a loon nest. Each one of these innovative, place-based exhibits will have been designed by College of the Atlantic students working in collaborative teams during a course that itself was a collaboration between COA and Acadia. A partnership based on youth, place, and quality The impetus for the class, National Park Practicum: Designing the Acadia Nature Center, came from COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE 13 science educator and COA alumni relations coordinator Dianne Clendaniel, and Ardrianna McLane '02, Acadia park ranger for partnerships, outreach, grants, and youth, who has since become COA's director of summer programs. The four spent nearly a year planning the class before they introduced it to students with this flyer: "WANTED! Creative minds to help shape the future of Acadia's Sieur de Monts Nature Center. Must love sharing the wonders of nature with others." Not to mention must love talking about climate change. Following directives from the National Park Service that all parks need to intensify their discussions of the issue, Acadia chose climate change as the central theme of the redesigned museum. According to Ardrianna, the COA class marks the first time students have Back circle, left to right: Dianne Clendaniel, alumni coordinator, Ariana Rambach '16, Steve designed a climate change exhibit in Ressel, biology faculty, Annie Cohen '13, Ardrianna McLane '02, former Acadia National Park any national park. ranger, now COA summer programs director, Jane Strader '14, Dru Colbert, arts faculty, Kate Ross '13, Brittany Cullen '14, Chris Phillips '15; Front circle: Ivy Sienkiewycz '14, Matt Messina The thirteen students ranged from '16, Marissa Altmann '13, Alex Fouliard '13, Jane Piselli '12, MPhil '15, Meaghan Lyon '16. first-years to master's level. Whether they came from interests in science, the park itself, and the recognition were really important." The designs, design, or education, in ten weeks for by park employees that not only did she adds, incorporated multiple this one-credit class they needed to: they need to redesign and update its senses - soundscapes, bark Understand, analyze, and learn to central museum, but also reach out to textures, and food, as well as art and communicate climate change issues a younger generation. "We wanted to community voices - ideas that a more Research the natural history of create a youth voice and perspective professional design team may not Acadia in the park," says Lynne Dominy, have considered. Learn about exhibition design Acadia's chief of interpretation and Review best practices in education. What better way, she But while the coursework challenged contemporary exhibition design and others thought, than by having students in science, technology, and available and upcoming undergraduates initiate the design? and design, when they look back technologies COA students, she continues, "are they found it was the collaborative Conceive of a full museum with here, are involved and they have a experience that taught them the most. multiple exhibits good idea of what's going on with the Says teaching assistant Jane Piselli '12, Create learning objectives for each landscape." MPhil '15, "learning how to collaborate exhibit area during the creative process, to work Consider such permanent and Lynne's wishes were realized in May, toward a polished product for an historic elements as the building's 2013 when the students presented outside organization, was the most fireplace and doors, while also three-dimensional models, written valuable skill set that I gained during accounting for a small sales area, concept plans, and PowerPoint my time at COA." ranger station, and visitor flow explanations of four possible Produce conceptual drawings designs to a panel of high-level Science, technology, and awe Build and populate a three- park personnel. "The students did The course's collaborative teaching dimensional model of their design an amazing job," says Lynne. "The team was composed of COA arts exhibits were extremely different, faculty member and ace exhibit And, adds Ariana Rambach '16, ensure extremely original, and also had designer Dru Colbert, COA biologist that "the visitor will feel awed by elements that the students thought and Acadia researcher Steve Ressel, visual representations of Acadia." 14 COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE Calling the class "a deep learning increasingly extreme weather events. Learning to collaborate experience on a real problem," Dru Later, at a station representing a Another group incorporated a never doubted that the students mountain summit, visitors can reflect section featuring park researchers were up to the challenge. "I think our upon their experience while reading collaborating with local Maine artists students, they play and they discover; poems relevant to the region. to convey their scientific findings they don't know everything going into through art, an exhibit spearheaded an experience, but because they have As Lynne had hoped, the exhibits by Ivy Sienkiewycz '14 and cited as a passion for the subject, they are are truly place-based. The students one of the stand-out elements of the intrinsically motivated to learn," she didn't just look at climate change, but designs. Having spent much of her says. And their freshness "created a climate change here, in the park. To time at COA on individual curating wider array of possibilities, and more enhance the specificity, some designs projects, Ivy found the teamwork to divergent thinking - something you include voices of local fishermen and be the highlight of the class. "Working really want to have happen in the naturalists talking about the changes with other people is a great way to early phases of a design process, they've been witnessing, such as sea generate ideas," she says. "Being able rather than worrying about budget, level rise or ocean acidification. to talk to people and combine ideas, or practical feasibility, or thinking 'you just don't do that." From details to design The class began with readings on the National Park Service, exhibition design, and climate change, along with the psychology of how to present such issues to the general public. Guest speakers underscored the value of connecting to visitors' hearts as well as to their minds. Soon the class created four overarching concepts, one for each design team. That was the first half of the term. And then, says Ariana, "With all this info in our heads, we moved into putting our ideas into a design." Dividing into four teams of three or four students, the groups "drafted a floor plan, discussed what the exhibits were going to look like," and found Diouma progresses from softwoods to hardwoods ways to translate scientific facts and concerns into exhibits while applying measurable learning goals, such as - in distinguishing the call of a cicada, or certain basic animal tracks, or such recognizing the difference between - invasive and native species, "all in the pretty intense detail. I feel like I could have devoted my life to it," adds - Ariana. white I Her team was given park diversity as an overarching theme. Their design contains a naturalist's cabin with a working weather station. Nearby, a sound board emphasizes Using ongoing climate research, students in the nature center design class developed detailed exhibit concepts, including write-ups that discuss such impacts of climate change in amphibian calls so visitors can learn Acadia National Park as increasing storm severity and temperature change, disturbing both what happens to animals from such individual species like loons and warblers, as well as entire forest ecosystems. changes as heavy flooding caused by COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE 15 to see someone put their own twist of working in teams, and those more they would shape and model, on an idea," was both exciting and are skills you can take anywhere, the more buy-in there was to their rewarding. to anything that you do." She also ideas, the more real it all became." recognized that disagreements are The students began to think, "This For Annie Cohen '13, collaborating part of any process, since reluctant could actually be something." was, "simultaneously the hardest or stubborn colleagues are part of and most exciting part of the class. the working world, not to mention Then, like any design firm, each We all had to be willing to share and conflicting ideas, competing requests, group presented their ideas to a rework every idea, to acknowledge or demanding clients whose desires broad contingent of park personnel, that your idea was no longer 'yours' frequently change. including Lynne, Abe Miller-Rushing, once it had been shared with the park service science coordinator, group, and be able to let go to keep "You could see the excitement grow" Rebecca Cole-Will, cultural resources the process moving forward." As the designs began to come program manager, and Michael Kelly, together, the students used the scale park exhibit designer. There were rough patches, but that model they built to try out three- is part of learning. Ariana found that dimensional simulations of their ideas, Because the students offered four when classmates got frustrated, "and from the central, articulated map of concept designs, the park now has an felt that their ideas weren't getting Ivy's group to the storytelling grove of array of options for the space. "We heard," she learned to slow down, Ariana's. As they did, says Dru, "you can't use all of them," says Ardrianna. even stop. "I enjoyed that aspect could see the excitement grow. The "We'll now work with Mike Kelly on combining and refining, morphing, and pulling certain pieces" for the final design. Which is typical of any design process, adds Dru. Had the park gone to a professional exhibition design studio, she says, it most likely would have received just three different approaches, and spent a lot of money. "And it wouldn't have been as good, because the park wouldn't have been as involved," notes Ardrianna. The next step is another student collaboration, this time with Northern Arizona University, where Mike, an Mapping Climate Change experienced designer, leads a team of graduate students. From the ideas The in the four separate COA models, the Arizona team is creating a single, more the refined concept plan, complete with fabrication specifications. These will then be presented to a community planning group. So, would the park work with COA student designers again? "Absolutely!" says Lynne. "The process was really great because of the amazing learning environment created at COA and the caliber of the students." In fact, she's hoping to incorporate changing exhibits within the new Nature Center, so that the After measuring and mapping the Nature Center space and its fireplace, windows, and doors, students developed scale tactile models to demonstrate how complex exhibit ideas might look design connection with COA becomes and feel in the space. an ongoing collaborative class. 16 COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE TEAM-TEACHING, A COA STANDARD By Bill Carpenter, faculty member in literature and creative writing Team-teaching was part of COA's pedagogy from the beginning. It provided the quickest and most effective path for faculty to overcome their conventional training and gain an interdisciplinary perspective. Human ecology was practically defined by some of the legendary teaching teams as we were getting underway and trying things out: Dick Davis and Dan Kane - early faculty members in philosophy and law - teaching the class Whitehead and Whitewater. Steve Katona in biology and Sam Eliot in literature teaching Humans and the Great Whales. Team-teaching modeled professional collaboration and mutual respect, and the equality of discourse opened discussion so students could jump in on the same level. We reveled in the freedom from specialization and the explosive expansion of concept and language as departmental boundaries dissolved. Team-teaching brought what Ed Kaelber, COA's founding president, called "the amateur spirit" that did so much to level authority structures and reexamine questions in wide-spectrum light. If there are two teachers in the classroom, each teacher can spend half the time being a student, and if the students see the faculty learning, they quickly realize that they, the students, are also teachers themselves. Knowledge and intellectual leadership become equally distributed as the conventional authority point vanishes. There are no absolutes in a team- taught class; students must find that authority and confidence in themselves. For many years I taught Turn of the Century with biologist John Anderson and our former art historian, Joanne Carpenter. These classes were among the personal high points of my teaching. We came from the three divisions of the faculty and to some extent we were able to transcend the intellectual boundaries that the resource areas impose on a free-flowing curriculum. It wasn't that we were in there advocating for our particular ways of knowledge, but the presence of our colleagues' expertise allowed us to venture beyond ourselves, in the continual intellectual stretching that Karen Waldron mentions in the next story. Like any good collaboration, team-teaching is not just the sum of its parts, two or three professors in a room together voicing their individual perspectives. The collaborative group, including the students, becomes an intellectual superorganism truly ready to address problems in their wholeness without the narrowing of academic specialization. Rather than asking which of many competing perspectives is the best approach, the teaching team models the open and visible construction of a whole new approach based on the intrinsic challenges of the problem itself. Of course, that's the harmonious kind. In another class I team-taught for years, Text and Theory, with Etta Kralovec, former faculty member in education, our role was to entrench ourselves in our opposite positions and deconstruct the other's view till the class often became a modern/postmodern battlefield with the students choosing sides in an intellectual pillow fight that left everyone exhausted and hopefully enlightened that there's no single answer, which is why the postmodern view usually won out. Mellow or confrontational, team-teaching has been and continues to be a pedagogical hallmark of COA. Human ecology is not thought of as the expert domain of individuals but as the ever-changing thought process of a community. Anyone reading the sparkling interview with Karen and Catherine Clinger that follows will realize that the creativity and camaraderie of team-teaching continues to this day. Teaching teams have often been the origin and expression of long-lasting friendships. The instructional meetings before class are moments of such mutuality and insight that we often stop and say, "Hey, it's not fair to do this without the students!" COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE 17 COLLABORATION IN PROCESS DEVELOPING THE UNEXPECTED JOURNEY Catherine Clinger and Karen Waldron, arts and literature faculty members, respectively, talk about the process of developing this fall's team-taught course: The Unexpected Journey: Art, Literature, and History on the Road in Nuevo México. The three- credit class is comprised of Catherine's Art and Culture in Northern New Mexico, Karen's Native American Literature with a Focus on New Mexico, and the co-taught Processing the Unexpected Journey, with a three-week field experience in northern New Mexico. Catherine Clinger: Our collaboration actually developed informally through students. Karen Waldron: There was an increasing pattern of students working with both Catherine and me. In talking with them, we discovered resonances, as if we were tag-teaming - not quite filling in each other's blanks - Catherine: But building bridges that brought similar patterns into greater consonance within the work. Karen: Frequently our students were taking classes from both of us, referencing ideas between our classes and also extending those ideas, stretching them, so that we were in a virtual conversation. So we thought, Why don't we meet together? Catherine: And then we began co-supervising projects - Karen: And in that process of co-supervising - stretching out each other's intellectual responses, but also learning from each other - we discovered a thread of simpatico thinking. We are each very aware of different historic, artistic periods, but neither of us says, "I am a cubist" or "I am a deconstructionist." There's an ability to expand the conversation from recognizing these categories and exposing and exploding and complicating them - Catherine: So I tried to seduce her: Why don't we do a course together? Karen: And I thought, that would be awesome - Catherine: And why not make it a big course - why not go somewhere? We didn't want to just provide the opportunity for an experience. We want to have an experience together, creating new spaces for discourse. And we thought, let's have an experience within the US political borders - Karen: That is complexly multicultural - Catherine: Our ideas have changed a lot. I'm really doing a history of the region, a survey of cultural traditions, with loads of visual imagery: paintings, prints, ceramics, sculptures, architecture - Karen: Each of our courses has become more interdisciplinary through our conversations. We decided we'll go to each other's classes and read each other's materials, so we can immerse ourselves in the experience along with the students, modeling for them how deeply you can develop ideas and work from inspirations. Catherine: The idea is that all of us will be together learning in concert with one another. The three courses enable an ecology of experience, one that furthers a deeper understanding of the myriad of subjects through which we peer into this cultural space. New Mexico is a very old place with a long history that is described through indigenous stories in ancient images and modern texts. The native peoples have Previous page: Pecos (with Zoe Mailena had their world ripped apart, and yet there's an integrity to their being there Fassett-Manuszewski '16). because they've always been there and will always remain part of this landscape. This page from top: Cactus; Slot Canyon; I lived and taught in New Mexico and found myself wanting to return in a Ghost Ranch, Abiquiu Lake different context - on a journey with these wonderful people. Page 20: From Atop a Mesa Page 21: Ghost Ranch Gathering Karen: And I've never been to New Mexico. My access is through the literature, All photographs by Gabriela Niejadlik '14. which makes clear and visceral how much the stories arise from and take place COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE 19 in and on a particular land: there are white settlers, Hispanics, Native Americans, all interacting in this one space, seeing the land and their relationships. By having an immersion experience ourselves we can challenge our students and offer a tag-team effect that is really interdisciplinary. The work will rely heavily on what we're observing through our own eyes. We want an experience that will be incredibly complicated - Catherine: With no easy resolution. There needs to be a sense of political-social cooperation among the three dominant groups that live in New Mexico. Our students are going to be witnessing that interaction while they are in the process of beholding - as individuals as well as with their COA colleagues - all within an immense physical and cultural landscape - Karen: The students will make their way through issues of cultural appropriation and guilt, and we're going to be putting them in a place where they are going to have to wrestle with deep challenges - how is this changing us, how can we incorporate the changes that we are experiencing, what are our biases, what thoughts and feelings have to come together, how do scholars deal with themselves as conduits of perception and knowledge? Catherine: And we will talk about the contested symbols of the spirit of the place. There's a strong Catholic influence in New Mexico - a land of serpents and sacred mountains, santos, and kachinas. People read them conventionally as being fixed, eternal. I'm hoping that our students learn that traditions is in the first third of the term so that Catherine: Personally, it's a goal of are living and changing. There is no we can have plenty of contemplative mine in my new role as associate termination point in the formation of time, workshop time, to try artistic dean for academic affairs in long-term place - our journey will mirror the techniques, and time to discuss how curriculum planning to advocate for incessant invention of place, culture, we are processing oral, written, and more courses like this. We already landscape. visual material. We will discuss the have such courses, but I would like process of processing to learn how to see more intensive and immersive Karen: We want students to look to dive into that kind of learning experiences - for satisfaction in making their and show how much it's worth it to own discoveries. This is part of the tackle real questions, how hard that Karen: So students can learn how to idea of COA as a graduate school engagement is, and that it's a risk - read a landscape - for undergraduates - confronting the self, doing the intellectual work Catherine: So you can't be lazy. Catherine: And consider how it is read that is exciting and transformative by the folks that are present, turning because you are changing yourself Karen: We're talking about the value the pages of these places. and learning, and realizing they have of struggles. Each student has to to happen together. come up with a project that has to be I could name zillions of examples substantial - each has to take their of why I'm so glad I'm here at COA, Catherine: Another thing that Karen own work seriously. and Karen Waldron is definitely one of and I arrived at is that we need to them. have the space to absorb and rest and And that's some of what comes sit with the experiences - incorporate from our conversations. Having Karen: When you find a relationship the outer and inner landscapes. this constant stretching is the most that's satisfying and challenging and intellectually satisfying aspect of interesting that also can work in a Karen: We have to let the unconscious teaching, it happens with teacher and teaching setting - why not? work. We emphasized that from the students, but more in team-teaching, very beginning. The field experience where there are more variables. 21 EVOLVING DEMOCRACY EXPLORING THE NEW SCIENCE OF COOPERATION IN SOUTHWESTERN MADAGASCAR Text and photos by Dustin Eirdosh '04 With the piercing screech of worn- spirits. This earlier career choice was our new service-learning project out brakes and blinding swirls of red slowly overshadowed by two more linking democracy and education. I dust clouds, our tricycle rickshaw uplifting passions, one for my wife, began by tapping on the thick steel has once again safely delivered us to a German agronomist named Susan bars that line all the windows like a jail the rural campus of the University of Hanisch, and one for a new approach cell: "These bars are strong, and the Toliara, just a few miles out of town. to understanding our complex world, doors here all have brand-new locks," Comprised of some four thousand something called evolutionary studies, I said. "How is it then, that seven students, it is the oldest educational which offers scientific and historic new computers recently donated to institution in the economically accounts for the incredible human the psychology department were challenged southwestern corner of capacity to cooperate. When Susan's just stolen?" Everyone there knew Madagascar. doctoral work sent her to Madagascar, about this recent (and recurrent) I followed. crime: computers procured for I arrive with my assistant and common student use have a history translator, an eager high school Upon settling in, I was offered a of disappearing. Students from across student named Justice Damy. (While job within the newly established disciplines eagerly called out various my students speak English, they are educational psychology department hypotheses about the "problems of still learning, and my Malagasy is still to teach and develop curriculum the Malagasy people," but my psych rather poor, so Justice assists us for for the inaugural faculty. I was able students already had a more nuanced more complicated ideas.) We were to get this position based on my and evidence-based understanding of expecting to meet with about twenty- general background in psychology, the problem. During the weeks leading five of our educational psychology and my prior experience as the up to this meeting, my students students to talk about developing service-learning coordinator for the had been studying the dynamics of a student-led governance system Mount Desert Island Regional School democracy from an evolutionary within the university, yet as the dust System. As I became familiar with perspective. clouds settle, it is clear we have the Toliara program, it seemed they underestimated the interest. More had few resources and little planning The evolution of cooperation than one hundred students stand in place; I was essentially offered a We started by exploring the science waiting - the rumors of our work had blank slate upon which to sketch out of cooperation on multiple levels. spread across disciplines like wildfire. my dream program. For assistance, I Using resources from the Bill Gates- But why the intense excitement? How turned to my colleagues in the State sponsored Big History Project, we did I even get here? And importantly, University of New York system who looked at human, animal, and even can I deliver on the hopes and dreams are coordinating the international cellular and molecular notions of I see in the eyes of these struggling Evolutionary Studies (EvoS) Con- "group-level cooperation." We also young scholars? Let's take a quick step sortium. EvoS is the brain-child of looked at the science of democracy back in time. Binghamton University biologist and and cooperation as a historical anthropologist David Sloan Wilson. development itself. Within this From cattle to classroom Its aim is to cultivate an applied context, the theft of these computers Some three years ago, a collaboration understanding of the human condition could be understood as the selfish offering the master's program at the from an explicitly evolutionary grabbing of common-pool resources University of Kassel-Witzenhausen perspective. In October, 2012 the at the expense of the group. In this in Germany to COA alumni sent me University of Toliara became the first vein, students learned first about from my small grass-fed beef farm in African university to join EvoS. Thus ecologist Garrett Hardin's famous Pennsylvania across the Atlantic to began a whirlwind experimentation in conception of the tragedy of the study the nexus of food and culture institutional development. commons. Hardin had argued that from a multitude of perspectives. people acting in their rational This opportunity of a lifetime So there I stood in our tiny concrete self-interest will naturally deplete changed me in three profound ways. classroom, the one hundred-plus common-pool resources (be they First, I realized that studying meat students overflowing out the door cattle pastures or computers) production so intensely was actually and eagerly hanging on to each and unless there is top-down regulation. starting to wear on my brain and every windowsill just to learn about Following our study of Hardin, and 22 COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE / F 5 / / / / / / / / / il / / / / / / / / HIG Using a computer model, University of Toliara psychology student Lea Ravirinafolra works on designing an effective student governance model by exploring the social dynamics of group-level cooperation. using resources adapted from EvoS, are required for groups to overcome are what we have used to design a students learned how the late Nobel the tragedy of the commons at a democratic student-run committee Prize winner in economics, Elinor grassroots level. They learned how to oversee and develop information Ostrom, proved eight core design just this year, Wilson and Ostrom technologies at the University of principles - such as strong group demonstrated the broad applicability Toliara. identity, fair distribution of costs and of these principles to fields such as benefits, inclusive decision-making, community development. And now Some of my students have even and fast and fair conflict resolution - these simple yet powerful rules been able to engage a social COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE 23 dynamics modeling software, NetLogo, to interactively essentials, core design elements for flourishing democracies understand the dynamics of cooperation, corruption, and across multiple scales of society. Let me explain. enforcement within groups. Many consider these rules to be more than humanistic ideals; rather they are evolutionary Wilson is the founder of multi-level selection (MLS) theory, an answer to a complex of questions regarding the evolutionary development of altruism and cooperation that is now gaining acceptance. This model of growth and change is currently bearing significant fruit for the field of community development. In brief, MLS recognizes the inescapable tensions resulting when the individual parts of a system begin to integrate into a united whole. Whether it is biochemistry within a cell, organs within an organism, or individuals within a society, rules of cooperation must exist for the system to function and grow. At the biological level we see membranes, organs, and multiple scales of physiology as operating under rules of cooperation. When we scale these rules up to the socio-cultural domain, we find the generalized group design principles of Wilson and Ostrom. These rules of group design can be seen as historical guidelines for the modern development of effective human ecologies. That is to say, where evolution occurs on ecological time scales, evolutionary studies are, by definition, studies in human ecology. Importantly, these broad-stroke principles are only minimally prescriptive, requiring significant local adaptation. This critical local adaptation is now our ongoing task. Today, student-led democratic governance has its very first foothold at the University of Toliara. We now have a young but eager Technology Leadership Committee of more than fifty students from across 100 percent of the institutions and departments of our university system. The by-laws and culture of the committee are increasingly being shaped by Wilson and Ostrom's group design principles to support multiple levels of student leadership and organization (at local, institutional, regional, and even national levels). This committee has set an ambitious goal for 2014: that every student at the University of Toliara engages in ten hours of free internet access per week for their studies. Our efforts will continue until our students get reasonable, secure, and free access to the information technologies so critical to their basic education. Besides the direct technology education enhancements, there are also collateral impacts of pursuing this objective. By explicitly organizing around the group design principles of Wilson and Ostrom as a model for cultivating cooperation at ever-larger scales, students are gaining invaluable tools to create democracy from the ground up. With the support of EvoS we are, in the most literal and rigorous use of the phrase, evolving democracy in a nation otherwise deeply marred by the effects of poor political processes. Dustin Eirdosh is research director of the Positive Education Top: Cows graze the commons just beyond the University of Toliara's windows. And yet, says Dustin Eirdosh '04, "our Action-Research (PEAR) Laboratory at the University of Toliara. classrooms are anything but naturally designed." One of his The program is now accepting international interns and visiting projects is to alter classroom configurations away from rows of researchers and welcomes contact from interested members of desks. Bottom: Students from across disciplines use core design principles to shape the first democratic student governance for the the COA community. For more, visit PEARLab.UniToliara.info or University of Toliara. MythicMinds.us. Contact Dustin at Dustin@MythicMinds.us. 24 COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE TUTORING AS COLLABORATION THE COA WRITING CENTER By Sarah Haughn '08 Superb. Sharp. He was the bee's knees when it came to writing. Sitting down in the college's main building for the incoming students' placement exam, he had sixty minutes to demonstrate this aptitude. God, he thought, they're going to have to make a new level for me. I'm just that good. A few days later, he got a note in his box. "Please see me," it said. It was signed simply, "a." Aha, he thought, I was right! Off he went to consult with Anne Kozak, founder and director of College of the Atlantic's writing center. "Darron," said Anne, "I think you knowing how to write for each needed the proper tools and skills to should work on your writing." audience travels hand in hand with piece everything together." knowing what to write. She came And so he embarked - a bee, but to COA with a research-based She now enjoys helping students at humbled - relearning to write. marine science background without MDIBL revise their posters. As she Through Anne and the transformative understanding how crucial good seeks to publish papers from her process she encouraged, the then- writing is to good science. Then master's thesis, Ashley continues to eighteen-year-old Darron Collins biologist John Anderson introduced draw on the clear, concise, audience- '92 came to embrace writing not as Ashley to Anne. specific technical writing she learned a reflection of him personally, not at COA. as a forum to show off his cache of "After reading over some of my work, multisyllabic adjectives, but as a skill Anne knew what I was missing and The collaborative structure of the he could further develop. His hard geared my writing courses directly writing center not only pairs product work earned him a spot as a writing to the structure and style of my with process, but also students tutor, and he became close friends writing," Ashley says. Anne showed with peer tutors. Anne had seen the with Anne. Ashley how her research could be benefits of faculty tutoring during her better understood if her technical time teaching at Lansing Community Now president of COA, Darron reflects writing were clearer. Using the College in Michigan. She recognized on the value of writing itself as a writing center's guiding text, Style: the importance of such process- learning process that is also inherently Lessons in Clarity and Grace by Joseph oriented work, but when she launched collaborative. "Writing for me is not Williams, Ashley worked on principles COA's writing center in 1980, she used just about describing; it's a process of of syntax and audience, and also another model: trained peer tutors learning how one thought connects gained important editing skills for the who collaborate laterally, offering with another, how one person scientific posters frequently used in guidance not grades. connects with another. Knowing my presentations. intended audience influences my own Writing tutors undergo thorough writing." "After working with Anne and John training so as to be able to help a few times on problem-set drafts, I students write professionally and Ashley Heinze, MPhil '13, a research realized, 'Wow, now all of this makes discover their unique voices - their assistant at Mount Desert Island more sense.' It was a huge relief own art balanced with the pragmatics Biological Laboratory, agrees that because I knew I could write, but I of structure and style. Peer tutors COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE 25 take the Advanced Composition As a tutor, Colin received the added seminar and Methods of Teaching benefit of working with students Writing Across the Curriculum. They for whom English was not a first meet with each other to improve language. Those efforts enriched their skills, and refer students to each his comprehension of how language other when they feel the scope of an functions and rendered the process of assignment exceeds their particular collaborative editing more relevant. understanding. Anne works on a personal level with tutors on and off Bhupendra Nagpure '06 - who since graduating from COA has earned an campus, establishing a sense of craft- MSc in teaching physics and math based solidarity. Creating a close- from the University of Maine, Orono knit community of writers facilitates and a MSc in mechanical engineering clear communication and a sense of from Boston University - remembers accountability to fellow tutors and arriving at COA from a rural Indian student tutees. village. A native Hindi speaker, Bhupi had only two years of English studies "It is always a struggle to make sure at Mahindra United World College of people who use the center do not India before coming to COA. think of it as a place just to have their work proofread," notes Colin Capers It was through working with COA '95, MPhil '09, former writing tutor and peer tutors as both friends and now assistant director of the writing teachers that he grew confident in his program. With the potential for the ability to fluently articulate himself drop-and-go efficiency that email in written and spoken English. It's a brings, Colin and Anne deliberately capacity invaluable to Bhupi in his emphasize the importance of one- current profession as a search engine marketing engineer for PAMEdge, a on-one time with tutors, who help Boston-based information technology students make their own revisions. management company. "Individual contact and direct time with a tutor are important," says "Writing is an integral part of my daily Colin. "There has to be dialogue where duties," he says. "From corresponding tutors ask questions to discover a with various clients within the country student's voice and meaning." to interacting via chat with people abroad, my writing reflects upon my Colin and Darron - both writing education. More importantly, my tutors during their undergraduate writing is the first impression my days - recognize the profound clients witness about my company. impact tutoring had on their own Our whole business depends on writing. "Teaching writing made me good customer relationships. In deconstruct what writing was all today's world, where we have fewer about," says Darron. "I really pared verbal interactions and more text- down my writing. I also had to think based contacts, writing is part of about how to imbue students with a personality." A significant difference between sense of how to edit, instilling the idea COA's writing center and those of For Bhupi, working with tutors during other institutions lies in the academic that great writing requires editing. college was thoroughly collaborative. diversity of the tutors themselves. Writing is rewriting." "There was always someone working Most similar programs across the on their own writing at the center, so country draw primarily from English Colin, too, found that the collaborative that meant there was always someone majors who may not be comfortable work of tutoring was a learning to interact with or seek help from. My tackling a technical science poster or experience for him. "Even growing experience at the writing center was a landscape design project. At COA, up with a librarian and a journalist as a mirror reflection of my learning at says Anne, the tutors are "simply parents, I found peer tutoring very COA in classes. COA's philosophy of good writers coming from any and helpful in honing my skills as an editor. lateral knowledge-sharing extended every discipline. They are comfortable It helped me develop interpersonal everywhere on campus, and the talking about oceanography and skills, too." writing center was no exception." animal behavior." 26 COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE à "To ease us into the efforts of writing me polish my essay via continuous that we all struggle - students, in what is often not a native tongue," back and forth email during a snowy tutors, and myself. Students have to says Bhupi, "Anne would take night." She was happy to help and feel comfortable knowing they are not international students and writing more happy that I was motivated to the only ones who can't figure it out." tutors for long walks on Ocean Drive, keep working until I couldn't work it organize potlucks and dinners for us, anymore. But as writing goes, there is and help us interact. This not only never a final draft." Sarah Haughn '08 writes from Davis, improved our spoken English, but also California, where she is working on a helped us make friends and hence "Writing is difficult," Anne acknow- master's degree in creative writing. have more teachers to learn from - ledges. "You need to be able to admit for peers are the greatest teachers." that. Anyone can struggle with writing, Above: Writing tutor Nathan Thanki '14 and and not be sure it's entirely accurate classmate Alison Pierik '14 discuss the best Continues Bhupi, "There was a time or that it's meeting the requirements way of incorporating some recent research when I pestered a writing tutor to help of a certain field. We have to recognize into Aly's internship report. COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE 27 COLLABORATING TO CONSERVE COMMUNITIES: JULIE MASSA '93 By Marni Berger '09 It feels great to be able to walk on this ground and say: 'This is mine. It's mine for the rest of my life.' - Elias Montemajor, resident, Horizon Homeowners Cooperative Imagine suddenly losing your home Julie where she spent five years working in the community you have known for "My mother's family were hard- on welfare organizing policy and then decades. Your landlord needs to sell, working people who lived on very turned to lobbying for affordable and you live in Oregon where there little money," Julie explains. "I housing. are no rent increase caps; your rent grew up around my grandparents, will likely skyrocket. This is where Julie and I watched that struggle." This But years of policy work proved Massa '93 and her team at CASA of experience has led to a lifetime of draining. When the position of Oregon step in. Located in Sherwood, service for Julie. At COA she interned resident organizer opened up at where urban growth meets farmland with Downeast Sexual Assault CASA in 2010, Julie was ready for on the edge of wine country, CASA Services in Ellsworth, Maine, then direct service, for getting to know the operates to assist residents who face created a model of campus support people she wanted to help by working the risk of displacement. groups for sexual assault survivors for with them side by side. "I feel like her senior project. I've graduated into exactly what I've CASA is a statewide nonprofit wanted to be," she says. whose mission is "to improve the After graduation, Julie pursued a lives of Oregonians in underserved nonprofit career seeking to prevent The residents communities by building affordable domestic violence in Maine and New Julie has gotten to know the diverse housing, neighborhood facilities, Mexico. She then found her way to residents of the manufactured and programs that increase families' one of Oregon's most expansive housing parks well. Many of those financial well-being." nonprofits, the Oregon Food Bank, who live in these factory-built 28 COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE park can be converted. If it can be, Assistance Corporation - lend CASA meets with the landlord with specifically to organizations like CASA. an offer to purchase the property as a co-op. Afterwards, Julie and her Tony coworkers approach residents, often Tony Weisbecker is 68 years old, accompanied by the landlord, to gauge retired, a deft conversationalist with their interest in a conversion. Finally, a twenty-two-year background in Julie sets up the first of approximately talk radio. He describes himself as six meetings with residents. someone who never, ever changes his mind. He was one of CASA's most modular home communities work in Meetings are held in whatever large, outspoken resident opponents. Like the community and support families; free community space is available - many residents at the outset of a others are retired. Most live on fixed fire stations, libraries, gymnasiums, conversion, Tony was dubious of the incomes. A good number have careers or resident homes. "We bring an financial strain it could entail. He told in forestry and so enjoy the closeness easel," Julie says. "We hold ice- Julie when they met, "I can be your to nature of park living. Frequently breaker activities, and we encourage best friend or your worst enemy." these parks have prime locations, democratic decision making right such as along the banks of the Rogue away." At these initial meetings, Julie Not long after his neighbors approved River, a few miles from the Pacific and a coworker help community a co-op conversion, says Tony, it Ocean. members elect a board to act as a finally sunk in: "What's done is done. liaison between CASA and the park I can fight it. Or I can work with it." With little financial flexibility, the community, and set up a structure for Over time, Julie earned Tony's trust renters are particularly vulnerable potential lenders. Once the board is through her ability to listen to a to shifts in the economic climate. elected, Julie and the coworker offer diversity of opinions and mediate, Between 2001 and 2007, when sixty- a four-hour training on community and he began to see Julie as someone nine manufactured housing parks development, real estate transaction, who authentically wants to help - not closed in Oregon, 2,800 residents and how the organization should be control - his community. He has since were displaced. structured. become one of CASA's most loyal supporters. "In every case," Amanda Waldroupe Julie is aware that even though CASA's writes in a 2012 Street Roots article goal is to help, a co-op can be a sea profiling CASA, "the park owners sold change to residents, and many at first the park to companies or individuals are rightfully wary. Fortunately, after who demolished the parks and the first or second meeting, when redeveloped the land." Julie has laid out the math and proven CASA's willingness to find funding To mitigate further displacement, for the purchase, trust cements and CASA started converting residents are eager to take the helm. manufactured parks into co-ops in 2007, capping residents' monthly The math payments by helping them turn rents Though a sale to residents is likely into mortgages. Julie began rolling to be less lucrative than one to a up her sleeves with the team in developer, the incentive for landlords 2010, working directly with residents is the capital gains tax exemption throughout the conversion process, as they receive if they sell to a nonprofit. well as providing support thereafter. CASA's co-ops qualify as nonprofits. Says Julie, "If I can make that happen for other people, I've fulfilled my job Other financial aid for park as a human ecologist." conversions comes from the state of Oregon and nonprofit lenders. The process The state has made a commitment The multi-step process takes months. to affordable housing. Most of the After finding out about low-income existing co-ops have received a parks from the real estate brokers $600,000 grant for the preservation of After initially opposing the conversion of with whom they have developed a manufactured housing. Additionally, his community, resident Tony Weisbecker relationship - and who receive a nonprofit lenders - such as Network has become an advocate of Julia Massa '93 and CASA. commission from selling a park - for Affordable Housing, ROC USA the CASA team ascertains that the Capital, and Rural Community Photos: ROC USA/Mike Bullard COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE 29 Clackamass River Community in Clackamass, Oregon. Collaboration has fused a working "and I wouldn't have gotten involved everyone has a say. You have to learn friendship into something of a family in it without Julie's encouragement." that your neighbor's opinion is just as bond for Tony and Julie. "I got one valuable as yours." daughter," Tony says. "If I had another The admiration is mutual. Julie says one, I'd love to have Julie." that beyond the conversions, the "That's how you live in a community," most rewarding moment of her career Julie adds. "I learned that at COA, and I He adds, "basically, she's saving was when Tony agreed to testify on try to teach that." homes. She's saving people's lives." behalf of Oregon's House Bill 3007, requiring landlords to offer the facility Julie believes there is more for her This year, as new cooperative to tenants before selling it to a third to learn. Speaking of her own home, opportunities arise, Tony has been party. CASA's executive director drove she says, "To be a part of my own accompanying Julie and her team him to the hearing while Julie and community, to be active and involved to the introductory meetings with the team watched a live feed of the - I haven't mastered that yet. I can do residents, using his radio skills to proceedings. Tony was passionate and a better job." introduce the co-op idea to residents. adamant. Recalling it, Julie gets teary. He provides his perspective, knowing But Julie has certainly made a home that it helps residents to hear from That's how you live in a community for herself at CASA and with the someone who has already undergone Julie attributes much of the inspiration cooperative residents of Oregon. As the process and experienced similar for her present work to All College she puts it, when a park is converted, doubts. Meetings, COA's weekly democratic "I sleep better at night." decision-making forums. "I tell "[Working with my community] has residents, 'You're not going to get For more visit www.casaoforegon.org. been rewarding for me," Tony says, exactly what you want, because Marni Berger '09 is a New York City-based writer, teacher, tutor, and dog fanatic. Her essays, short stories, and author interviews can be found at The Millions, Fringe Magazine, Litro, and The Days of Yore; her poetry is forthcoming this year at Crescendo City. 30 COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE Aversion Story by Michael Griffith '09, Paintings by Alonso Diaz Rickards '12 Created in collaboration Normally Tim avoided theorists like Alix. Once, after glare of her glasses obscured her eyes so that he could a Friday afternoon seminar turned into a pub crawl, only make out two stretched lips, uncannily detached he was dragged to a gathering where everyone came from expression. Was she trying to communicate irony? dressed as Foucault. He was gently chided and handed For Tim, this introduced the possibility that she might not a pair of browline glasses and a turtleneck at the door. mind ulterior motives. Her cornflower print dress lapped a Things began to go downhill after he introduced himself body of indeterminate size, exposing a small, cropped head as an art historian. If he had owned to being a trained above and a pair of Doc Martens, in what appeared to be a conservationist, he suspected, threats might have been men's size, powderpuff pink with banana laces, below. She made. must have had limits, but he could not detect any on her Yet whenever he could, he ventured forth from the person. history department to his friend Manu's conservation As she seated herself, dealing him a firm handshake, he studio. Some work last year on a Comper altarpiece, could just make out her eyes: irony beneath blue-veined so spare it could hardly be called Gothic, had caused a lids. "A pleasure to see you again, sir," she said. A server, pleasurable tingle to course his spine. He knew he was seemingly in a panic, set down two overbrimming lattes and edging into craftsmanship then. At the end of a working dashed off. day he would notice the swell of his hands, scarlet with Tim was relieved that conversation came naturally. Alix white nails, and take pride in the throbbing. Before dinner offered an overview of the gossip in her department, which Christian would massage each finger, firm at first, reforming gave him time to prepare some remarks on changes within recalcitrant joints, only to end more gently. the University of London, the vast, nebulous consortium When the altarpiece was finished Tim told Manu that if to which both of their colleges belonged. When this was he had his own way, he would rather not pack up his tools over, as if on cue, Alix began to chat about her module again. The pair, apprenticed together what seemed an age on medieval anachronism, something to do with curation ago, allowed the evening news to fill the darkening studio. studies, and somehow Tim could not help but listen. All over London, accidents and misunderstandings had Probably Alix had that effect on everyone. triggered widening scenes of human drama, some to be "You should know, Alix, I'm not very theoretical." resolved by nightfall, others never. "There's always space "Oh, but that's lovely Tim! I suppose I should make a for you here, Tim." Manu pressed a folded piece of foolscap confession myself." to his chest. Visible inside, despite the dimness, was cash. Tim waited. "I'm a Ruskinian, and William Morris is my "Do the most difficult thing." hero," she said. "But I don't believe what they believed. I'm a Tim was perhaps not as courageous as his friend critical theorist." imagined. He continued to draw a salary from the college, "Indeed, most academics are these days." which had one quality, above all others, to recommend "Not you though." itself: what used to be called constancy. You would never "I'm afraid that some of us don't fit so neatly in this earn very much, but you might always earn a little. Not that century." he lacked ambition, within limits. Alix Alexander was said to Alix nodded like a theater actor aiming for the back be leading a committee tasked with hiring an art historian row of the dress circle, if not the gallery. "That's why I like who could teach a module on conservation. The job would you, Tim. You think that criticism isn't enough. And I think mean leaving well-fenced Bloomsbury for the Strand, you're right in this sense: we need lovers and artists and where churches were traffic islands and casinos lined Anne craftspeople, too. We need all kinds of voices in academia." Boleyn's coronation route, but it would make doing the Suddenly Tim understood how his friend Ed, a difficult thing, if not easy, then at least possible. Christian congenitally cautious Midlander, had become engaged suggested Tim take Alix out for coffee. to a Texan after three weeks, at most, of dating. North "On what pretense?" Americans moved fast, but Tim wished to woo, or be wooed, "Research, of course." slowly. He asked if Alix knew whether or not Morris and Co. Surely Alix had been in London for too long to produce had provided windows, perhaps just a single window, to St. uncalculated effects. Yet when the dove grey doors parted Andrew's, the Anglican church in Moscow? In the mid-1880s she advanced into the Somerset House café seemingly it had cost 213,616 rubles, "exclusive of stained glass and prepared, like most North Americans, to smile at anything other presentations," to construct, in Moscow, a red brick or nothing. Tim was briefly conscious of his duplicity. The Victorian Gothic edifice of the type found in any English COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE 31 The Old Public Record Office Looking East to the City of London, 2013, oil on board, 11x14 inches. village. Nothing special there, and none known as Archway. Come at eight, and of the church records or spiral-bound please bring nothing but yourselves. Our histories hinted at any involvement with place is full of booze. Clare will be there." "the Firm." It was likely that the glass "What's the occasion? Not that you had been produced locally at minimal need one." expense. "The twenty-fourth of March, of "Or it might have come from France," course." offered Alix. "Yes?" But an English governess, a Miss "H-e-l-l-o!" said Alix, gathering up her Cormell, working for a St. Petersburg things. "It's a birthday party for Mister family, had visited Moscow in 1892 and Morris!" written a letter to her mother insisting Alix's head must have been very that a certain window in St. Andrew's small, he lost sight of it even before the was identical to one in their parish automatic doors opened once again for church at New Ferry, Merseyside. Tim her. She was like a Burne-Jones figure, had landed upon the letter in the British he thought, big bones and drapery. Library whilst searching for something What's more, it occurred to him as he entirely else. Of course he had looked began cautiously to like her, she knew up the New Ferry church, St. Mark's, she was a Burne-Jones, and gloried in immediately, and discovered that the the effect. Firm had sent a St. Andrew's window up She was an empiricist when it came to New Ferry in 1876, and according to to the matter of awe, at least. his sources, the design - by the painter Edward Burne-Jones - was reused in It was raining in Archway, and they 1894 in Chelsea and elsewhere in 1896. had come, as they always did, early. Was a fourth window floating around Christian invited Tim into his umbrella's Russia? ring of protection, a kind-hearted "You are brilliant," said Alix. "Gold precursor to a disagreement about star for making me super fucking physics. The taller one should hold the curious." umbrella, yes, but remain sensitive to "No ideas, then?" Tim was surprised the size of his dependent, the more by her honesty, but realized he shouldn't liable to exposure - if the shorter be. Despite her appearance, or his one is so sensitive, he should retain response to it, Alix's strategy was truth- the umbrella, here, take it, but hold it telling. "None," she replied. aloft. They argued up and down several "At least there are two of us now." terraces and into a mews, Tim stopping, "But wait a minute - my other and even lowering the umbrella, to brilliant friend, Clare, might have a comment on a fine late Victorian door hunch. She's done work on both Morris surround. Work in stone had been more and Anglican churches abroad." Alix expensive, of course, but ultimately, checked her polka-dotted watch. "I'm Portland cement had held up better in sure Clare will know something." the war. Coade stone, or fortified clay, "So there shall be three of us on the phased out by the 1840s, had done even hunt. Good." better. "Do you have a partner?" The incident occurred within a minute "What?" or two of their arrival. Alix had shunted "Boyfriend, girlfriend?" them up a narrow stairs, an exclusion "Alix, I'm - " zone between Karam Curry House and "Because I want to invite you to the Cheap-o Liquor Store. Inside the a party at my place, a week from door, Alix's partner, Geoff, smiled at tomorrow." them and disappeared. "Oh. My partner's name is Christian." "This is Clare and her partner John," "I knew it!" she cried. "I bet he's said Alix, drawing Tim and Christian fabulous." toward a dim lounge where two fair Tim ignored this, but urged his diary people, who might have been siblings, and a pen from his overfilled satchel. sat on the edge of a futon. "Clare, John "Where do you live?" - this is my colleague Tim, and his "Highgate Valley, more commonly lovely partner " COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE 33 Alix was telling Clare about Tim's get to discuss his stained glass with give way when you step on them. Is research when he noticed that Clare's her." there anything better - that is, more eyes were gathering moisture. The Alix smoothed down her pleated harmless - for a sufferer to do? They drops were not necessarily tears. skirt and added, "Of course, we'll would be months apart, an enfilade When Alix's voice shifted to a higher follow up with Clare tomorrow." She of chat screens down numberless key, and John looked brightly, then appeared slim and cool now, master days. Yet just now a raw wind from desperately away, however, Tim began of the situation, but so small that Tim the home counties muted any scent of to worry. At the word "India," where felt a liar for thinking her a Burne- approaching spring. Christian was headed for an artist's Jones figure. He fixed his attention Wishing for a solvent of coffee, residency, Clare's body subsided. As on Christian, who was arranging a Tim and Christian surfaced in the she slumped over John - perhaps she stack of laminated coasters on the Spaniards Road, where one must hadn't any dinner, but then she was coffee table. Each displayed a different finally admit to the existence of crying also - it occurred to Tim that Morris print. suburbs. he or Christian might have somehow She was wearing no glasses, that "Don't look," said Christian, upset her. was the difference. Possibly she wore grabbing Tim's wrist. "Perhaps we should go," whispered contact lenses. He bowed his head. "What is it?" Christian, as Alix returned to the They walked on. room with a squeezed but dripping "What was her problem, do you "Clare and John, from the party." rag. The water on Clare's face made think?" Christian asked again after He shifted discreetly and turned it impossible to tell whether she was a few weeks. "The woman at Alix's to see the back of an anonymous crying, sweating, or experiencing a party." woman's head, then a face, Clare's kind of relief. But then, the rash on her India, that had seemed the trigger, face, craned round like his own. cheeks made it difficult to tell, also, but it might have been something "She recognizes me." whether she was laughing or dying. entirely else. Did Tim resemble "What?" That was the most important thing to someone Clare knew - used to know? "Her face fell," he said, putting clarify, thought Tim confusedly. He imagined a young pale brother his hand to the back of his neck. After Alix and John led Clare to the suspended from a length of rope. He "Someone is playing a prank on us; kitchen, Geoff joked, "Clearly, she's had no reason to feel guilty, of course, the prank will be aired on the reality had a long day!" John returned to the about a possible resemblance; nor did channel." Christian was alarmed, he lounge, and to Tim and Christian's he. Still he was obscurely troubled. He wasn't sure why, to hear Tim laugh surprise said much the same thing. By meant to ask after her, but he would just now. "There may be a camera the kitchen, Alix could be seen kissing have to see Alix for that, and in the nearby." Clare's forehead, wrapping her into past few weeks he had not seen Alix. "Who could she be?" a shawl, unfurling an umbrella. She This did not have the effect of making "When I looked, her face turned to handed the latter to John as the front him less worried about the job. As pixels." door swung open, letting a triangle Christian rightly pointed out, only the "Did you ever ask Alix about her, of light into the darkened room. Clare opposite could be true. love?" went first. After Christian had packed for Tim was not quick to respond. "Is she okay?" demanded Christian. Delhi they took a walk on Hampstead Perhaps it took more effort than Alix sat down where her friend Heath, prepared to be impressed by usual to face straight ahead, to keep had been. "Oh god, poor Clare." She quantities of greenery, absent now stepping toward what, eventually, looked up at Geoff, confirming a for many months. They had spoken of would be the airport. Finally, as the mutual understanding, then turned nothing but easels and visas for days High Street rose into view, Christian to Christian. "She has these attacks, it seemed, in a rush of urgency that ventured, "It's just the city. With so usually after a long, long day." suited the leaver, as always, better many atoms whizzing around, they're "It has happened before," admitted than the stayer. Tim did not grumble, sure to bump into each other." Geoff. unless a fit of stoicism can be "Perhaps, after all, there is a higher "Did we interrupt something?" interpreted as a kind of complaint. His - or even a lower - order." "No, no. That's the thing, Tim - we brow could be seen to glow, however. "Tim." were just chatting." Three heavy bags, filled mostly with "Why are we certain there's Geoff said, "But she does this supplies, lined the hall. With any luck, not? Have we ever really given it a sometimes." they would not be unclosed before thought?" "She even apologized, the darling. Christian's departure. "You never called Alix," said She quoted Morris by the door On the nineteenth of April, as Christian, putting the fact into just now: 'Whatever is unhappy is it turned out, the heath had yet to circulation. Surely something more immoral.' What a fucking kickass green. Fat, damp twigs littered the could be done? "You never looked up scholar she is. It sucks that Tim didn't bare soil, the sort that immediately Clare online, on Facebook?" 34 COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE "No. I've deactivated my account could still be seen to glow. Christian line, "Urgent: Pre-Raphaelite Wombat again." appeared unperturbed. He was quietly Attack!" His friend Tobias was excited "Is that true?" calculating the expense of a cancelled to share the confidential news that, "No. I couldn't find her on trip, however, on his heart. It was the during some routine preservation Facebook, then I deactivated my same old story, really, a feeling that work at the Red House, a new mural account." it was impossible to go or stay, and a had been discovered in the Morrises' "We should Google her." deeper certainty, equally disquieting, bedroom. The National Trust was "She's not on the department's that very shortly you would do one already holding off the William Morris website; probably in adjunct or the other thing, impossible to say Society, which was beginning to field purgatory. Her name is common. Let's which, but soon you would know and calls from curious amateurs retired drop it." be just fine. Not yet, though. on the Costa Brava. Just how word Both of them knew where they But Tim set down his latte and said, had leaked so quickly he couldn't would go, and got there without "I don't mean to ruin our day. Listen. say. The important thing was to get speaking. Tim stood in the queue: I'll call Alix tomorrow, or perhaps I'll together a team ASAP to identify the sometimes a gift is what you can text her, after you've gone." figures and inscriptions before The manage. As usual, Maite put cow milk Dislodged, Christian cried, "You Guardian showed up. "Come out to in Christian's soy latte, Tim dropped haven't ruined our day!" Kent, Bexleyheath Stn, we'll pick you 20 p. into the bowl by the till, and up. We've only managed one figure silently, at the communal table, Two days after Christian flew off, so far, a wombat curled up beneath they exchanged drinks. Tim's brow Tim received an email with the subject a chair. Probably Rosetti sketched it Two Trees in Hampstead Heath 1, 2013, oil on canvas, 16x20 inches. COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE 35 in during one of the famous painting in time to see Clare and John enter the "Just who I wanted to speak to," she parties. They would have been in Brown Gallery, as he was doing, but said. their twenties, remember, and likely from the opposite end. "Alix. Hello. There's something - " sauced." "Something important?" The email was cc'd to a dozen That in all of Knole, said to contain 365 "Yes." conservationists and historians from rooms (fifty-two staircases, twelve "Something that can't wait 'til London and Oxbridge. Tim knew them entrances, and seven courtyards - tomorrow?" all. Alix's name came third on the list, a calendar house), in all of greater "Well, yes." just before his own. London, they should meet here. It "Are you free tonight?" At London Bridge Station he bought was not enough to say they were both "Fantastic. Yes. Yes." a single return ticket to Sevenoaks, art historians. It would be lying, he "Then you're coming to my Kent. argued silently, to suggest that this engagement party, Tim. I've been happened all the time. terribly remiss. We've been so busy Tim knew very well that he should A woman behind him said, "Excuse tracking down unglazed Staffordshire report to the Red House instead. us, love." He would step aside, lower dogs, you know, for you guys to paint There was still time to make it to his face, and wait. The couple would as party favors, that we forgot to Bexleyheath, he was already in Kent. branch off to Lady Betty's china closet post half the invitations. We'd be so He knew, too, that it would be best before he was seen. There will be no honored though if you'd grace us with to approach Alix in person. Certainly tears, he decided. your presence - and Christian, of Christian would expect him to. He Clare must have had stronger eyes course!" knew all that, but knowledge rarely than he imagined, for she took a long "He's in Delhi." makes action easier. If anything, it time with each portrait. John moved in "One second. Okay, back. He's in works against you. a tight orbit around her, held by love's Delhi?!" Tim resolved to move without gravity, or guilt's. For a few minutes "Yes, he left a few days ago." thinking up to Knole House, through Tim pitied him, then he began to feel "Oh my god. I'm going to have to the crested hall screen and up the annoyed. ask him for a huge favor. Do you think leopard-neweled staircase, symbol of Why should she keep him from he'd mind? There's a garrison church Sackville family power. This is where walking down the Brown Gallery? Or built by one of Lutyens's assistants, he had always gone to get away. from taking a job that put them into one Arthur Gordon Shoosmith, that's When he saw a piece of nineteenth- proximity? like a 1930s power station smashed century glass, it was true, thoughts of Cautiously Tim made his way into a cathedral. Fantastic stuff. I need Alix returned. But Knole's fabric was forward. So far Clare had not so much pictures of the reinforced concrete mostly Elizabethan and late Stuart, as glanced in his direction. He did not roof, from the belfry." and much of its early seventeenth- wish to be seen, he told himself, only "Alix, I need to speak to you alone. century glass, miraculously, remained. to move freely on his path. In person I mean." This offered a means of escape - Of course, this was not entirely "Don't worry, you will. I need to from his period, from Alix. He could true. speak with you, too. This prohibition stare at the glass for days and know He paused, and coughed a little. against mixing business with pleasure he was only studying surfaces. Perhaps if she saw him like this, is fucking artificial, and not in the fun, But it was overcast just now, completely natural, unassuming, and Bakelite sort of way. I have a special and the lights inside, where they he met her gaze with a kind smile, message from our committee. I want existed, had been turned so low he telegraphing sympathy, he could to tell you over booze, with a Smiths could barely make out the faces of simply ask what was the matter? cover band playing. We'll find a little figures. Only the heavily worked silver corner." furniture showed any detail, picked It took surprisingly little time "Alright." out by its own radiance. He mentioned for the crowd to surge towards the "But hey, are you at the Red House the light to an ancient, stationary fainting woman, whom it did its best right now? How are those freaking docent, wielding an enormous torch, to suffocate. Perhaps John had asked wombats, man?!" apparently eager to highlight the for help, though he didn't hear it. A "So you aren't there, then?" best features of anything that could man with a large red nose shouted to "I'm lifting several times my weight be reached by her beam. "It's much Tim for water, and since he nodded, in folding metal chairs at Conway darker than it needs to be for the and left the room, the man must have Hall. It just wasn't the right day. If preservation of textiles," he said. expected him to return with a bottle Geoff knew about anything other than "Lady Germain's letters to Pope and help. cameras I would have sent him as were most spirited," she replied, Tim, so averse to confrontation, my proxy. Hubby can barely lift two readying her instrument. now sought more. Alix answered on chairs. What's your excuse?" Tim smiled and moved on quickly, the second ring. "I've been studying some glass at 36 COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE Knole House, actually, which - II "Holy shit! My friend Clare is there today! Have I introduced you?" Ghost "Excuse me?" "I'm being so rude. Of course, you were both at my William Morris birthday party." By Moses Bastille '13 "To be quite frank, that why I'm calling." "Oh?" "I think I made her faint again." "Nonsense." Hello, "I'm telling you, there was a direct correlation." ghost, "Nonsense. We'll sort it out tonight, darling, over Dom. Trust me. The famous Conway Hall hanging in the closet humanist center, Red Lion Square. Eight p.m." like an old coat. In 1861, the headquarters of Morris, Marshall, You threadbare thing Faulkner & Co. were established at No. 8 Red Lion just stale air Square. The young partners undertook carving, stained glass, metalwork, paper-hangings, and and dry moth wings. printed fabrics, steadily reforming the taste of But oh, Victorian Britain from the street Tim now stood ghost, in. It took several long years for the enterprise to earn a profit. In the meantime, designers like you cracked kaleidoscope Burne-Jones were paid for their work in glazed How I laughed tiles, or sometimes not at all. Nevertheless a spirit of camaraderie prevailed and an occasional when you broke — wombat was painted. They did it their own way. | laugh til | choke. He must have spent about two minutes inside, Your voice hurts most — not more. Enough time to notice that unglazed Staffordshire dogs stood erect on a little table purr, beyond the vestibule, along with pots of paint whine, in Pugin colors: oxblood, fuchsia, gold, sage. A papier-mâché model of the Crystal Palace cold hand bestrode the stage, framing the faux Smiths. As in mine. they started up "Vicar in a Tutu," a vicar in a tutu was lifted up in the center of the floor to wild A bitter chill hoots and catcalls. around you — He spent enough time inside to note the So why do I keep coming here, inscription above the proscenium, which he had never noticed before: To THINE OWN SELF BE TRUE. and who is haunting When he saw Alix and Clare giggling by the punch who? bowl, however, he was still near enough to the door to slip back through it, quite calmly, without Do you recall attracting any notice. how I let you in and started it all? Alonso Diaz Rickards '12 is a painter. Michael Griffith You, '09 recently completed a master's in English literature ghost, at King's College London and is writing his first novel. They live and work together in Mexico City. subtle saboteur My hand creeps to the closet door. COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE 37 ALUMNI NOTES 1978 1991 This fall Jackson Gillman is a featured Skype and fell in love during my year- performer at the National Storytelling long program." Marti and Nick married Festival in Tennessee. He is also on May 18, and live in Caldwell, ID. starting a weekly, year-long Whales, Their story "50 Years After Summer Tales and Sails program at the New Camp, Love at Second Sight" was Bedford Whaling National Historical recorded and aired as part of Boise Park. He writes, "I've been very active State Public Radio's Idaho StoryCorps. in the Boston story slam scene and in the grand finales for three of its 1982 four years. I'll again be offering my Stu Dickey Summer is the lead Springboards for Stories workshop at teacher and co-founder of EARTH: Gordon Longsworth, COA's GIS Lab Kipling's historic Vermont home Feb. Education and Renewal Through director, and Danielle Marie Gurney 7-10. It is designed to help individuals the Hands, launched in September were married on Aug. 3. Josh Winer develop their own personal stories 2013. This place-based farm program '92 was the photographer. Gordon and is open to all, regardless of connected to Hawthorne Valley and Danielle then celebrated with experience." jacksongillman.com. Waldorf School is designed for two weeks in Scotland. Gordon children who need more hands-on, also recently earned his 3rd degree 1980 practical experiences. It builds on black belt, or SanDan, in Shorin-Ryu After 32 years in New Mexico, Susan Waldorf education's developmental Matsumura karate. Freed relocated to California to take insights while encouraging the a job in the County of San Diego's students' academic, artistic, and social 1993 energy and sustainability program. skills through experience in animal CedarBough Saeji is assistant She writes, "I am so pleased to care, gardening, forestry, and shelter professor of Korean Studies at Hankuk devote this time of my career to building. University of Foreign Studies in South implementing climate action projects Korea. Recent publications include and being a part of the solution!" 1988 "Drumming, Dancing and Drinking Dorie Stolley completed an MA in Makgeolli: Liminal Time-Travel through 1981 communication at Johns Hopkins Intensive Camps Teaching Traditional Becky Buyers is farming in the University in August. She runs her Performing Arts" in Journal of Korean Caribbean, growing passion fruit, own business, Three Birds Consulting, Studies, and several reviews, including pineapple, and papaya among other conducting outreach, education, her reviews of Wind Bands and tropical fruits for home consumption, and behavior change campaigns for Cultural Identity in Japanese Schools by local markets, and several specialty conservation organizations. "As a David G. Hebert in Ethnomusicology product lines. With her husband, wildlife biologist, I knew the scientific Review, Cheonha Je'il Talgongjakso's Raphael "Cas" Samuel, she owns reasons for conserving wildlife, plants, Chushyeoyo and Ta'ak Project's Madam Ground Farms, located in habitat, and water. I told people what Good Pan in Asian Theatre Journal, the rainforest in St. Vincent and the they could do to take care of these and a review and photo essay, "The Grenadines. They come back to enjoy resources, but sadly, fewer people Bawdy, Brawling, Boisterous World of the special charms of Maine from time than I desired actually changed their Korean Mask Dance Dramas," in Cross to time, especially in summer. Contact behavior. After going through the Currents: East Asian History and Culture her at madamground@gmail.com communication program, I know how Review, available at cross-currents. to motivate positive behavior change berkeley.edu. Marti Gudmundson completed and understand what works and why." a surgical technology program at As a graduation present, Dorie's twin Sarah (Cole) McDaniel has co- Skyline College in San Bruno, CA. 7-year-old nephews spent a week founded the new law firm Douglas She writes, "Just before I entered the at "Auntie Dorie's Nature Camp." McDaniel Campo & Schools, located program in June 2011 I was contacted Highlights included learning to kayak, in the historic Dana Warp Mill in via Facebook by Nick Molenaar, whom releasing banded birds in Manomet, Westbrook, ME. She continues her I knew from a Unitarian summer camp MA, and finding crayfish and dragonfly focus on property issues throughout back in my home state of Minnesota in larvae in a stream. Find her at dorie. Maine, helping clients with boundary the early 1960s. We kept in touch via stolley@jhu.edu or on Facebook. disputes, land use opinions, 38 COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE permitting, and titles. Her favorite emotion and intention. He writes, "I cases are land conservation projects am now searching for a master's in where she represents landowners fine art program with a philosophy working to protect their land with of mysticism and religious studies Maine Coast Heritage Trust project component. Find me at nikolaifox@ managers Patrick Watson, Bob gmail.com - portfolios at nikolaifox. Deforrest '94, and Marty Anderson net. I'd love to hear from you!" '94. For more, visit mainelandlaw.com, or douglasmcdaniel.com. 2001 ages 14 and 9. Together with my boys, 1994 now 15 and 11, I have a busy but wonderfully fulfilling home!" Mary Harney completed her master's degree in Irish studies at the National University of Ireland Galway, and has returned to Maine. Pictured on a recent trip to Prince Edward Island is Caroline Leonard Ngaio Richards writes, "My foundation with Iris, 15 months, Field, 16, and Ad year in human ecology at COA had a 10. Partner Peter is missing from the profound and lasting impact. COA's photo. Caroline writes, "I am certainly frank discussions and debates gave busy with three kids at such different me the tools I needed to channel my ages, it's fun - for the most part!" restless energies toward practical, tangible goals. After completing a Mike Staggs is the proud father of 2002 PhD in wildlife forensic science at Grayson Everett Staggs, born on July Anglia Ruskin University, I'm happily 26. He has taken Grayson trekking based in Montana as a field biologist up mountains, out on the ocean, and with Working Dogs for Conservation, hiking carriage trails. workingdogsforconservation.org. We train dogs to detect noxious weeds 1997 and imperiled plants, the scat of rare Margaret Hoffman is the new and elusive wildlife species, and on assistant director of the Boothbay occasion the animals themselves. Railway Village in Wiscasset, ME. I have traveled from arctic Alaska in search of black and grizzly bear 1998 Nicole D'Avis, husband Mark, and scat to the jungles of Cameroon Toby Stephenson and Andrea Perry their 2-year-old daughter Clarabelle to find the dung of an endangered '95 fulfilled a longtime dream by welcomed Lucan Jesse Anderson primate. I often recall COA, where I installing a 4,500-watt solar power to the family on July 20. Clarabelle was introduced to interdisciplinary system and a solar water heater for is completely smitten by her baby problem-solving. I came away with their home in Ellsworth, ME. brother and has been a great helper. a firm sense of my roots, the faint Nicole hopes that continues when but sure outlines of a blueprint for 2000 she returns to work at the Museum of accomplishing my dreams, and a Nikolai Fox is living in Philadelphia Science, Boston. strong desire to be part of something and working as a cinematographer larger than myself." and photographer with his sister 2003 Avi. One of his photographs was Allison Fundis joined Ocean 1996 published in the May 2013 Sun Exploration Trust as director of This fall Rebecca Aubrey (right) took Magazine. Nikolai also plays fiddle education. Based at the University a new position as a Spanish teacher with The City Wide Specials and The of Rhode Island's Graduate School at the Ashford School in Ashford, Dill Pickle Old Time Orchestra and is of Oceanography, Allison is working CT, where she was delighted to find recording original music. This summer to promote STEM education and herself working with Carly Imhoff '10. he returned to painting and created ocean exploration by providing She writes, "My family also recently a series of abstract compositions at-sea and onshore opportunities grew with the addition of two girls, that explore the resonances between for students and educators in COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE 39 WHY WE GIVE: ZACH '00 AND FLY AUTUMN '01 SOARES BLACK SOCIETY COLLECE ATLANTIC "We give to the annual fund because OF THE we see the many ways that the college provides a foundation for its community to go out and change the world for the better. Every day we witness the influence of COA in the local MDI JOIN THE BLACK FLY SOCIETY community and beyond. We give because we believe there should be places like COA in the world Honoring College of the Atlantic's mascot, for our children." The Black Fly Society was established to make donating to COA's The annual fund seeks to raise annual fund easier and greener. unrestricted support from COA alumni, parents, friends, trustees, faculty, and staff. We ask everyone who is part of the COA community to participate. Each We hope you'll join this swarm of sustaining donors by setting up a and every gift is important, no matter monthly online gift! the size. It's the paperless way to give to COA. It's important to remember that tuition and endowment income combined are not sufficient to meet all operating Go to coa.edu/donatenow and under "gift frequency" select "monthly." expenses. The annual fund covers the gap. It brings much needed support to all programs, and offers enhancements to the academic curriculum, including If you want to give to the annual fund by mail: our studio and performing arts, as COA Annual Fund well as to student life, technology (both for equipment and education), 105 Eden Street facility maintenance, financial aid, and Bar Harbor, ME 04609 community outreach. Please make your check payable to College of the Atlantic. Strong participation in the annual fund demonstrates commitment and dedication to COA. When we apply Questions? Call 207-801-5622. for foundation or corporate gifts, the percentage of alumni who participate in the annual fund is often an important consideration. COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE oceanography, engineering, and 2005 Music and The Musick of Prescott's science communication: allison@ In addition to publishing her book Battalion, respectively. In addition oceanexplorationtrust.org Raven and the Red Ball (see page 8), to fifing, Kate completed an MS in Sarah Drummond finished a master's interactive media this August and in environmental studies with a focus received the Faculty Award for on environmental history through Academic Excellence from the School Prescott College in May 2012. Her of Communications at Quinnipiac thesis was an expansion of her Watson University. Fellowship, detailing the work of artists on expeditions in the Southern 2008 Hemisphere and South Pacific. This Malcolm Afaayo Nambale was born summer, two of her linocut block on May 2 in the water at home. He print pieces were included in the and sister Nora are adjusting to their David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation's mama, Sarah Haughn, pursuing an Amanda Hollander married Katherine Wildlife Artist of the Year exhibition MA in creative writing at UC Davis. McCormack on the shore of Branch at the Mall Galleries in London, UK. Papa Wanyakha Timbiti Moses is Lake in Ellsworth, ME, on May 26. She completed her seventh season working on his PhD in horticulture and They were joined by close family and as a naturalist guide on a vintage agronomy. The family looks forward to friends, including COA alumni. The wooden charter boat in Alaska's returning to Uganda for six months in day's rain just made the knot even inside passage, and continues to seek March 2014. tighter! opportunities to guide, teach, learn, and draw. Amanda Spector received her DVM 2004 from Cornell University College of 2007 Veterinary Medicine in May and is currently working at an equine hospital in Selma, TX. 2009 As community programs coordinator at the University of Washington Botanic Gardens, Sarah Short Heller has started a nature preschool, The Fiddleheads Forest School. She On Aug. 3 in Austin, TX, Lee Kuck, welcomes any local Seattle or visiting MPhil, married Scott Bellware of At the end of a two-week trip, Charlie community members to stop by to see Montréal, Québec. They celebrated Fischer summited Mont Blanc, the 3- to 5-year-olds playing, exploring, with local hot jazz musicians, friends, highest point in Western Europe. and learning outdoors, rain or shine. and family. They will continue to live He also climbed Le Petit Verte and in Austin with one small black cat and Le Petit Flambeau, and marked his Ingrid Lindstrom earned an MA several million bats. Lee currently success with a COA flag. with highest honors in the history works behind the scenes at the Texas and philosophy of science from Senate, cheering on Wendy Davis, and the University of North Carolina moonlights with the City of Austin at Greensboro in May. Her thesis teaching fifth-grade students about was "History, Ecology, and Destiny: watersheds while they get incredibly Utopias, Dystopias, and Intentionality muddy in local caves. of Place." She also completed a Teaching English as a Foreign In April Nellie Wilson took a job in Language certificate program at the Hampshire College's advancement University of Arizona, and will be a office. She writes, "It's been nice to foreign professor of English at the be living in the northeast again; I've Pacific English School in Hamamatsu, been enjoying all the lovely places Fellow fifers Kate Sheely (left) Japan. to go hiking. I appreciate my time at and Sally Morong Chetwynd '76 COA more and more now that I am connected at the 2013 Lexington 2010 working in higher education. I'd love Muster at the Minute Man National The second season of Harborside to connect with more alumni in the Historical Park in Lincoln, MA. They Shakespeare Company, run by western Mass area." play with Connecticut Valley Field directors Dan Mahler and Alicia COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE 41 last year was spent doing hurricane Dustin Updike's lab, she uses the recovery work with Occupy Sandy. small roundworm C. elegans as a Currently I'm active with The People's genetic model to understand germ Puppets of Occupy Wall Street granule function across species. As performing political puppetry and a phytoplankton specialist under doing legal activism with the Mutant Jane Disney, she collects and tests Legal Collective." Becky is now a Grace phytoplankton levels to monitor Paley Organizing Fellow through Jews safe shellfish consumption. She also for Racial and Economic Justice. trained for her first half-marathon. Hynes '11, was an acclaimed success, Because she has been living with with six performances of A Midsummer 2011 ulcerative colitis for nine years, she Night's Dream in four locations, Jacqueline Bort is a contractor to and her boyfriend ran to support the including an audience of more than US Fleet Forces Command (Navy) Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of 200 in Ellsworth, a foray to Portland, for natural resources support and America, raising nearly $6,000 at a and two nights at COA. Among the marine mammal acoustic work. She race in wine country Virginia. actors were Alex Depavloff '14, is engaged to fellow marine mammal Hannah Mencher '13, Jabu Mickle biologist Steven Thornton who Jess McCordic's paper, "Differential Molefe ('14), Ben Moniz '14, Phinn completed his master's from the lab rates of killer whale attacks Onens '13 (as Puck in photo), Kristen of Bill McLellan '88 at the University on humpback whales in the Wegner '16, and Kira Weintraub '12. of North Carolina Wilmington. Bill will North Atlantic as determined by officiate the wedding ceremony. scarification," was published in Becky Wartell writes, "I inadvertently the Journal of the Marine Biological ended up living in NYC for the past 2012 Association of the United Kingdom, with two years - three months of that in Ashley Heinze is working in two labs biology faculty member Sean Todd Zuccotti Park - after participating in at Mount Desert Island Biological and Peter Stevick '81 as co-authors. an action in September 2011. Much of Lab. As a research assistant in GRADUATE PROFILE ELIZABETH (HALE) MORRELL '12, YALE SCHOOL OF FORESTRY AND ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES '15 Focus: Land and wildlife conservation Goals: Field-based research and surveys that help promote conservation Campus life: The classes are challenging but informative and often applied. The community is strong and emphasizes student-teacher relationships, as at COA. The students are interesting and motivated, and come from a huge range of backgrounds. We are all eager to learn from each other, which helps foster the interdisciplinary environment that FES strives for. COA preparation: Rigorous classes such as my Ecology class and Environmental Law and Policy were particularly helpful in preparing me for this difficult program. The "-ology" courses | took were also very helpful because | am able to identify and know the natural history of many species that we discuss in class. The discussion- based courses helped too, because most of our professors expect us to contribute to classes in a meaningful manner. Additional thoughts: COA taught me how to solve problems creatively and be proactive about my education, which is expected in graduate school. Also, | really value the real-life experience that COA requires and supports, such as internships, presenting at conferences, and making connections with professionals in our fields. 42 COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE COMMUNITY NOTES the editorial boards of the journals Agroecology & Sustainable Food Systems and Agriculture, Food Systems & Community Development. Heather Anderson has joined COA Molly Anderson, Partridge Chair in as the public relations manager, and Food and Sustainable Agriculture Mancy Andrews is delighted to call herself a Mainer Systems, presented on food system for The Strange Eyes of Dr. Myes" again. indicators for the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Science in September, served on a panel on After a successful Kickstarter climate change at MOFGA's Common campaign, arts faculty member Nancy Ground Country Fair, and also gave Andrews and producer Peter West an invited paper at the Yale Food completed a three-week shoot of the System Symposium. In July she co- live-action elements of The Strange facilitated a workshop on developing Eyes of Dr. Myes, Nancy's first feature indicators for Farm to Institution New film. It stars Michole Briana White England, in June presented at the New and Jennifer Prediger '00, with Marco England Food Summit in Portland, ME, Accardi '14. The film crew includes In September, for the annual meeting and the Agriculture, Food & Human arts faculty member Dru Colbert as of the Waterbird Society in Germany, Values conference in Michigan, and production designer, Rohan Chitrakar John Anderson, William H. Drury, Jr. participated in the annual conference '04, director of photography, Lauren Chair in Evolution, Ecology and Natural of the Sustainable Agriculture & Food Benzaquen '14, production assistant History, organized and co-chaired a Systems Funders in Rhode Island. and assistant animator, Ben Moniz symposium on the decline of gulls In May she joined a charrette on '14, assistant grip, and Adrian Garber in the North Atlantic. With him were northeast food system responses '05, costume supervisor. It also Kate Shlepr '13 and Lindsey Nielsen to climate change at CUNY and features a scene with Coke Weed, the '13, who gave oral papers. John is now moderated a food and climate change band of staff member Zach Soares archivist of the society, and a reviewer forum in Camden, ME. '00. Zach helped create much of the for the journal Waterbirds and for the Molly also co-authored papers film's music. Many other community University of Chicago Press. In May on food system adaptation to members were also involved. Watch he spoke on the history of natural climate change and food sovereignty, for a release in spring or summer history to the first Northeastern available online at the Journal 2014. Natural History Gathering in Vermont, of Agriculture, Food Systems and Nancy is also one of 21 artists and spoke about the importance Community Development. She wrote in the 2013 deCordova Biennial of the visual arts in natural history on the right to food and nutrition in Lincoln, MA, through April. Her and conservation to the annual in the US for the international work is in Animation Sketchbooks by meeting of the Guild of Natural Right to Food and Nutrition Watch, Laura Heit, published by Chronicle History Illustrators. On sabbatical and helped an international team Books in the US, and Thames and during winter 2013, John gave a report on agriculture technology Hudson in the UK, showcasing the seminar on the interactions of gulls for development for the UN's private sketchbooks of 50 current and eagles and their implications Department on Economic and Social independent artists working in for conservation biology at the Affairs. Molly joined the international animation. In September Nancy University of Otago in New Zealand, advisory council for the Sustainable launched the University of California and participated in a round-table Food Centre in Ontario, Canada, and Berkeley/Pacific Film Archives series discussion on the role of traditional the advisory board of the national Alternative Visions, with screenings of ecological knowledge in conservation. organization Food Tank, as well as two of her films. COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE 43 Stay tuned for the spring 2014 release the volume Discovering the Human: Life of Ecology and Experience: Reflections Science and the Arts in the Eighteenth Curious about Chaos? from a Human Ecological Perspective and Early Nineteenth Centuries edited by Rich Borden, Rachel Carson Chair by Ralf Haekel and Sabine Blackmore, Dave Feldman offers COA's in Human Ecology, by North Atlantic and published by V&R GmbH in first (and so far only) massive, Books, with distribution by Random Germany. open, online course, aka House. Meanwhile, in August Rich helped coordinate the human ecology MOOC. Actually, it's not COA section of the Ecological Society of that's offering it, but the Santa America annual meeting, served in the Fe Institute, as part of its mentor program, and participated in Complexity Explorer project. the society's preparation for the 2015 Dave's MOOC, Chaos and centennial conference. Dynamical Systems, is based in Read about Heath Cabot, faculty part on his COA course Chaos member in anthropology, in an and Fractals. The only pre- interview in American Ethnologist, Dru Colbert, arts faculty member, is americanethnologist.org, and her a board member of the MDI Historical requisite is familiarity with high- accompanying article, "The social Society and designed its summer school algebra. Learn more and aesthetics of eligibility: NGO aid and exhibition, "Shifting Gears: How the sign up at complexityexplorer. indeterminacy in the Greek asylum Automobile Transformed Mt. Desert org/online-courses/4. The free process," at onlinelibrary.wiley. Island." com. Heath also wrote the chapter, class begins Jan. 6, 2014. "Engagements and Interruptions: The article, "Community Smart Grid Mapping Emotion at an Athenian Utilizing Dynamic Demand Response Asylum Advocacy NGO" for and Tidal Power for Grid Stabilization," Ethnographies of Social Support, edited by Anna Demeo, lecturer in physics, by Markus Schlecker and Friederike has been published in the journal Fleischer, and published by Palgrave Smart Grid and Renewable Energy. Anna Macmillan in June. She also won completed her PhD in engineering Emerald Press's Outstanding Author in the natural sciences with the Contribution for best chapter in a presentation and acceptance of series, which she co-authored with her dissertation, "A Three-Pronged Ramona Lenz from Germany's Medico Approach to Community Scale International. The essay, "Borders Renewable Energy: Education, Jay Friedlander, Sharpe-McNally Chair of (In)visibility in the Greek Aegean" Incremental Capital Investment in Green and Socially Responsible was published in Culture and Society and Smart Grid Technology," at the Business, was a featured speaker at the in Tourism Contexts by Emerald in University of Maine, Orono. European Conference on Sustainability, 2012, emeraldinsight.com/books. Energy and the Environment in the Heath also presented papers at last Dave Feldman, faculty member UK in July. He also delivered talks on spring's American Ethnological Society in math and physics, spoke on using sustainability to spark business meeting in Chicago and at the Law and "Predictable Unpredictability: Strange innovation to New Hampshire Society meeting in Boston. Attractors and the Butterfly Effect" Businesses for Social Responsibility's in August at the Eagle Hill Institute spring conference in May and the MDI Bill Carpenter, faculty member in in Steuben, ME. In July he gave a Chamber of Commerce in April. He has literature and creative writing, was talk at the American Association of been working with Sustainable Harvest guest poet and workshop leader at Physics Teachers in Portland, OR, International as an advisor on the the Roque Island Poetry Festival in titled, "An Interdisciplinary, Project- potential of earned income ventures. July; he also gave a poetry reading. Based Class in Sustainable Energy," His choice to come to COA was featured using the renewable energy course in the article "Lean Out" in CNNMoney For the 15th anniversary celebration he developed with Anna Demeo. He (money.cnn.com). A co-authored of the publication Object, Catherine also gave a talk, "Local Complexity for article, "Sustainability: A Paradigmatic Clinger, Allan Stone Chair in the Visual Heterogeneous Spatial Systems," at Shift in Entrepreneurship Education," Arts, delivered the paper, "The Hut the Information in Dynamical Systems has just come out in the New England in the Snow" at University College and Complex Systems workshop in Journal of Entrepreneurship. London, UK. Her essay, "Speleological Burlington, VT, sponsored by the Interiority - The Mindfulness of a Army Research Office and hosted by Sarah Hall, faculty member in geology, Spelunking Anatomist," appeared in Clarkson University. presented her research on Peruvian 44 COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE tectonics and climate at the Geological Society of America's October meeting in Denver, CO, and spoke at MDI's Somes-Meynell Wildlife Sanctuary on "The Geology of MDI" in August and Inside an ancient site in at Middlebury College in Vermont on Kirkwall, Orkney. "Active Tectonics in the Andes: A view from the Peruvian forearc" in April. Lovely Journeys, Darlene She also co-authored a publication Darlene Nolin, assistant registrar, started as a temporary worker in the journal Geomorphology titled, "Geochronology of pediments and under former registrar Sally Crock in September 1997; within four marine terraces in north-central Chile months she was hired fulltime. On December 31, 2013, Darlene retires and their implications for Quaternary to enjoy, she says, "whatever new opportunities and challenges come uplift in the Western Andes." In June forward." She leaves behind many a fond memory of supportive Sarah took three students from conversations with students, staff, and faculty. But she promises to her South American Earth Systems remain in Bar Harbor and come to campus frequently to continue class on an optional field trip to the her many COA friendships and partake of cultural events. Former Cordillera Blanca of northern Peru. workstudy student Anjana Rajbhandary '06 speaks for many in Pictured are Emily Hollyday '15, Zabet saying, "In this world it is rare to come across such a beautiful soul. NueCollins '15, Ben Moniz '14, and Darlene has a magical way of looking at life that makes everything Sarah. more amazing. I loved listening to her stories. She was always there when I needed a listening ear, when I needed guidance, and also to Monica Hamm is now the coordinator share many happy moments; she taught me to value each moment of international student services, in my life. Darlene will always hold a very special place in my heart." taking over from Kylee Gies who has A world traveler, Darlene has encouraged many — faculty, staff, and moved to Washington State with her students — to purse their dreams. And while Darlene says she has no husband and baby Oliver. immediate plans, she allows that "a trip to Kamchatka, Russia, is on the horizon, but not immediately. | like to stay in Bar Harbor during the beautiful winters to be available for skiing and getting together with local friends while we're all less busy." Come back to share your adventures, Darlene! Isabel Mancinelli, Charles Eliot Chair from the University of Nebraska and in Ecological Planning, Policy and Swedish University of Agricultural Design, chairs the Beatrix Farrand Sciences in their capacity-building Society Landscape and Garden meeting in Malmø, Sweden, aimed at In September biology faculty member Committee, which runs Garland the development of an international Helen Hess worked as a taxonomist Farm on MDI, and is on the board of doctoral program in agroecology. on the BioTrails project at MDIBL, directors of the Somes Pond Center helping citizen volunteers identify for Landscape History, also on MDI. In August biology faculty member marine invertebrates. She also Chris Petersen attended the gave a campus talk to EcoLeague Ardrianna French McLane '02 is now Northeast Regional IDeA conference partner Alaska Pacific University head of summer programs at COA. in Delaware to represent COA's on biomimicry, and lectured to an biomedical research as part of its ichthyology class on her research on Suzanne Morse, Elizabeth Battles INBRE grant. He also attended the parasites in MDI estuarine fish. Newlin Chair in Botany, joined faculty Joint Meeting of Ichthyologists and COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE 45 Herpetologists in Albuquerque, NM, Hill Institute of Steuben, ME, and in agriculture in Rangeley, ME, in July in July where he presented a poster August the talk, "The Ecology and and in Camden, ME, in May. Recent co-authored with Helen Hess, Robin Conservation of Vernal Pools: A race writings include a policy brief on Van Dyke '11, Zinta Rutins '14, and against time" at the Somes-Meynell climate change and agriculture MDIBL's Charlie Wray on population Wildlife Sanctuary on MDI. In July he published by the Climate Action genetics and parasite prevalence presented the poster, "Coverboard Network South Asia, and several in an estuarine fish. Chris also co- sampling of terrestrial salamanders reports and monographs on loss authored "Phylogenetic perspectives in Acadia National Park: Employing and damage in climate negotiations. on the evolution of functional citizen scientists to monitor the In November she heads the COA hermaphroditism in fishes" with population dynamics of amphibians" delegation to the 19th Conference investigators from Scripps Institute of at the 2013 Joint Meetings of of the Parties to the UN Framework Oceanography and UC Santa Barbara Ichthyologists and Herpetologists in Convention Climate Change. in the July Journal of Integrative and Albuquerque, NM, co-authored with Comparative Biology. Sarah Colletti '11. Steve also served as a judge of student oral presentations With Jillian E. Gall '13 as first author, for the Society for the Study of COA faculty member in botany Amphibians and Reptiles Seibert Nishanta Rajakaruna '94, published Award in Amphibian Conservation. "The physiology, functional genomics, While there, Steve and Chris Witt '97, and applied ecology of heavy metal- University of New Mexico biologist tolerant Brassicaceae" in Brassica: and curator of birds at the Museum Characterization, Functional Genomics of Southwestern Biology, exchanged and Health Benefits, by Nova Science regional bird specimens for their Bonnie Tai, faculty member Publishers. With RS Boyd, Nishi respective museums' teaching in education, spoke on critical published "Heavy Metal Tolerance" in collections. Steve's "Natural History exploration in teacher education as Oxford Bibliographies in Ecology, edited Note" on the occurrence of snakes a panelist at the annual meeting of by David Gibson and published by swimming in open cold seawater, the Jean Piaget Society in Chicago this Oxford University Press, and "Edaphic co-authored with Eddie Monat '88, June. Her essay, "Witness to learning," Factor" in Reference Module in Earth was published in the June issue of came out in Always Wondering a Systems and Environmental Sciences, Herpetological Review. Mélange of Eleanor Duckworth and edited by Scott Elias and published by Critical Exploration, edited by Shorr, Elsevier, Oxford, UK. With Nathaniel Hoidn, Lowry, and Cavicchi, published Pope '07 as first author, Nishi and by Critical Exploration Press. She two others published "The role of serves on the board of The Next Step elevation and soil chemistry in the Domestic Violence Project and on the distribution and ion accumulation advisory board of IMPACT Boston. of floral morphs of Streptanthus polygaloides Gray (Brassicaceae), a Sean Todd represented COA at a Californian nickel hyperaccumulator" joint US/Canadian Oil Spill exercise in Plant Ecology and Diversity. Nishi is (CANUSLANT), serving as a key wildlife on the scientific advisory committee Doreen Stabinsky, faculty member respondent. He co-authored "Has for the 2014 International Conference in global environmental politics, was designating and protecting critical on Serpentine Ecology. appointed to a two-year position habitat had an impact on endangered on the ad hoc Technical Expert North Atlantic right whale ship strike Group on Risk Assessment and mortality?" in Marine Policy and Risk Management of the Cartagena another with Jessica McCordic '12 (see Protocol on Biosafety. She spoke alumni notes). Sean's work on grants at the Common Ground Fair in for Allied Whale has netted an $80,000 September, and lectured in August Prescott Grant, and $90,000 from on "Humanitarian aspects of limits anonymous donors. to adaptation" at an international conference on adaptation, loss, and Toward a Literary Ecology: Places and damage in the Asia-Pacific region, Spaces in American Literature, co-edited In September biology faculty member hosted in Bangkok by the Institute for by Karen Waldron, Lisa Stewart Chair Steve Ressel gave the talk, "Cold- Global Environmental Strategies and in Literature and Women's Studies, Blooded Animals in a Cold Weather the Asia Pacific Adaptation Network. and Rob Friedman, was published by State: The amphibians and reptiles of She also spoke on the global politics Scarecrow Press in August, 2013. northern New England" at the Eagle of climate change and its impact on 46 COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE In Memoriam Victor Amarilla Cañete '05 Clyde Everett "Ev" Shorey Jr. February 26, 1982-April 17, 2013 June 9, 1922-July 23, 2013 Victor Amarilla Cañete '05 was born the youngest of I first met Ev and his wife Joan in 1985 after Ev joined six in a suburb of Asunción, Paraguay. He was a deep COA's board of trustees. A graduate of Yale University thinker, great writer, and cut-throat Scrabble player. He and Columbia Law School, having served in the Army Air liked brownie sundaes and small dogs, and had a great Force in India during World War II, Ev was deputy general appreciation for guava pie and a cheese and yucca bread counsel to the US Agency for International Development called chipa. He perfected his English pronunciation by in Washington, DC. After Joan contracted polio in 1953, listening to Beatles songs. After seeing a newspaper Ev became active in the March of Dimes, serving on notice, a teenage Victor applied to study at the Armand its board, chairing the committee that broadened its Hammer United World College of the American West in mission to include maternal and child health concerns, New Mexico, not telling his family until he was accepted. and leading lobbying efforts for the WIC program. Ev was He came to COA in 2002. Victor hated the cold weather, also treasurer of the liberal advocacy group People for but he bundled up and studied human ecology, especially the American Way. An advocate for nature and for people, literature, history, and philosophy. he saw that at COA he could help prepare students who would protect nature and strive for healthier Victor was my best friend for most of my adult life and communities, better lives, more freedom, opportunity, helped create many of my memories, habits, jokes, and justice, and peace. routines. He interned at my family's farm one summer and fell in love with tomatoes. While his hands were busy As a COA board member, Ev chaired the annual fund transplanting young kale plants, pruning tomatoes, or drive; in 1995 he became board chair. By then, I had picking beans, his mind wandered to the thinkers he had become COA president, so we worked together very studied with COA philosopher John Visvader, as well as to closely, raising $20 million during COA's first major the political and cultural realities back in Paraguay. On a capital campaign. In challenging situations, Ev's sage and Wednesday in September 2005 Victor and I married at the strategic advice always led to an ethical position and a Ship Harbor Trail in Acadia National Park. John officiated, good solution that left us far better off than before. Ev witnessed by Amy Hoffmaster '06, Coltere Savidge '06, stepped down as chair in 2001, receiving an honorary and some gnarled driftwood. MPhil. He continued as an active trustee until he was elected life trustee in 2006. On campus, the golden chain In 2009 Victor was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. He trees - a species Ev loved - were planted on the path had begun certification to teach Spanish in high school, between Turrets and Kaelber Hall, and Shorey House in but soon realized that wasn't for him. His struggles with the Katherine W. Davis Student Village is named for his direction compounded his depression. He tried different family. medications and counseling. In 2011 he chose to leave Maine for Paraguay and we divorced. I visited Ev and Joan one week before Ev died - peacefully - at his DC home. We spent several hours Victor held a special place in his heart for rivers. He was over dinner talking about life and all that we needed to awed by the majestic Iguaçu Falls of Brazil and Argentina, do to improve it for everyone. Ev was re-reading Jonathan not far from Asunción, at UWC he joined an expedition to Alter's book on President Obama, The Center Holds. Books the Grand Canyon, and at COA he paddled the Allagash. waiting to be read were stacked like incoming flights to La When we lived together in Southern Maine, we walked our Guardia on a foggy evening. dogs and rode his scooter along a shady road by the Saco River. Victor chose to end his life there in mid-April 2013 I knew it was our last visit together, so of course I was sad, near the Salmon Falls Bridge. In the woods near that spot but what I felt most was gratitude to both Ev and Joan for there is a newly-planted white pine. It witnesses the cool all they taught my wife Susan and me, for nourishing the water that moves like time - sometimes fast, sometimes college so devotedly, and for showing everyone what a slow, always onward. full, productive, committed life can be. Carolyn Snell '06 Steve Katona, founding faculty member and former COA president COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE 47 Take-A-Break Recipes from the Kitchen at College of the Atlantic Lise Desrochers cherishes a special photo her mother gave her. It's of a little girl proudly standing in the kitchen making pies ahead of Thanksgiving dinner. Her Thanksgiving dinner. Lise made the squash, mashed potatoes, stuffing, even the Flagstone fruit salad (a mid-twentieth century favorite, with canned fruit, cream, and mayo), and all the pies for the entire family. She believes she may have had help with the turkey. She was nine years old. Now co-director of COA's food services (rated among the top ten in the nation, mind you), Lise recently published a cookbook of recipes from COA. It's called, simply Take-A-Break, and it features the dishes we have all come to love, from morning glory muffins to butternut lasagna, to chocolate brownies with chocolate ganache. Filtered through Lise's culinary expertise, the recipes are something of a history of COA food, with delights from previous chefs and a multitude of students. Lise steps away from the kitchen one September morning to talk about food, cooking, and growing up in a French Canadian family in South Berwick, Maine. "We're French, we're all about food," she says. Her parents first owned a diner - the kind housed in a railroad car; then bought a general store. By junior high, Lise was cooking the muffins, omelets, and lunches served at this local meeting place. Food, family, friends - and the beauty of Acadia - are central to Lise's life, and why she so loves working at COA. Each morning at 5 a.m. she drives slowly over the bridge to Mount Desert Island on her way to work, taking in the still waters, the sunrise. Later, to decompress from the intensity of a day in the kitchen, she's likely to head to the Witch Hole Pond carriage trail for a walk with friends. But at present lunch calls. "We're serving the pink pesto recipe from the book," she says on her way back to the kitchen. The recipe comes from the Italian grandmother of Australian-born Lara Montesanto 14. Now, when people ask Lise for this, or dozens of other recipes, she can point them in the direction of Take-A-Break, the book, with a portion of the profits going to Healthy Acadia. The following recipe is one Jesse Karppinen 13 shared. It hails from his home in Helsinki, Finland. Jesse is now in medical school in Europe. An excerpt from the heartfelt student perspective he gave at graduation - which brought the audience to its feet and tears to many an eye - is on the facing page. Jesse's Pannukakku (Finnish Oven Pancakes) Jesse Karppinen '13, Serves 6-8 a Davis United World College scholar from Finland, asked if we 3 eggs 3½ cups milk could make this recipe 1 tsp vanilla extract that be grew up with. Heather** made it for 1 tsp baking powder brunch and it was a big 2 cups all-purpose flour hit. Thank you, Jesse! 2 Tbs granulated sugar 1 tsp kosher salt 5 Tbs butter, melted and cooled In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, vanilla and butter. In a separate large bowl, mix the dry ingredients. Combine the wet and dry mixes and mix well. Heat a 12" oven safe sauté pan in a preheated 425 degree oven. Pour the batter into the pan and bake for 20 minutes until the pancake is puffed and nicely browned. Serve with berries, jam, maple syrup or cinnamon and sugar. *Heather Halliday, COA cook. 48 COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE Embracing our Interconnectedness Jesse Karppinen, student perspective Commencement 2013 I remember my first moments at COA. thirty children, all mostly apathetically cannot vaccinate children abandoned All of us in the 2009 incoming class lying on the floor. These children had on a street without finding them were like small electrons, confused minimal control over their bodies and homes. about what to do with ourselves. We limited communication skills. Due to were ready to be excited, eager to a lack of staffing, they had hardly any We cannot work disconnected from interact with each other, longing for physical or verbal interactions. As I each other. No person alone can defeat adventures. We had the potential to held one of the residents - Ari - in violence and injustice. No town alone create something special, our unique my arms, watching his shining, starry can implement equitable solutions for spin on human ecology. We would eyes, feeling the loose muscles around health care. No community can thrive challenge each other to critically his brittle bones, wiping the drool without collaboration. No country tackle local and global problems; we around his mouth, I was struck by my can sustainably exist - or combat would form bonds, generating bigger emotions. pandemics - without its neighbors. molecules - groups of students, Our societies will end up dismantled groups of friends. The science-oriented, medically and broken if East and West, North and inclined student in me knew that Ari South don't communicate. The global The COA campus is like a cell where was struggling because his biological world needs to live under the sense of small molecules interact, unite, and body did not work properly. Because nonduality. form part of the larger community different parts in it were disconnected. of Bar Harbor. The town is the tissue The molecules within his cells were Though our efforts arise from the within which the different cells failing their functions, the cells, potential, passion, and drive in collectively work. As a community we tissues, and organs were unable to each one of us, we must embrace give a greater function to this tissue. communicate. Ari was also lying on the interconnectedness that exists the floor because the socioeconomic between us. Just as the different levels of our factors in his community were equally biological bodies are connected, so disconnected. He was left to lie on the Starting right now we can deliver are individuals, academic disciplines, floor. It broke my heart. something as simple as a smile, and healthcare systems. I began because even the smallest effort does seeing how social psychology, medical Each of us - each electron - can only make a change. By acknowledging each anthropology, social movements, thrive if we are integrated into the other, we strengthen the movement and economic development relate to dynamic world. Our bodies, our well- of compassion. By making sure that scientific notions of health. being, can be in balance only with a no one is ignored, we can increase the correct and holistic - interconnected momentum of a wave of understanding I longed to draw these connections - combination of socio-psychological and caring. onto the global map, I had a burning factors: the natural environment, need to see how public health initiatives money, culture, political economy, Four years ago, I sat in Take-A-Break work in an unfamiliar culture - to etc. Ari was lying on the floor not only cynically preaching that compassion did engage with them through experience. because his physical body did not not exist. Today - still recognizing my I needed to observe how the different work properly, but also because he limits of understanding - I stand here organ systems - countries - could lived in a small rural village with poor as a believer in the power of devotion, make a healthy and sustainable body: infrastructure and minimal medical solidarity, and transformation! I hope our interconnected world. access. Because he was born fated to a that you will join me, because we life of the poor. Because his family had cannot afford for you not to, because Thirsty for communal work and new been forced to abandon him due to Ari cannot afford for you not to. This languages and people, I landed in social, religious, and financial reasons. is my only chance and it is your only rural central Java and visited a local chance as well. rehabilitation center for disabled Just as we cannot heal the sick by fixing children. I entered a room of around only one system in the body, we COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE 49 NON-PROFIT COA U.S. POSTAGE PAID MAILED FROM ZIP CODE 04330 PERMIT NO. 121 The College of the Atlantic Magazine 105 Eden Street Bar Harbor, ME 04609