COA Volume 7 | Number 1 | Spring 2011 COA ANNOUNCES A NEW PRESIDENT Darron Collins '92 — see page 2 THE COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE COA Mission College of the Atlantic enriches Letter from the Editor the liberal arts tradition through a distinctive educational philosophy- Congratulations COA! Soon we will have one of human ecology. A human ecological our own as president. perspective integrates knowledge from all academic disciplines and from By choosing Darron Collins '92 as our next presi- personal experience to investigate, and dent, COA is not only endorsing a young, en- ultimately improve, the relationships between human beings and our ergetic man with great ideas-we're endorsing social and natural communities. The ourselves. human ecological perspective guides all aspects of education, research, It's especially meaningful given that COA's first four presidents had Harvard activism, and interactions among the connections. In fact, I seem to recall an early article about COA describ- college's students, faculty, staff, and ing our founders as something like "disgruntled Harvard types." Don't get trustees. The College of the Atlantic me wrong. Our Harvard leaders have done well by COA. Thinking of their community encourages, prepares, contributions, Ed Kaelber first helped to shape us; Judith Swazey challenged and expects students to gain the us; Lou Rabineau helped restore us; and Steve Katona shepherded us into expertise, breadth, values, and practical a sense of true security. Moving on from Harvard, David Hales brought us experience necessary to achieve national and even international renown and Andy Griffiths, during his short individual fulfillment and to help solve tenure, helped keep us on an even keel. problems that challenge communities everywhere. But now we have one of our own. Someone with human ecology in his veins; someone who will continue the experiment. Front Cover Students take the rapids in Ken Cline's The letter I originally wrote for this page-before we had an announcement Whitewater/White Paper class. See of a new president-focused on our main story, COA's experiential approach page 19 for our feature story on COA's to education. What synchronicity! Darron is such a believer in engaged edu- experiential classrooms. Photo by Lauren cation that he actually created one of the classes we happened to include in Nutter '10. this issue. Back Cover As most of you know, a COA education demands more of students than read- For the Shadow, by Aishath Loofa ing and repeating. Our students are digging hands into dirt, dissecting fruits Mohamed 'Il for her senior project and seals, writing poetry, composing music, talking to citizens about changes exhibit, Duality, which was dedicated they might like to see in their community, building an electric car, intensely to the feminine shadow and feminine debating texts-and paddling down rivers. Our students become immersed power and beauty. in their studies; sometimes literally; always figuratively. This engagement does more than teach students the subject matter of the course; it does more even than invest those ideas into their bodies; the en- gagement challenges students to go forth and interrogate, explore and cre- COA is published biannually for the ate-to find their own means of learning. Just ask Darron. College of the Atlantic community. Please send ideas, letters, and As we grow in years and students and programs, as we change leaders, and submissions (short stories, poetry, and then change them again, there's an increasing possibility that the individual revisits to human ecology essays) to: elements that together form COA-as a mission, as a community and as a COA Magazine pedagogy-will fall by the wayside. But Darron embodies every one of the College of the Atlantic elements that shape COA: Energetic. Enthusiastic. Experimental. Experien- 105 Eden St, Bar Harbor, ME 04609 tial. Egalitarian. dgold@coa.edu What a way to begin our fifth decade! PS: As you read about COA's kaleidoscopic approach to experiential educa- tion-an approach as varied and multilayered as the COA community it- self-notice please, how many of these articles are written by current COA students. They make me so proud! MIX PRINTED WITH CERTIFIED Paper from responsible sources WIND FSC www.fsc.org FSC® C021556 POWER Donna Gold, COA Editor Printed on recycled paper with vegetable-based inks on equipment using 100% wind-generated power. COA Beat COA The College of the Atlantic Magazine Darron Collins '92, COA's Next President 2 Volume 7 Number - Spring 2011 Student Honors and Deep Gratitudes 4 In Celebration of a Consummate Teacher: Judith Cox 7 Donna Gold ALUMNI CONSULTANTS An appreciation by Amy Hoffmaster '06 EDITOR Jill Barlow-Kelley The Sea and Everything In It 8 Dianne Clendaniel Bill Carpenter Evelyn Smith '11 and the Penobscot East Resource Center EDITORIAL CONSULTANT EDITORIAL GUIDANCE Youth Inspirations 9 Sarah Haughn '08 Heather Albert-Knopp 99 By Watson Fellow Lauren Nutter '10 COPY EDITING John Anderson Rich Borden Rebecca Hope Woods Staff Profile 11 Lynn Boulger DESIGNER Catherine Clinger Marie Stivers J.S. McCarthy Printers Julia De Santis '12 Donor Profile 12 Augusta, Maine Jennifer Hughes PRINTER Jabulile Mickle Molefe '14 Polly Guth Oral History 13 COA ADMINISTRATION Rich Borden: A love relationship from the beginning Andrew Griffiths INTERIM PRESIDENT AND ADMINISTRATIVE DEAN Autumn, Maine 15 Sarah Baker By Caitlin Thurrell '11 DEAN OF ADMISSION Lynn Boulger DEAN OF DEVELOPMENT COA's Experienţial Classroom 19 Ken Cline Challenging Beliefs: The Team-Taught Newfoundland class ASSOCIATE DEAN FOR FACULTY Kenneth Hill Nishanta Rajakaruna's Delectable Education ACADEMIC DEAN Sarah Luke A Passion for Rivers: Whitewater/Whitepaper with Ken Cline ASSOCIATE DEAN OF STUDENT LIFE Collective Meandering: Bill Carpenter's Bread, Love and Dreams Sean Todd ASSOCIATE DEAN FOR ADVANCED STUDIES Dru Colbert: Encouraging Curiosity and Wonder In Doing Nothing, Everything is Done: John Visvader's Philosophy in Action COA BOARD OF TRUSTEES In the Tracks of Winter: Steve Ressel Takes Ecology to the Extreme CHAIRMAN BOARD MEMBERS The Predictable and the Uncomfortable: COA's Outdoor Program William G. Foulke, Jr. Leslie C. Brewer Jay Friedlander: Launching Sustainable Ventures VICE CHAIR T.A. Cox Elizabeth D. Hodder Nikhit D'Sa '06 Todd Little-Siebold: Local Apples and Global History VICE CHAIR Dianna Emory Kneading Across Cultures: Suzanne Morse's Our Daily Bread Casey Mallinckrodt Amy Yeager Geier SECRETARY Catherine Clinger Carves into Art History: Art Since 1900 Ronald E. Beard George B.E. Hambleton TREASURER Philip B. Kunhardt III 77 Poetry 34 William N. Thorndike, Jr. Suzanne Folds McCullough Obade by Jabulile Mickle Molefe '14 Sarah A. McDaniel '93 LIFE TRUSTEES Bog Boots by Ivy Sienkiewycz '14 Jay McNally '84 James M. Gower Samuel M. Hamill, Jr. Philip S.J. Moriarty Smoke by Hazel Jacoby '14 John N. Kelly Phyllis Anina Moriarty Someone by Alonso Diaz Rickards '12 Susan Storey Lyman Helen Porter William V.P. Newlin Hamilton Robinson, Jr. In Memoriam 36 John Reeves Nadia Rosenthal Henry D. Sharpe, Jr. Alumni Notes 39 Clyde E. Shorey, Jr. Marthann Lauver Samek Henry L.P. Schmelzer Alumni Donor Profile 43 TRUSTEE EMERITI Joan Van der Grift Sonja Johanson '95 David Hackett Fischer Paul Van der Grift Sherry F. Huber Faculty & Community Notes 44 Daniel Pierce Cody van Heerden Cathy L. Ramsdell 78 Q&A with Jennifer Prediger '99 48 John Wilmerding Human Ecology Essay Revisited 49 On Changing the World by David Winship '77 WWW.COA.EDU COA Chooses a President — And He's One of Our Own! Darron Collins '92: COA's Next President By Donna Gold (Commentary in italics by Darron) Darron Collins, who starts as COA's next president What I actually said was, "There is no institution I be- on July 15, is the epitome of a human ecologist. He lieve more strongly in." It's not quite grammatically came to COA as a first-generation college student in- correct, but it comes from my heart. terested in wolf biology. For ten years Darron worked with the World Wildlife I wasn't really clear on what human ecology was, but Fund, most recently as managing director of creative I had a real hankering for wolves. assets, where he focused on improving WWF's abili- Though he received a Goldwater Scholarship, given ty to tell stories, reach new audiences, and raise more to outstanding students in the sciences, Darron also money. An expert in ethnobotany, he previously studied public policy and law with Ken Cline. His oversaw WWF's conservation program in the Amur senior project was the creation of the Whitewater/ watershed of Mongolia, northeast China and the Rus- Whitepaper class which he team-taught with Ken (see sian Far East. Before that, he was the regional forest page 22). coordinator for Latin America and also played a key A portion of my brain is still stuffed with those days, role in developing WWF's 2015 goals and strategy. but the spring of 1992 was C-O-L-D. Mongolia is one of the most amazing places on the planet. Darron received a Watson Fellowship and studied the social and environmental impacts of hydroelec- As befits a human ecologist, Darron has always fo- tric dams. Most of his travel was in Latin America, cused on the human side of conservation, trying to which so captivated him that he headed to Tulane answer the question, "How can we meet the needs of University for a master's degree in Latin American human communities while improving the ecological Studies and remained to obtain a PhD in anthropol- integrity of the surrounding ecosystem?" ogy. In the process Darron became fluent in Spanish and Q'eqchi' Maya. I hope someone pushes me on what "ecological in- tegrity" means. I know Bill Drury would have. Ma sa'a la ch'ol? (How's it going?) Collins has written and designed presentations for the Science, policy, rivers, dams, anthropology, lan- popular internet-based TED series (featuring "ideas guages, exploration. And when Darron spoke to the community in a packed Gates Community Center, he worth spreading"), created the award-winning film emphasized the arts. Amur River Basin: Sanctuary for the Mighty Taimen, and is currently working on an IMAX film about Sibe- The conservation leaders of the next decade must be ria's Lake Baikal. skilled designers and artists. Most lakes are temporary features in the landscape- He also spoke about how much he loved COA. Baikal has been around for twenty-five million years! 2 COA COA Beat In his public presentation at COA, Darron offered a ent from other colleges, broadening partnerships, top-ten list of what's important for the college-much continuing our efforts at campus sustainability, and of it reflecting his definition of human ecology as an COA's particular experiential pedagogy, especially engaged manner of learning, a value judgment for encouraging learning with both minds and bodies. making the world better, and a way of engaging with I loved the challenges thrown back by the students one's self, each other, and the natural world. regarding the concept of "brand." I really like the analogy with a blacksmith shop- human ecology has to be physical as well as mental. Finally, Darron stressed the need to raise new levels of funding and to hold sacred the magical connection Darron's top-ten list began with Number 11: Humor. between faculty and students. Self-explanatory. If I had to describe my new job in one sentence, that would be pretty close. He then continued with the call to "continue the ex- periment." Originally from Morris Plains, New Jersey, Dar- ron has worked with WWF from Decatur, Georgia, Point being, we can be amazingly success- where he has lived with his wife, Karen, and daugh- ful and continue to be an experimental college. ters Maggie, 10, and Molly, 8. But no longer. Come Experiment=good. July, the family will be living on Mt. Desert Island. Some of Darron's other concerns included "hon- Welcome back! ing the brand," or understanding how we're differ- Thank you! Andy Griffiths ACTING PRESIDENT, ADMINISTRATIVE DEAN By Donna Gold Andy Griffiths came to COA in 2005, having retired How did he come by this attentiveness? Andy speaks as treasurer and vice president for finance and ad- of three life events, beginning with his first job at an ministration at WGBH, the public broadcaster in engineering firm doing research for the Navy. As the Boston. He so gained the respect of the college that Vietnam War escalated, both he and Dave Dayton, a when former President David Hales stepped down mentor and VP at the firm, grew uncomfortable with last December, Andy was the clear choice to become the work. Dave invited Andy to join him in starting a interim president. new company; together they launched a Massachu- setts prison job training nonprofit, leading Andy into Right from the start, Andy keyed into COA's ideal- nonprofits and eventually finance management. ism. He recalls presiding over a review of hiring pri- orities at an early personnel meeting: "I wasn't quite Then tragedy struck; his young son had an incurable sure how real the sense of community spirit was. I blood disease, living only six years. "Up to that point thought, if there's anything that's territorial, it's staff- I had very few problems," says Andy. "School had ing support." But no one argued for support in their been easy; I was happily married with a son and a own area. The committee agreed that Millard Dority daughter; our nonprofit felt like a family." He takes a of buildings and grounds most needed help-though breath. "It sounds odd, but in some respects it was a beautiful experience to face a disaster and be thrown no one from B&G was at the meeting. "It was a strong together with people who wanted to help. It forced introduction into how thoughtful people here are and me to think beyond my immediate issues." how much they believe in this sense of community." Andy's third encounter was working with Henry Bec- That very day Andy attended an All College Meeting ton, WGBH's president. "Henry is one of the smartest and was struck by how attentive and eager to learn people I ever met. How he managed problems had the students were; so different from his memories of an enormous impact on me. He was very objective at students speaking just to prove what they knew-or looking at tradeoffs, both benefits and risks. He didn't what others didn't know. look for the perfect answer, but considered all factors and almost always chose a path that worked." It takes a listener to make such judgments, and Andy has a particular way of listening-you can almost Knowing how gracefully Andy has navigated the col- watch him make notes in his head. When he comes lege through sticky economic times and the recent to an understanding, a smile cracks onto his lips. Still presidential transition, he could be talking about him- he listens, waiting his turn. self. Only he wouldn't. COA 3 STUDENT HONORS Watson Fellow Blake Davis 'll At last count Blake Davis has made 14,121 fly fishing lures. Selling these intricacies of thread, feather, and fur has taken him through high school and college. In just a few weeks, they will lead him to Australia, India, and Costa Rica in pur- suit of his project, The Culture and Evolution of Fly Fishing Techniques. As a recipient of a 2011 Watson Fellowship from the Thomas J. Watson Foundation, Blake will explore how fly fishing has evolved from an elite sport in pristine locales to one enjoyed by multitudes in urban settings. This year nearly 150 students were nominated for the founda- tion's forty fellowships and their $25,000 travel stipends. Goldwater Scholar Franklin Jacoby '12 The Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation offers merit scholarships to second- and third-year college students planning careers in science and math. Franklin Jacoby, a dedicated scientist planning to obtain a doctorate in biology, is also a focused naturalist with many seasons of field re- search under his belt. Homeschooled on a family farm in rural, downeast Maine, Franklin credits years of hard, self-directed work in the natural world for his fascination with biology. Nearly 1,100 students were nominated for the $7,500 Goldwater scholarship this year; only 275 were awarded. Projects for Peace Samuli Sinisalo '12 Samuli Sinisalo hopes to increase youth engagement in his homeland of Finland this summer through Mundus Socialis, a nine-day camp he has helped organize. Through discussions, games, and interactive workshops, the campers will explore topics such as civic participation, the environment, human rights, and the economy. Samuli hopes the camp "will help create a mindset for peace," encouraging young people "to question, chal- lenge, and act on social policies instead of passively accepting them." He received nearly $8,000 from the European Union's Youth in Action Program for the camp, along with the $10,000 Projects for Peace grant from philanthropist Kathryn W. Davis. Since 2007, when Kathryn Davis turned one hundred years old, she decided to commit one million dollars to fund one hundred grassroots projects by college students to, "bring new think- ing to the prospects of peace in the world." Garden Club Scholars Jillian E. Gall '13, Joseph Layden '11, Maggie Mansfield '11, Hazel Stark 'll Each year, the Garden Club of America awards scholarships to college students based on competitive national applications. This year, four COA students received the club's $2,000 research awards. Hazel Stark and Joseph Layden will continue work on the plant usage guides they have created for their senior projects: Plants and People of New England: Our Contemporary Reliance on Traditional Knowledge, by Hazel, and Algonquian Ethnobotany: Medicinal, Edible, & Ritual Native Plant Use, by Joseph. Maggie Mansfield and Jillian Gall have been studying the implications of soils rich in heavy metals. Maggie is looking at heavy metal accumulation in vascular plants, while Jillian has been researching the implications for insects connected to plants growing in these soils. 4 COA COA Beat AND DEEP GRATITUDES Richard J. Borden Chair in the David F. Hales Sustainability Humanities Coordinator The Richard J. Borden Chair in Henry and Peggy Sharpe the Humanities is truly a gift of also gave an additional gift: the heart. Alumnus Jay McNally $500,000 to establish the '84, his wife Jennifer, and Henry David F. Hales Sustainability and Peggy Sharpe have chosen Coordinator, COA's first en- to honor the COA faculty in gen- dowed staff position. It ensures eral and Rich Borden in particular through this chair, that the college retains its fo- the first to celebrate a current faculty member. cus on sustainability. Upon Says Jay, "Rich Borden gave form to the idea of hu- hearing of the honor, former man ecology. As Jennifer and I thought about our gift President David Hales com- to the college, we wanted to honor all who made mented, "Peggy and Henry it possible, and Rich specifically for his friendship, Sharpe are two of my lifetime leadership, mentoring, and collegiality. We hope the heroes. I love and admire them Richard J. Borden Chair in the Humanities will al- more than I have words to fully ways inspire a remembrance of the spirit of the early express. To be associated with faculty in our community as well as Rich's contribu- tions to COA and the academic community." them in any way is a pleasure; to have this permanent and Adds Henry, a COA life trustee, "Rich has been the meaningful association with heart and soul of COA. We can't imagine anyone them is a great honor." Both more deserving!" The families each gave $500,000 Henry and Peggy Sharpe now toward the chair, leaving $250,000 to be raised. hold honorary master of phi- Rich's reaction? "Education really matters. This gift is losophy in human ecology de- their acknowledgement of COA's life-changing mis- sion-at the highest level." grees from COA. BUT THAT'S NOT ALL Tom Cox's Land Grant Tom Cox (profiled in the previous COA) has donated The McNally Gift 101 acres on Bar Harbor's Norway Drive to the col- lege. The land has not seen development since the The Rich Borden chair is half of Jay and Jenn's gift- 1947 fire that burned much of Bar Harbor. Located which at one million dollars is the largest from any near The Peggy Rockefeller Farms, the two farms alum to date. The other half will go to the Fund for given to the college by David Rockefeller, the Cox Global and Civic Engagement. "College of the Atlan- tic had a profound impact on me," says Jay, also a property rises from a stream to a rocky hillside with trustee. "I was validated as a person, invited to grow panoramic views. "I wished to transfer it to COA be- intellectually, and surrounded by a community that cause it fits in so nicely with the farms," says Tom, was nurturing and supportive. I think the world is a adding, "I wanted to be sure that the land would be better place for having College of the Atlantic." in caring hands." And then there's another $2 million Just before the December holiday season, COA's development office got word of a two million dollar com- mitment to the endowment. Our secret friend, who has been following us for years, has been delighted with the quality of students the college attracts and graduates, and with the reputation COA has achieved in many arenas. What more can we say, but Thank You! COA 5 Book Reviews The Plants of Acadia National Park Baobabs in Heaven By Glen Mittelhauser '89, Linda BAOBABS By Tawanda Chabikwa '07 Gregory '89, Sally Rooney, and FANK IN HEAVEN (Amazon.com $16.50) Jill Weber (University of Maine Press $24.95) Baobabs in Heaven is the startling- debut novel of Tawanda Chabikwa When it comes to plants, espe- '07. Begun in faculty member Bill cially flowers, I am an admiring, if Carpenter's writing seminar, Bao- hopeless, novice. Many a summer babs is an extraordinary reflection memory is drawn from a walk in of Tawanda's home country, Zim- the woods, coming upon the tiniest of wildflowers babwe. With a keen eye for detail nestled in moss, and then a clearing with a profusion and an artist's sense of the beautiful (the author is also a of beach roses. But do I remember names? Or salient dancer and painter), Tawanda weaves a tale of human facts? When I open a field guide, I inevitably think frailty and strength, celebrating the universal qualities I've come across the right species, only to realize of hope and humor, resilience and fortitude, despite that my "ah-ha" flower just doesn't appear in these the tragic and violent truth of life in Zimbabwe. northern climes. This sense of human dreams and aspirations in the But if a plant appears in The Plants of Acadia Na- midst of crushing civil, political, and economic unrest tional Park, I know it's in this region. And that's only gives the book its power. From the countryside to the one of the joys of this new guide, packed with lush city, the reader is drawn into Zimbabwe's tragedy, photographs. I open at random, and find the Canada longing, strength, perseverance, beauty, and wonder. mayflower (aka false lily of the valley), and smile at the flower that loves the rocky soil at the edge of As the main character in the book says, "The forest our woods. In fact, there's a multitude of old friends never ceases to whisper secrets. Our voices become a part of the stories that would travel with the wind." here-from the scruffy common mullein of fields and Tawanda's voice is clear, true, and unflinching. This is beaches to the breathtaking blue flag iris of wetlands. a book from the heart, filled with the soul of a people. Being local, the guide is quite personal. It is personal for other reasons as well: the authors are all connect- Interposing poetic reverie with straight prose, Tawa- nda reveals the magic and mundane of contemporary ed to COA. Glen Mittelhauser and Linda Gregory are Africa, mixed like dry sunshine and dreams. In a recur- alumni; Jill Weber has taught at COA; Sally Rooney ring scene set around a small campfire, a grandmother, has helped to identify species in the college's her- Ambuya, shares mythic stories with the village chil- barium. Turn to the acknowledgements page to find dren, evoking the ancient spirit of African life: a photo of the late Craig Greene, faculty member in botany, perched among painted trillium. She slowly gets up with the difficulty of those who have spent millennia hoeing in fields with bent The guide is a tribute to Craig and the work he en- backs. We shuffle on the earthen floor to make couraged when Linda and Glen held student intern- room for her to pass. We hear her outside greeting ships looking for rare species hidden in Acadia. After grandfather by his totem-the heart. He is mutter- Craig fell ill, the four authors worked on publishing ing drunkenly to himself and humming a song that an article in the 2005 journal Rhodora detailing the no one sings anymore. 'Who was that woman area's native and non-native species. The article, with leaving the compound at this hour?' He gestures Craig as a posthumous lead author, won the New toward the deep darkness that had consumed the England Botanical Club's annual Merritt Lyndon Fer- Water Spirit. But the dust kept her secret. nald Award that year. Baobabs moves from dreams to the fist of tyranny and Craig died in October 2003; this volume is the con- back, offering an authentic view of what it is like to tinuation of his work, the result of years of botani- live, breathe, and survive in an impossible, and impos- cal treasure hunts, scouring the park to scare up new sibly beautiful world. This story will haunt and inspire. species. The result is that the plants of Acadia-and It is triumphant. Buy it. Read it. Share it with others. much of Maine's downeast coast-are beautifully Tawanda's is a voice you will not soon forget. accessible to all. ~ Donna Gold ~ Sean Murphy, COA webmaster 6 COA COA Beat In Celebration of a Consummate Teacher By Amy Hoffmaster '06 This summer, Judith Cox will be retiring after eight the lesson-no matter how good the idea-didn't go years as the director of COA's Educational Studies as planned. When faced with an honest, clear re- Program. Amy Hoffmaster, Judith's former student, sponse, you realize how rare such communication wrote a tribute to her teacher just as Amy was gradu- is. Judith Cox has a gift for providing this perspective ating with an EdM in Technology, Innovation and Ed- to students. Together, Judith and the student figure ucation from Harvard Graduate School of Education. out how to make it better: more relevant connec- Amy, who is vice president of the Massachusetts En- tions to students, clearer directions, more opportuni- vironmental Education Society, will be an Education ties for practice, fewer distractions from the content, Pioneers Fellow with Citizen Schools, developing more time for students to talk to each other. Judith curriculum for high-needs schools in Massachusetts. shows young teachers that there are endless ways to improve. Judith Cox takes a deep, slow breath and says, firmly, "I want to say this just right, because it is very im- Teaching aspiring educators to look at themselves as portant." She then offers direct, specific feedback on professionals on a long road of growth is hard work; what she saw in the classroom and the reasons why it makes you choose your words carefully. During her time at COA, Judith has connected to the intellect, emotions, and sense of identity as human ecologists of those students seeking teacher certification. Does a human ecologist see things differently from other teachers? And what does interdisciplinary thinking mean for one charged with teaching very young stu- dents to read? When COA students go into the community as stu- dent teachers, Judith makes careful matches with practicing teachers. She sets clear expectations that lead to fulfilling experiences for all involved. The precise, actionable feedback she so gracefully pro- vides helps to both steady and reel in optimistic- and perhaps hesitant-student teachers. At the same time, she challenges mentors to provide constructive criticism. Most of all, Judith inspires a sense that learning to teach requires humility, and an openness to growth. She instills in the beginning teacher a sense that it is possible not only to make it through the school day, but also to be renewed by the change in students. Judith works by providing models, by describing met- aphors that illuminate techniques, and by listening with an unmatched attentiveness and ability to em- pathize. She provides aspiring educators the support they need to see themselves as capable of great work. To coach imaginative, idealistic teachers to work and learn effectively in schools is a great task. Judith's ef- forts have multiplied as COA graduates take on epic problems of equity and sustainability with optimism in places near and far-through education. I'm hon- ored to write about Judith Cox as she steps away from Judith Cox holds Nora Rose Nabushawo, daughter to Sarah this formal role at COA, and to invite her to reflect Haughn '08, at the 2010 staff-faculty-senior tug-of-war. with pride on the impact she has had. COA 7 THE SEA AND EVERYTHING IN IT: Evelyn Smith '11 and the Penobscot East Resource Center By Sarah Haughn '08 Blood runs thicker than water, or so the adage goes. Beginning as a general intern with the center, Evie For Evelyn Smith, whose mother worked at the De- participated in a broad range of activities, including partment of Marine Resources for three decades and working extensively with their Community Fisher- whose father has been a lifelong sailor, the saying ies Action Roundtable, which connects fishing com- finds its source. Evelyn, or Evie as she is known, is a munities with tools to participate in conversations fourth-year student from Edgecomb, Maine. Though around resource management. Support for this work she began her college education at the University came from the Long Cove Foundation. of California, Davis, Evie was drawn back to the At- lantic-which led her to COA, and ultimately intro- As her ten-week internship neared its end, Evie was duced her to a community fisheries organization that invited to remain. Having found the organization "an changed the way she understands herself, her home, absolutely inspiring group of people," she accepted and her future. with enthusiasm. The two-and-a-half-month intern- ship evolved into a fourteen-month relationship, dur- Evie admits that her decision to transfer was partly ing which she coordinated and managed their Com- wisdom and partly whim. She was listening to her munity Supported Fisheries programs for groundfish longing for a role in the communities that formed her. and shrimp. Much of her work involved getting peo- She also wanted to be in control of her education. ple to talk about seasonal fisheries, and to think about And she was looking for a school where she would the fishermen and "what it means to have this access have more freedom. to seasonal seafood on the coast of Maine." "After my first term at COA, I recognized how incred- When Evie returned to classes last fall, she found the ible and unique this education was. Yes, I had the insights she gained in her coursework allowed her ability to go and do what I wanted; but I also had the support network that allowed me to feel confident in to better understand the many aspects of fisheries whatever it was I wanted to do, which I had never management. Ethnography with Todd Little-Siebold, experienced before. That, to me, is the epitome of faculty member in history, taught Evie to see the story COA. They support you at levels that I don't think line in everything. Jay Friedlander's business course any other institution can begin to attempt. And it helped her understand fishing as a profit-making ven- wasn't just professors who had me in their classes, ture. Molly Anderson, Partridge Chair in Food and but professors who knew my name in passing. Their Sustainable Agriculture Systems, reminded her of the level of interest and their dedication to my education production and consumption components of fisher- was shocking and mind-blowing to me." ies. With Chris as project director, Evie is concluding her time at COA writing up this work for her senior Working with Chris Petersen, faculty member in biol- project. ogy, Evie joined the Penobscot East Resource Cen- ter, or PERC-a Deer Isle, Maine nonprofit found- "I went to COA without a real vision," Evie reflects, ed by MacArthur Fellow Ted Ames. Robin Alden, "and I left feeling like I could accomplish anything. Maine's former Commissioner of Marine Resourc- And even if I didn't accomplish it, the people who es, is the organization's executive director. PERC's were at COA or knew me at COA will always be mission is to "build alliances among fishermen and there as a resource or a helping hand." In the end, for community members, foster community-based sci- Evelyn Smith, the story lines, the bottom lines, and ence projects, and work to strengthen and diversify even the fishing lines convey the importance of rela- marine economies." tionships and the complex communities they build. 8 COA Youth Inspirations Lauren Nutter '10 on her Watson Journey Total sensory overload-looming buildings, endless shanty towns, indistinguishable chaotic lines of traffic, delicious new foods and spices, swarming masses of color as thousands of people weave through the city, giant Ganeshas parading down the streets to the beat of drums, and all sorts of smells both good and far less appeal- ing. This encounter with Mumbai was my first with India and her major cities of Bangalore, Pune, and Delhi this past September as part of my Watson journey. Most people who have been to India understand this mix of chaos and beauty, and also know what I mean when I say there is a wide array of smells. Often, when riding in a rickshaw, I could tell I was about to go by a river just from the foul smell in the air. Over coffee one evening in Delhi, I began explaining my Watson quest to a few friends: I was in search of young people who are building movements and raising voices on environmental issues in their countries. I wanted to understand the challenges that are both unique and similar for youth working on these issues all over the world. And most importantly, I wanted to find success stories that could inspire and model how youth can be empowered to shape their futures and work with decision-makers. After explaining this, a friend insisted I meet a young man named Vimlendu. On a hot Friday afternoon, I made my way to the small office of "Swechha-We for Change" to meet him. The building did not seem like the typical office space, and appeared to be mostly family residences. After inadvertently walking into a family's living room, I found the office tucked away half a floor up. Scattered around the small room were cardboard posters calling for action to clean the Yamuna River. Vimlendu founded Swechha in 2000 because he was horrified by the state of the Yamuna River running through his city and wanted to take action. India has a number of heavily polluted waterways; one of the most polluted is the Yamuna in Delhi. It begins hundreds of miles away from the city in the Himalayas, but the river that winds through Delhi is filled with an insurmountable amount of raw sewage, industrial waste, and trash that chokes its flow. Vimlendu told me that a dirty river reflected a dirty society, and he wanted to change that. He explained that in Hindi swechha means "one's own free will." He understands it as a call for each individual to be and create change in the world. Lauren Nutter '11 with Surendran Balachandran from the Indian Youth Climate Network, an organization also working on water issues in Delhi. Vimlendu began by mobilizing youth volunteers to journey, I continue to be inspired by their stories of help clean the river and raise awareness about its change despite of these challenges. Traveling through pollution. They became a voice for the waterway Turkey, India, Belgium, Holland, Peru, and now Ar- and utilized theatrical performances, photo exhibits, gentina, I have seen culture and government norms film, workshops, and public meetings in schools to shape how the young are empowered on such issues. educate others. Today, they bring together over one Holland has a very active national youth council that thousand people each year to help clean the river and is supported with funding from the government, but raise awareness of its condition. They have success- maintains autonomy in designing programs and pri- fully lobbied the local government for larger efforts orities for those funds. In Turkey, however, I found to clean the Yamuna and for policy changes such as that young people had to fight a deeper level of to- fencing its bridges to alter the culture of throwing trash directly into the river. Swechha's programs have kenism. The local government was happy to "work" expanded to include not only environmental issues, alongside a youth group, but they seemed more inter- but also education and active citizenship for youth. ested in a photo for the press than actually engaging with them on meaningful service projects. What struck me most about Vimlendu and many of the other young activists I have met this year is the Despite varying cultures and contexts, within each ambition and caring at the heart of their work. Envi- country I have found young people transcending ronmental issues unfortunately do not have simple norms to influence and shape environmental deci- solutions, especially in areas like the sprawling me- sions. They are mobilizing and educating others to tropolis of Delhi. Despite over a decade of work, the take action, and even building their own NGOs or state of the Yamuna is depressing at best and poses businesses to create a more sustainable future now, a daunting challenge for anyone. And yet Vimlendu instead of waiting for political leaders to make the has inspired many people to take action and work change. Nearly one in five people, or over 1.2 bil- to revive their river. The Yamuna is far from being lion individuals, are between the ages of fifteen and clean, but Vimlendu's organization is working to twenty-four. It is a generation that will inherit many ensure that a generation is better connected to it-a daunting environmental problems, such as the pollut- connection that has given youth a reason to reclaim ed Yamuna River. The inspiring initiatives and educa- their river. tion of youth are essential to the coming generations, For me, Vimlendu's story is what my Watson journey and Vimlendu's story is one of many. My Watson ex- has been about. It has been about discovering the perience has shown me that we can learn from efforts many diverse challenges young people face in hav- like Vimlendu's and empower youth to work with ing a voice in decision-making processes while fight- governments, businesses, schools, and themselves to ing for a cleaner environment in their future. On my create a better future. 3OPT TRAFT 70/ Your muck LE we for chang 10 COA Marie Stivers STAFF PROFILE Photo and story by Julia De Santis '12 "When I first started working here, we still had wood stoves in our offices," says Marie DeMuro Stivers. "When we would come in to work in the morn- ing, we would light the fire and wait until the office heated up because the typewriters wouldn't work if it was too cold." The year was 1980, and College of the Atlantic-with about 182 students and fourteen full-time faculty-needed someone to work in the registrar and internship offices. Thirty-one years have passed since then. Though Marie has taken some breaks from the college, she has Hall. "I was downtown when the alarm went off and been a stalwart staff member for twenty-three years, a friend turned to me and said, 'Marie, the college working as the assistant to the registrar and secretary is on fire.' We came running up here, and I'll never for institutional research before becoming director of forget the noise-this incredible roar. It was really, academic and administrator services. Marie advises really hard." She pauses and looks away; when she students, orders books, publishes the course catalogs, returns her gaze, her eyes are shimmering and her assists the academic dean and the chair of academic voice sounds like it's struggling. affairs, and manages all extracurricular space needs. After the fire, the entire administration crowded into On a particularly windy day in early April, I met Turrets, ending what had been a Friday afternoon staff Marie in her tiny office on the third floor of Turrets, tradition, says Marie. "We would close the door of a space that once functioned as a bathroom and still the admission office in Turrets and have an informal has the tiles to prove it. It does not seem big enough staff meeting. It wasn't planned, we just talked. But for a woman who does so much, but Marie is orga- nized and the old windows let in the sun, a combina- it gave everyone an idea of how people were feeling tion that feels quite comfortable. and how things were going." With so many people in Turrets, this gathering was no longer possible. Known as warm and tough, fun and serious, Marie admits, "I don't know how I came to have the kind As COA continues to grow, change is inevitable, of respect and power that I do. I've always just done says Marie. "There are many more layers of things my job." But ask Karen Waldron, faculty member in that have to be done. There are so many more regula- literature, and she'll talk about Marie's humor and tions, so many programs, so much more fundraising: commitment. "Marie does a lot of the things the col- we have to work harder to keep a bigger institution lege depends on, and she does them really well," going. In the early 1980s if someone had a mailing, says Karen. "She's funny and she's irreverent. She we all pitched in. Now people have to concentrate knows when to speak and when not to speak. She on their own responsibilities. We have less flexibility loves deeply, and in many ways acts as a mom to to say, 'Sure, I can do that.' students-she gets kids through." Still, the connections among people are tight. When "I love working with the students, that's the best part Marie had cancer, Karen, a dean at the time, and Ken of my job," says Marie. "Most arrive when they are Hill, who is still a dean, shaved their heads. Says eighteen, still just little babies, but suddenly they are Marie, "I was running around bald-we were all run- articulate and worldly. When we go to senior presen- ning around bald." tations it makes me so proud to know that we were a part of these wonderful lives." So what changes would be good for the college, I wondered. Marie doesn't have to think: "More spaces Marie's history with the college takes her back to for dancing-Capoeira, dance classes, those activities before the 1983 fire that destroyed the old Kaelber help everyone's attitude, especially in the winter." COA 11 This childhood taught Polly the particular needs of rural communities, and the environmental values of making do. It makes sense, then, that Polly, who owns a house on Sutton Island, off Mt. Desert Island, would connect to COA through Beech Hill Farm. She recalls the valiant efforts of former farm manag- ers Lara Judson '04 and Diane Lokocz '03 in making Beech Hill more of a teaching farm. At Polly's sug- gestion, COA applied to the Partridge Foundation for some assistance for the farm; the funding helped it turn the corner to profitability. Says Polly, "COA was very interesting to me as a col- lege of human ecology, which I didn't understand at first. But as I began to visit, I began to see its pur- pose." She so believes in the value of raising one's own food that she'd like to see every student at COA spend a term working on the farm. Then she laughs, a deep-throated, full laugh. "I know, I'm very auto- cratic. The college is very democratic." But Polly is delighted to know that many students do work on the farm, that local schools serve some of the DONOR PROFILE farm's produce, and that schoolchildren often come to the farm in the fall to help pull carrots and dig po- Polly Guth tatoes. She's also impressed by the Share the Harvest program, run by COA students, that makes Beech Hill Farm produce accessible to more local families through farm stand certificates. By Donna Gold As we continue talking, the conversation turns to Polly Guth sets down her coffee cup, leans toward Polly's friend Christopher Bielenberg. Christopher's her guest, and with deep blue eyes fiercely sparkling father, Peter Bielenberg, was implicated in a plot to declares, "I'm a farmer. I know about farming. I know assassinate Adolph Hitler during World War II, but you can make a go of it on a farm." managed to escape the death penalty. After the war, summers of work and tranquility on a farm in Ireland Never mind that we're sipping cappuccino in an ele- restored the family's sense of well-being, imbuing gant New York City living room a stone's throw from Christopher with a devotion to farming. An admir- the Central Park Zoo, Polly's heart lies in the pastures er of the Faculty of Organic Agricultural Sciences and farmlands of the world. This devotion to organic at Germany's University of Kassel, Christopher also farms, good nutrition, and many other social efforts chairs the board of the Organic Research Centre at led her and her husband John to help establish the Elm Farm in the United Kingdom. At Polly's sugges- Partridge Foundation to fund such causes. tion these two venerable European institutions com- bined with COA to form our Transatlantic Partnership It is thanks to this foundation, which two years ago in Sustainable Food Systems. granted COA $2.5 million to enhance its focus on or- ganic farming, that COA now has a Sustainable Food With the hiring of Molly Anderson, who has an exten- Systems program. Since March of 2010, this program sive domestic and international background in food has been run by Molly Anderson, the Partridge Chair issues, both the COA-based food systems program in Food and Sustainable Agriculture Systems. and the Transatlantic Partnership program have tak- en off. "I have enormous faith in Molly," says Polly. Polly Guth's love of farming is in her blood. She grew "She's a very intelligent woman with a tremendous up on a Manchester, New Hampshire farm, near the background." textile mill that employed her father upon his gradu- ation from Harvard. When World War Il came, and And Molly has enormous respect for what the Par- food shortages were feared, Polly recalls, "Right tridge Foundation has added to the college. "In many off, my mother said, 'We have to survive. We will ways, COA's educational model is far ahead of other survive, and we will have our neighbors survive." institutions of higher education in its ability to foster Polly's mother went to work expanding the farm. creative, interdisciplinary solutions to the food sys- Polly has fond memories of collecting eggs, milking tem challenges of today," Molly says. a cow, and raising vegetables, cattle, and chickens. "Both my parents were original environmentalists," "COA is a very different breed of college," adds she says. "They ran away from their families." Polly. "It's the perfect place to do this." 12 COA An Oral History with Rich Borden Rich Borden, faculty member in psychology and the Rachel Carson Chair in Human Ecology, was a founder of the Society for Human Ecology and for many years its executive director. He also served as COA's aca- demic dean for nineteen years. Shortly after Jay '84 and Jennifer McNally, and life trustee Henry and Peggy Sharpe announced the Richard J. Borden Chair in the Humanities, / spent an hour talking to Rich about the early days. The following is a small part of our conversation. DG Donna Gold: How did you hear about COA? of maybe adding a psychologist. I wasn't sure what it Rich Borden: I think it was in 1974 or '75, not long would be like to make the jump from a big university after I arrived at Purdue from Ohio State. I was getting battleship like Purdue into the COA canoe, but I was interested in how ecology might connect to psychol- curious. In the spring of 1979, I came for a visiting se- ogy. I had written a short article about how I didn't mester. During that time, they had a search for a full think there was any place in America where there time psychologist; I applied and they selected me. was a bona fide interdisciplinary education-which DG: And did the structure of COA also attract you? seemed to me necessary for understanding the broad- er implications of ecology. I got a reply from some- RB: I was especially influenced by the idea of the All one at the University of Michigan, saying, "There's College Meeting. And that's partly a throwback to the this little college started by a group of Harvard-types things that happened at Kent State. [Rich was at Kent up in Bar Harbor, Maine and they're doing some- State on May 4, 1970 when the Ohio National Guard thing called human ecology." Shortly after, I wrote to fired into a crowd of student protesters, killing four the college, in sort of a formal way, saying that I was students.] In the campus tension leading up to the a research psychologist and would like to come and Kent event, administrators often became surrogates study the psychological profiles of the students. I got and targets for the outside problems of the time. The a letter back from [former president and founding fac- sit-ins and demonstrations were very confrontation- ulty member] Steve Katona, who said, "Yeah. Come al-and that's partly what led to the intense conflict on up; help yourself. In fact, you can stay with me." there. The thing I immediately recognized at COA was everybody's voice was all together: the ACM not So I came. My graduate students and I did a series of only symbolized it; it was it. Students were a part of studies on a sample of students. We gave them broad- the decision making. That struck me as an ingenious based personality tests, attitude surveys, lifestyle in- way to run a college. And further, that what had hap- ventories-the whole gamut. I'm sure they thought pened at Kent could never occur in a system like it was slightly weird, but they all went along with it. COA's. Right from the beginning, we started to find some re- ally interesting differences. COA students were much DG: Did you feel like you had to give anything up to more introspective than traditional college students. come to COA? They were more preoccupied with questions of val- RB: Yes. Security. Big universities are safe places. ues, more philosophically-minded, more concerned COA was a risky experiment. We disappeared into about moral and ethical issues. They were also much the woods. Faculty and students all shared a single less "thing" oriented, and more "person" and "idea" telephone in the lobby, and long distance calls were oriented. And probably the biggest difference-and I frowned on by the business office. I think that my think this may still be true-COA students were more mother and most of androgynous. That is, compared to more-or-less sex- my colleagues else- typed attitudes of conventional students elsewhere- where couldn't un- where females tended to hold feminine attitudes and derstand what I was males had masculine orientations-there was much doing. I don't know more of a mixing together of these attitudes at COA. if I did, either. I At the time, we made arguments about how working was very much on through those identity questions were parallel to, or a an intuitive level. part of, an exploration of larger questions of relation- Like, how do you ships to the environment, the deeper implications of explain falling in ecology, and so on. love? You don't make it happen; it DG: So you came here to do a study- happens. And this RB: And I kept coming back; I really liked the college was sort of a love for what it was, who the people were, how it ran. It relationship, from was absolutely charming. At one point there was talk the beginning. COA 13 DG: Did you have to give up your research? It was a dark period and it didn't really change until RB: I didn't think I had to at first. In those days, data the second or third year after Lou arrived. So, for four was coded in on IBM punch cards that were kept in or five years, we were deeply threatened by a loss of boxes and then fed into computers. When I came student applications, loss of funds, loss of a number here, I had a rather large stack of these boxes. When of trustees, and a loss of buildings. I think we ran on Harris Hyman [former faculty member], bought the hope and hard work. The faculty recommitted to the college's first computer, a PDP8, he asked me to institution. A few, who were ambivalent, left. It was bring them to our tiny computer center on the second fun to have that kind of dedication. Everybody knew floor of the old Kaelber Hall. He was going to have that if we were going to survive, we had to work to- them transferred to magnetic discs at Jackson Lab. So gether-and we were especially fortunate to have I stacked them all next to the computer. Before he Ed Blair come on as chairman of the board. He gave ever got to them, the building burned down. the college a stamp of legitimacy that was absolute- ly critical. Lou spent a lot of time adding significant That was a real turning point. All of the data from people to the board, not just for resources, but also nearly a decade of research on personality assess- for credibility. Somehow it all came together. For me ment, cognitive mapping, and environmental beliefs we were out of the woods when we finally got our was gone. Absolutely gone. On top of that we had the whole question of what was going to happen to the first ten-year accreditation. college. Would it survive? Fortunately, Lou Rabineau DG: Did you ever think it wouldn't make it? [COA's third president] showed up. Lou picked me to be his assistant. That changed things a lot for me. RB: I think I only had a few really brief moments I worked day-in and day-out with Lou for nine years. when I thought we wouldn't make it. I always felt In many ways, I stopped being a psychologist; it was that we were too good to be lost. And I think it's true. the college that became the project for me. I also felt We could've made it on nothing, almost. the need to help create the language of what the col- lege is. How does the philosophy of human ecology DG: What do you see for the future of COA? get turned into a pedagogy that has relevance? I start- RB: I hope the college can hold to its founding mis- ed finding other places where people were playing sion and maintain the character that [alumni like] Jay with this idea, and we started the Society for Human McNally got from this place-a kind of personal cour- Ecology. I became fascinated with the ways an eco- age to do their own thing and make a difference. I logical perspective was incorporated into education, know that you know that I'm passionate about the research, and applications worldwide. You would al- human ecology piece. I hope we never lose it or try most have to say I've gone from being an academic to imitate a more conventional pattern. I believe the psychologist to somebody who pursues the history of main role of the administration here is to support in- an idea. Steve Katona chased whales; I chase human novation, to keep folding the edges back, tucking in ecologists. the loose ends, and encouraging everyone to make DG: Can you talk more about COA's crisis points? a really interdisciplinary, integrated, creative institu- tion. Looking ahead to the next president, it's impor- RB: The fire was certainly major. Actually, before tant that that person appreciates what the college has that, in the early eighties, when Reagan was elected, been. We also have to find very special people to be there was an attitude change in the country. Unlike on this faculty. They can't just be good at their field; the "hip" attitudes of the sixties, there was a new they've got to want to connect what they know to the generation of college students who wanted to make farthest reaches of things, because that's what makes money, to own expensive things, and were relatively conservative. That change shut down a lot of envi- the college special. ronmental studies programs and it also affected us. DG: Finally, what was your reaction when you heard One of the first problems that Judith Swayze [COA's about the Rich Borden Chair in the Humanities? second president] encountered was enrollment de- cline. She wrote a number of papers called "COA at RB: I heard it in a whisper, informally, in a phone the Crossroads." They were warnings about having call from Jay McNally. I was absolutely taken aback. to make some "change or die" choices. Those were I had a real lump in my throat, because that is a tre- some of the first red flags. A year or so later we had mendous gift, not only from Jay and Jenn, Henry and the fire. I remember as a kid, reading the book 1984, Peggy to the institution, but from person to person. wondering where I would be when it came around. And so I was stunned. I know how important the col- Turns out, the year began with the most dire faculty lege has been in Jay's life, so it's an honor for me, but meeting I have ever attended. it's also a great testimony to the college. 14 COA Autumn, Maine By Caitlin Thurrell '11 Introduction: From An Essay in Human Ecology In the autumn of 2010, I undertook a project in wilderness experience, nature writing, and attention. For eight and a half weeks I lived alone in the woods, on the lower slope of a mountain in Maine. I had with me a canoe, a tarp for shelter, and an outfit built a little heavier than I would have liked; every week or two, I had good friends bringing me a resupply of food. And otherwise I had that place - the forest there, the lake, the mountain - and my own thoughts and silences. The following is an excerpt from my field journal, taken from the latter days of October. October 18 I have a friend who notices the most beautiful Breath is wind, but wind is not breath. The com- things. She told me once that the patterns on the wa- mon metaphor misleads. Breath is rhythm, its nature ter and in the clouds are the same, marking differ- consisting in rhythm as much as it consists in air, a ent interfaces of the same media. And it's so: air and linking cycle of rise and fall, each necessitating the water will do the same things to each other, whether next. And wind is chaos. met in the atmosphere or on the surface of the lake. I spent this afternoon watching the patterning The world is fractal, specifically unrepeatable and yet of air over water, each separate motion creating a spreading, directional event in space. The shapes of infinitely self-similar, the same fundamental actors the gusts were flattened and drawn in two dimen- yielding the same shapes of creation. Cirrocumulus sions, in light and the pebbling of the lake. Some- clouds look like desert sand. The world is itself, over times a form would seem to arise all at once, as a and over again, arisen. school of fish will move in one mind. First thing this morning the wind was fully still, October 19 and the mist came thick up off the lake. Turning my back to the sun I watched the mist's shadow cast on Today I hiked Black Mountain, primarily for the the coarse sand of the beach, rising up around mine. pleasure of return. Walking a path for the third or It wavered in inconstant bands like heat off pave- fourth time I find that I begin to know the turnings, ment, or the image precisely of water reflected on and to recognize myself in the pattern of the land- overhanging rocks. scape there. COA 15 land, and in many places can't even urinate or def- ecate, just to make the dis- connection complete. The disconnection he de- scribes is, I think, the root and source of a madness that lets people move like Blitzkrieg through our landscapes, rath- er than understanding our- selves as a part of them. I am a creature of this place, and I don't think I can live confined to trails and keep my sanity, or dignity, either. The world does not exist as a series of drawn and established lines, nor a view to be had to either side of these. If you are on a road you are in a human land- scape, though the wilderness Boots are heavy. They are meant for a barrier, in- stretch out endless to either tended to protect a body from the impact of the world side, and a human spirit will not bear well a life lived as it moves through. But it's hard, so well-protected, only inside of its own box. To know the world re- to remain sensitive to what's on the other side, or to quires first walking into it. Moreover, the instinct of be careful. "Walking rough-shod" speaks to the tan- stewardship is born of love, and of real knowledge. gible possibility of doing harm through passage, and People cannot live well in relationship to land that by inattention. A human being drawn to move in the they have never known with anything like intimacy. fragments of land not already signed and dedicated to But boots are heavy. The ethic that instructs a human use wrestles necessarily with the interaction. walker to stay only on prescribed routes is one that At this juncture in the course of human events, speaks in defense of land, when so much land is al- human pressure has effectively transformed most ready lost under human feet. I would not have this of the land that exists. The thoughtful struggle of sweet mountain overrun, and just now people lack people working with wilderness, or the idea of wil- skill or care to walk lightly. Boots are heavy. When derness, returns continually to the question of how I can, I go barefoot; human tracks are maybe not so land can be preserved from that overwhelm. It has different from bear or beaver, then. With the barriers birthed, among other things, a philosophy of "Leave down I can begin to accurately feel the land where No Trace," which asks of people that they confine I am moving, and accept the feedback of its fragility the heaviness of their action to the places we have and resilience. But still, it is difficult to offer constant already claimed for humanity, and leave what is still untouched well enough alone. I respect the urgency attention to the work of travel, and I cannot help but of this call. feel every scar in moss or undergrowth I leave behind And yet, the effort to preserve the world from hu- me as a reproach. It is difficult to be careful enough. mans draws a bright hard line between the two, and I came to Black Mountain's east peak as the after- the separation is dangerous. Last year in a conversa- noon was growing later, the northern sky bright blue, tion discussing William Cronon's essay "The Trouble the sun briefly behind clouds to the west. The tree With Wilderness," [classmate] Kaija Klauder's father cover broke, and the ridge ran out to blueberry scrub Josh ('74) wrote to us: and bare rock face. Down the mountain and outwards The trouble as I see it is that leaving no the land was all a patterning of red-turning forest, the trace is a two-way street, and the place in hills a rising container for the linking stream of ponds turn leaves no trace upon you. You visit like and lakes lowering gradually towards the ocean. I an alien who does not belong, who can look stayed on through sunset and into the dusk, taking an but not touch, can't eat anything, can't drink early supper of carrots and cheese and beginning to the water, can't seek shelter (only bring shel- write, but mostly just living, still and grateful. ter), can't in any way sustain yourself from the The air is different, in the hills. 16 COA October 21 mal warmth, and I spun some of it. I will not forget It's raining, and I am writing now by lantern. the sheep, wearing them. Further, the mechanism of Warmth remains the distinctive feature of fire, even creation is work, a function of life hours and energy though the flame is small and behind glass. I love this spent, which is different from acquisition, requiring light. only money. I will not lose these mittens. And I will This morning I finished the Gita, watching the work quickly and well, or be cold next week, and weather change, the grey coming in from the south sorry. and west. I felt the slightest beginning of a sick in my Knitting is still and silent work, and I am grown throat, and so all day I've been drinking elderberry tea, eating honey and raw garlic, and sitting very still. familiar in this clearing. All kinds of creatures are It is a pleasure to have resources, and space. willing to come close when I stop making my own Mostly, I've been engaged with a mitten. The noise. A hairy woodpecker was working on one of cold is coming on, and I don't have a hat or gloves the birches just above me, near enough that I could yet. Instead I brought with me a half-set of bamboo easily tell the species, though I was taught the distinc- knitting needles, and woolen yarn spun from some tion through binoculars. The grouse I startle some- sheep I know. Twenty minutes of knife-work turned times over on the other side of the stream walked my half-set of needles into a full one; convenient, close by me, clucking and unconcerned. when the necessary tools for a job are actually little Tonight the rain has brought out the wet-world sticks of wood. And now I'm working on making yarn creatures. A small, fast-bodied salamander sat for a into warmth. long while at the outer edge of the lamplight, a red I like knitting in any case, but there is a particular stripe running the length of its back and tail, other- appeal for me in the current process, brought about wise black. And then, a giant relic of the dinosaurs: by its necessity. If I am many steps removed from the a spotted salamander fully six inches long came just beginning of a thing, I effectively forget that it has one, however I may try and remember. I don't do now over my blankets, its motion slow and angular well with abstraction. If the field-dirt of a carrot bed and somehow uniquely cold-blooded. It was grey- is on my pants, I remember where the carrots came green in the shadows, and covered with white oval from; not so when I find the same carrots in a plastic spots. Reptiles and amphibians feel profoundly other produce bag. Add much distance, and my skin is too to me, in a way that plants never have; and some thick to recall the ground. squeamish thing near the bottom of my spine shud- It's a similar fact with meeting every need. All ders at the possibility of touch. Still they are so beauti- of this yarn still smells strongly of lanolin and ani- ful, quick and shining with the water. COA 17 October 24 One boulder's life could be the study of a season. I was caught today by a stone so that I couldn't walk by, lost looking for a long time at the horizon of small things. There were three different mosses in the mat that covered most of the rock surface, primarily either stair-step moss, a tiny fern-shaped growth, or the soft, spiking green one not unlike clumps of grass. The leaves of the stair-step moss oppose each other in pairs along two dif- ferent axes, so that, seen closely, they become like a sailor's square braid. Lichens, too, sat among the mosses, Parmelia and Hypogymnia; I saw the latter once with an edge of scarlet around the rim of its small cup. Also others I did not recognize, white-green or blue-green, flattened and crinkling. Enough soil had gathered on the boulder's flat top for wintergreen and bunchberry to root, though I can't guess how the seeds arrived there. The rock itself was not granite, rather something sedimentary and willing to crumble, much-pebbled, red-tinged. And old, in real truth, as the hills. Maybe older: there is much to wonder at, in the life of stone. I am not such a good empiricist that I want to know much more than this, or yet, at any rate. I remember duct-taping Edgar Allen Poe's "Ode to Science" to the cover of my lab notebook in the seventh grade: Science! True daughter of Old Time thou art! Who alterest all things with thy peering eyes Why prey'st thou thus upon the poet's heart, Vulture, whose wings are dull realities? It described the experience of inquiry I had been offered up to that point: the world stripped naked and made to stand cold beneath fluorescent lights, made so much less than itself by the treatment. I had a native horror of the distance established by the microscope, the otherness implicit in specimen or subject, but I had nothing to stand better in its place. I had not established any more authentic experience, as yet, of the mate- rial. I was ready to give up the whole vein of learning described by direct study, bored with answers that had already been learned by someone, and put forth as Truth. Also I was horrified, but unable to name my horror, not knowing yet on whose behalf it was. It was a painfully slow arriving for me, to start to touch the world. And startling as any first intimacy, the same pleasure at consummated affinity, the same shock and wonder at the closeness of the fit. For a long time I spoke broadly against the microscope, the methodology of reduction through magnifica- tion of the parts. Look if you like at the skin cells of my inner cheek, but do not presume to know me thus. I want that students and everyone might have opportunity to go into the world, and encounter it at the scale that is birthright. People would do well to walk respectfully in a context of rocks and grasses, just for the sake of amazement. Or alternatively, to cut down a tree for fuel, and in doing so understand the lines of fundamental dependence there. But it is not for humans to remove fragments and put them behind glass, allowing ourselves the illusion of being greater. Last fall I had the privilege to take a botany class with Jill Weber, and walk in Acadia awhile with a woman who knew plants intimately, through long acquaintance. Address the plant, she told us often, you can't learn anything from back there. And so we did. She also loved microscopes, in much the way that I love the wheel-hoe, as a tool of great utility in the work at hand. Address the plant, she said, look closer-and I under- stood finally that once an intimacy has been established, then both desire and capacity for knowing it stretch into something touching the infinite. Once you have learned to love a thing by the affinity of form for form, any means of knowledge becomes a gift. An apiary harvest offers a valuable education in the form of abundant and lasting sweetness, honey teaching deeply about plant reproduction, and the nature of bees and bee-work. Or a lens, miracle of refracted light, reveals the intricacy of pollen structures. It's all some form of love's fulfillment, then. But as a practicality, I think the one form of experience must needs precede the other. It is so in my own learning, at least. Latin names and technical terminology are all ashes in my mouth, and honestly I don't care what ascospores or conidia might be. Until, that is, I have stopped, and seen them, and wondered. I don't care until the sudden shifting moment when these things correspond with a deepening understanding I'm hungry for, hunger born of a specific and growing love. An anatomy textbook teaches the form and details of the hu- man body, and it begs coffee and a straight-backed chair for concentration. But I think that maybe a student's attention will not waver, memorizing the muscles in the small of his lover's back. All photos in this article by Zach Whalen '11. Zach photographed the shipwrecks off Mount Desert Island for his senior project and is now launching his new business, Faolan Photography, through COA's Sustainable Enterprise Hatchery. 18 COA COA's Experiential Classroom At College of the Atlantic, we say that we have a distinctive approach to education: we don't have departments, we have one major; our interdisciplinarity is quite visible throughout our course catalog. And we're experiential. But what does that mean, really? Some investigations must be naturally intellectual, or textual. Or are they? Is it possible to teach philosophy or history and make it experiential? Going further, what is the value of these experiences? To answer these questions, a cadre of students and recent alumni spent a few weeks this spring speaking with faculty and students from a diverse selection of COA fields. When we were done, I happened upon Cayla Moore '13. Politely, but passionately, Cayla challenged the very premise of these articles. For her, sitting in a philosophy or literature class discussing the texts is also experiential. "We have debates all the time about what experiential education means," she told me. "Many of us believe that the engagement in a classroom is just as experiential as taking a dance class or going out in the field." I believe that Cayla might be right. The kind of discussion to which she is referring-delving into the heart of a text, challenging the writer, turning over thoughts, exploring how they resonate-also brings the work home. In that case, just about every COA class is experiential, whether the experience has to do with grains grown in Germany or the nature of narrative. ~ Donna Gold Challenging Beliefs The team-taught Newfoundland class, This Marvelous Terrible Place By Blake Davis '11 A key concept in human ecology, says faculty mem- ber in economics Davis Taylor, is conflict-the struggle of humans to adapt to their environments, to survive. Nowhere is the challenge more appar- ent, he adds, than the remote Canadian province of Newfoundland, the focus of This Marvelous Terrible Place: Human Ecology of Newfoundland. "You have this amazing ecological place. There is an incredible amount of caribou. The amount of sea birds is biblical. It is a very distinct place that is relatively close to Maine. You just can't believe it until you're there," says Davis, who team-teaches the course with Sean Todd, faculty member in biology, and Natalie Springuel '91, a community development associate with Maine Sea Grant. Seniors Philip Kunhardt and Natalie Barnett explore the beach at The class focuses on the collapse of the once-abun- Gros Morne National Park in Newfoundland. Photo by Davis Taylor. dant cod fishery, an industry that formed the basis of the Newfoundland economy before a moratorium on cod fishing was finally put in place in the early Daniel interacted with many sealers during his 1990s. Students taking the course learn about the project, which he said left him better informed about unusual oceanography of the region that created the its significance in Newfoundland communities. "One fishery and explore how Newfoundland communities sealer remarked that the seal meat on the table was are changing with the demise of the fishing industry. not likely to be there next year," Daniel says, recount- For two weeks following the end of the term, the ing a dinner he shared with one of Sean Todd's New- class travels to Newfoundland. "It was such an effec- foundland relatives. "I was genuinely sad about this," tive way to implement interdisciplinary education," Daniel added, "like that part of their culture was be- says Daniel Lindner, a senior who took the course ing killed. I was sympathizing with these men, which in 2009. "The class itself was pleasant, but actually is the last thing I thought would happen." traveling to Newfoundland and experiencing it was "This student captured the tension between wanting truly spectacular." to preserve a natural resource and protect local hunt- In a final project, or epilogue, students reflect on the ing practices," says Davis. "It was really powerful." interviews and conversations with residents. These conversations, says Davis, are the primary purpose Davis says the field trip allows students to be im- behind the trip. The topics of these epilogues have mersed with these interactions, and significantly ex- ranged from the timber and emerging oil industries to tends class time. "You're just always talking, even at traditional music and ghost lore. breakfast." Daniel's epilogue focused on the seal hunt, a practice Natalie Barnett, a senior who also took the class in that has received broad criticism from activists since 2009, says the experience of studying at the end of the 1970s. "I didn't know much about sealing," he the course not only reinforced course material, but says. "So for my project I analyzed a lot of sides of inspired her to conduct a residency in the United sealing, from historic catches to the life cycle of harp Kingdom. "Even though the spirit of Newfoundland seals. But the really meaty part was in the ethical is- had really been hit by the collapse of the fishery, this sue and how the world and Newfoundland are inter- class reminded me that the opportunities to go out preting and reacting to the profession." and do something were really great." 20 COA A Delectable Education By Blake Davis '11 Once a year Nishanta, or Nishi, Rajakaruna '94, fac- "All science is based on good observation," Nishi ulty member in botany, evaluates his students with an says. "These kinds of classes let students make ob- elaborate fruit salad. It is an entrance exam of sorts, servations." Hazel, who took the class in the fall, a delectable way to determine what students know emphasized the importance of handling the edible at the beginning of their Edible Botany class. As stu- plants she studied. "We rarely incorporate all of our dents dig in, they must describe the more than forty senses when trying to learn new things," she says. fruits piled together. By seeing, tasting, touching, and smelling the edible plants, the experience is not only more memorable, "You would be amazed at how little we know about but more meaningful. what we eat," says Nishi, who designed the class at COA after hosting a number of potlucks and notic- "My high school was so the opposite of COA," she ing how unaware people were about what they were adds. "I was a great student but I didn't learn. I need about to put in their mouths. "I would bite into some- to process to learn." She says the emphasis on ex- thing and try to explain where the ingredients came periential learning made the course material seem from," he says. "It's a great way to teach people about more relevant to her. Hazel, who is working on pub- plants they've been familiar with their entire lives." lishing her senior thesis, a guide to the uses of fifty common Maine plants, believes that "a lot of global The introductory class covers general plant biology, problems today come from the disconnect between emphasizing the ways humans depend on plants to what's on our plate or in our medicines, and where survive. It explores how plant leaves, stems, flowers, it originates." fruits, seeds, and other plant components are used in foods, beverages, medicines, drugs, and other edible "People tell me after taking this class that it takes applications. them longer to make a salad," jokes Nishi. "They try to classify all the plants." Students who have taken the class say the common fruits and vegetables that are studied make it easy to apply their learning. "It changes how you eat," says Hazel Stark, a COA senior. "You become a total food nerd. It's fascinating to see how diverse your diet is and where it comes from." Throughout the term students are given pieces of edible plants which they must classify, research, and discuss in a twenty-minute class presenta- tion. Given a papaya, one student wrote a ten- UNIVERSITY minute song he performed for the class. OF "I was amazed at how much he packed into it about the biology, ecology, and cultural uses of STREET papaya," says Nishi. "People have learned the lyrics to the song. I have a copy of the CD in my car." The class takes field trips to COA's community garden and Beech Hill Farm. Nishi says he of- ten prefers that the students use hand-held mag- nifying glasses instead of microscopes, allowing them to be active in the field. With COA's small class sizes, he can take students on field trips, classify plants, and give lectures on location. The final quiz, masquerading as a scavenger hunt, takes place in the produce section of Shaw's su- Emilie Jagot ('06) and Ben Polloni '06 investigate a range of permarket in Ellsworth. fruits including durian, apple, pomegranate, melon, kiwi, and pineapple. Photo by Nishanta Rajakaruna. (Dates in parentheses indicate non-graduates.) COA 21 A Passion for Rivers: Whitewater/Whitepaper with Ken Cline By Julia De Santis '12 Ken Cline, faculty member in environmental law and Ecological Restoration, the group explored and pad- policy, is obsessed with rivers. "Rivers brought me to dled the Deerfield River. COA," Ken explains." majored in science, but it was my love for rivers that made me concerned about the Ken explains, "Policy can be abstract. By canoeing environment and showed me that to protect them, a river, students learn that it is more than what's be- we have to understand more than the biology: we tween the banks. Figuring out where a river starts and have to know history, policy, and psychology too." stops is really hard; when paddling, students see it flowing into forests and can understand that concept Every other spring Ken, who holds the David in a different way." Rockefeller Family Chair in Ecosystem Management and Protection, shares his passion in Whitewater/ "I also want students to understand something else, Whitepaper: River Conservation and Recreation, a which is harder to convey in a classroom: in river course that takes a human ecological approach to riv- conservation, people can give up their lives to pro- tect certain places and make others care. From an ers. When students proposed the class to Ken, they academic standpoint-an anthropologist with a clip- knew he was a white-water paddler and loved rivers. board-that seems irrational; but I want to immerse Together they developed a course in which students people, sometimes literally, in rivers so they get a spend half their time in the classroom discussing the glimpse of why someone could feel so passionately." ecology, history, sociology, and policy aspects of dams, rivers, and watersheds, and the other half in A few students who took the class last spring have canoes learning the technical skills of paddling and chosen to do senior projects based on rivers. Among actually experiencing rivers themselves. The class them is Rebecca, or Becca, Abuza '11, who re- culminates in a five-day trip exploring a northeast searched native canoe routes in Maine-begin- river and its watershed-including dams, watershed ning at the Machias lakes, then paddling down the projects, education programs, and historic river uses. Passadumkeag to the Penobscot River. Along the way Last spring, with the help of Carrie Banks '01, a re- she took natural history and herpetology surveys for gional planner with the Massachusetts Division of the State of Maine. Members of Ken Cline's Whitewater/White Paper class maneuver canoes through an eddy on the Kenduskeag River in Bangor, Maine. Photo by Geena Berry '10. Saras Yerlig '11 was also inspired to create a river- based senior project. She wrote a paddling guide to the Machias River, comprised of the rapids, camp- sites, natural history, and conservation history of the area so visitors can understand the context of the river. According to Saras, the challenges make the education exciting and fun. "For you to know why people love rivers so much, you do really have to ex- perience them," she says. After she graduates, Saras will live and work on the Machias River with Project Share, an organization dedicated to stream restora- tion and salmon habitat and monitoring. Ken's longing for students to "know the rivers in a way that's real for them and in a way they can do something," is about more than rivers. Tanaka Shozo, a Japanese statesman at the turn of the last century said it best, notes Ken: "The care of rivers is not a question of rivers, but of the human heart." At the Berkshire Stream in Massachusetts. Photo by Carrie Banks '01. Collective Meandering: Bill "In this class we didn't just take water quality tests Carpenter's Course in Bread, or read about rivers, we paddled them," says Becca. "We then connected our experience and observa- Love and Dreams tions to what we learned in the classroom. Rivers By Sara Patterson '11 are great because you can learn river maneuvers but (2010 class member) every river is so different and changes dramatically based on the water level. Even if you've paddled a "I started teaching Bread, Love and Dreams in the river in the past, it's always changing. You can never 1980s," says Bill Carpenter, faculty member in litera- paddle the same river twice." ture and creative writing. "I created it with the chal- lenge of including experiential learning in a humani- Watershed science and technical skills were only part ties class. This has always been a problem for the of what students learned on the river. "The hardest more bookish and academic classes, and that is how part of white water canoeing can be communicat- I came up with the idea of the dream journal. The ing with your partner," notes Adrianna Beaudette dream journal is a living component of the class. It is '11, who paddled the Guadalupe River in her native where we apply and test theory." Texas for her senior project. "It's not a physical skill set, but an interpersonal one. We switched partners Bill had studied Jung and Freud as an undergraduate every week, so we learned to communicate with dif- in a traditional lecture format, focused on theory, not ferent people." application. Privately, students used the theories to understand their individual lives, but this was never With the uncertainties of paddle partners, weather a shared experience. Believing that Jungian theory conditions, and water levels come incredible learn- helps us to recover lost connections to nature in a ing opportunities. As students experience the rivers, psychological sense, Bill sees these connections as they gain interpersonal, problem-solving, and leader- an intimate component of human ecology. The chal- ship skills as well as an enriched understanding of lenge was to make it experiential. ecology, river morphology, river policy, and natural history. When things change, students learn to adapt "Every time I teach this class, it is different because and make the best of it-skills that come in handy in the content of the dreams is different. Though the fo- every aspect of life. cus of the class remains the same, students are always coming up with new questions and testing theory. In As in any wilderness experience, there is some risk. that sense we are modifying it against our own expe- "But it's a controlled risk," says Ken. "I have taken rience," he adds. river rescue classes and am certified as a Wilderness First Responder. I do let people push their own The interchange between theory and the questioning boundaries and go further than they think they can. I is essential. The conversation results in an explora- need to let that happen, but whenever we are out in tion into processes like intuition that are not often the field, I am constantly thinking about safety." considered in classes because they are so difficult COA 23 to teach. However dream analysis brings out these together meaning from previously disjointed works qualities. of psychic art to understand the deeper issues at play during my night-time meanderings. "It is not scientific investigation because it is not re- peatable," continues Bill. "The dreamer has to de- scribe it, which creates a lively methodology. It is a different kind of intellectual training that feels more Encouraging Curiosity and real, somewhere in between philosophy and psy- Wonder chology. The application of theory is intentional and By Jeffrey Dawson '11 creates the experiential component of the class." The goal of the class is self-knowledge and self- awareness, which is an aspect of our humanity that we are often blocked from accessing. Unusual in an academic environment, students talk openly about their private psychic life, applying academic theory to the real, human world in which we live. This interchange between the academic and the in- dividual drew me to the class in 2010. I've always valued self-awareness and self-reflection. I've kept a journal since I was a child. Being a contemplative person, I have relished the intricacies of dreams, the Margaret Stern '12 looks over a case at the Dorr Museum. Photo by Dru Colbert. ability to transcend the mundane and experience a world without the limits imposed by our physical existence. In the dream world I find myself walking down a pier dressed in a beautiful gown. I am sur- Dru Colbert, faculty member in three-dimensional rounded by my family members who are similarly art and design, believes in the power of museums to dressed; as we drink glasses of red wine and toast change how people think. Years before coming to the occasion, people are continually rolling into the COA she worked on the controversial Smithsonian ocean. Then they get out again, dripping wet and exhibit "A More Perfect Union," which explored the ready to have another glass of wine. Or maybe I am incarceration of Japanese citizens during World War walking in the jungle, my feet in a shallow stream II. In her class Curiosity and Wonder: Design and being bitten by a spider and surrounded by women Interpretation in the Museum, she asks students to dancing with flowers in their hair. imagine what the larger ideas might be behind a giv- I love the aesthetics of the dream world, the fluidity of en exhibit. She then works with them as they develop movement, the seamlessness of changing surround- these ideas into displays for the college's George B. ings, the dream's colors and drunken haze, but I am Dorr Museum of Natural History. also attracted to the richness of the psychic life that these images represent. I am interested in my ability For Dru, "The curatorial act is intrinsically human to find meaning in the powerful images that remain ecology: How does the physical world shape us? with me for hours after waking. The dream journals How do we learn from physical experience? Why do were an amazing avenue from which to explore tech- some humans choose to collect and display things? niques inherited from our readings of Jung and Freud. What do we choose to look at as subjects and why? What value do we place on objects and why? What Through this process, I was struck by the similarity of information do we choose to include-or leave out- my dreams. When one pays attention to the details when presenting objects or ideas? And what does that of collective rather than individual dreams, it is easy say about us as individuals, or as a culture?" to deduce patterns and themes that repeatedly pres- ent themselves. This is where the aesthetic is stripped In asking these questions, the class examines the so- from the dream and an individual psychic life is re- cial role of museums and the variety of lenses that vealed-changing my self-awareness. can be applied to understanding and presenting ob- jects, whether human-generated or gathered from the I had previously thought about my dreams in terms natural world. In the process, students discover the of powerful psychological images, but never in the subjective nature of representation. sense that these images were working together night after night in a collective psychic process. With Field trips are a large part of the work. Dru takes stu- the help of my fellow students I was able to piece dents around Maine and for a weekend exploration 24 COA to Boston museums where they meet with educators, a small exhibit through to the end, and be the one exhibit developers, and other museum professionals. to have created it. The class was not just focused on natural history and the school's museum. We took a But the essence of Curiosity and Wonder is in the variety of field trips to different kinds of museums to Dorr Museum, where every diorama and exhibit has see how they conveyed information and organized been designed and produced by COA students. The their displays. The projects that we were given really class, says Dru, "wouldn't be as meaningful without allowed the class to be creative. In my first project, our own learning lab. We have a facility to display making a curiosity cabinet, I built a fantastical fairy and investigate; it's a focal point." house of moss and things I found in the woods. I love creating fairy houses in the woods when I go hiking, Within a few short weeks, students devise ways to and it was amazing that I got to bring this passion into add new elements to existing exhibits and specimens the class." to create a temporary exhibit for the Dorr. Dru's most recent class mounted It's a Bug's World, featuring Fired up from that class, Margaret has gone on to "cultural aspects of bugdom along with the physiol- work in care and maintenance of the Dorr collections ogy, life cycles, and habitats of a variety of insects," and its facilities through independent studies. says Dru. Visitors experienced an insect puppet show, an interactive presentation that allowed visi- tors to "see" like a bug, a "store" that showcased bug In Doing Nothing, Everything products, and a section that alternately explored the is Done: Eastern Philosophy portrayal of bugs as monsters in the movies and hu- man threats to bugs. The opening reception included in Action bugs as hors d'oeuvres, and was featured in state By Jabulile Mickle Molefe '14 newspapers. "All feelings have intelligence and all thoughts have Student Margaret Stern '12 came to COA with a deep emotions." These words fill the dimly lit auditorium. interest in zoos; she sought out Curiosity and Wonder John Visvader, faculty member in philosophy, is lead- to look at the parallel approaches used by zoos and ing his evening Qi-Gong class. The group is small- museums to convey information to visitors. six bodies dig their heels into the creaky floorboards as they shift their weight from one foot to another. "Curiosity and Wonder has been one of my favorite The energy is tangible; you can feel John's excite- classes at COA," she says. "First of all, Dru is pretty ment with the process. Stopping to rest his leg (heal- inspiring and exciting as a teacher. Second, we were ing from a pulled muscle) he begins to lead exercises introduced and encouraged to actually display in the from a seated position, but bounds up again almost as Dorr Museum. It was an incredibly cool feeling to see quickly as he sits down. John Visvader leads Caitlin Thurrell '11 and Phiip Walter '11 in the Wu Dang Mountain form of Qi-Gong. Photo by Julia De Santis '12. COA 25 John began offering a weekly martial arts class in con- though, teaches something different than this: the junction with his Eastern philosophy courses over a best learning, the best action, is one that is indeli- decade ago, when he "thought it might be nice to berate and intuitive. It is the feeling of speaking, of have a Tai-Ji class." This term, he is running a tutorial writing-you only need to be thinking of the end, the on Chinese Language Through Poetry and offering goal. The actual event follows accordingly. Thus in weekly Qi-Gong. doing "nothing," everything is done. Similarly, "Qi- Gong starts as a very deliberate act," says Philip. One Sometimes confused with martial arts, Qi-Gong is "a gains more from the exercise once it ceases to be a meditation exercise that enhances life energies," John task and becomes an action that flows. Philip found says. He observes it somewhat similarly to the way that the theory gave him the vocabulary to label his one might practice yoga. "It's about trying to be more actions, while the work gave him a hands-on applica- graceful in your life through self-understanding," he tion of the teachings. explains. John believes that becoming familiar with the teachings on a mental level and participating in Three years later, Philip thinks of the philosophy reg- their physical practice allows students to access both ularly and plans to continue practicing Qi-Gong after parts of the whole. graduating this spring. Senior Philip Walter is one of the students participat- John's classes meet on Thursday nights during the ing in this spring's Qi-Gong workshop. Philip was academic year and are open to those outside of the first exposed to Eastern philosophy in practice as a COA community. second-year student in spring 2008 when he took John's Seminar in Chinese Philosophy. Philip found that Qi-Gong gave him a clear understanding of what the writings really meant, rather than seeing them In the Tracks of Winter: simply as "words on a page." It may seem strange Taking Ecology to the to combine something as abstract as philosophy with Extreme the flow of kinetic energy, but Philip believes the two go hand in hand: "There's a lot underneath the writ- By Sarah Haughn '08 ings that is bound in the physical." "Winter was a world I had always loved, but never While in John's Chinese Philosophy class, Philip felt like I understood." ~ Brianna Larsen '11 drew on his experience with Qi-Gong to visualize the concept that "in doing nothing, everything is done." Experienced as beauty or bane, Maine winters of- Philip related the idea to the different ways he ap- ten require an almost religious degree of endurance. proaches reading, both in and out of the classroom Friday afternoons find many students on campus setting. "There are many ways to read something for cloistered in their favorite library nooks with wool class, but this is usually a deliberate action-you're blankets and copious quantities of tea. But, in brave researching, notating." The work in John's classes, embrace of the elements, students in the Winter Seniors Brianna Larsen and Saras Yerlig take notes in Winter Ecology. Photo by Stephen Ressel. 26 COA Ecology class taught by Stephen Ressel, faculty mem- The Predictable and the ber in biology, don their parkas and pack their energy bars for a weekly four-and-a-half-hour trek into the Uncomfortable: COA's living heart of the season. This is no ordinary field Outdoor Program experience. By Donna Gold, with reporting by Blake Davis '11 "Winter Ecology is somewhat self-selective, because I make it clear to the students that we're going to be outside as much as possible. I think that the students have a Winter Ecology mindset that goes beyond the three or four hours we're out in the field. It creates a lot of anticipation and camaraderie. Everyone has a role to play and we're all dependent on each other to make the experiences doable and productive," says Steve. The class spends time in the woods and on the lakes, not only on a weekly basis, but also during two week- end trips. In addition to group work, they are expect- Katelyn "Scout" Costello leading an outdoor program outing. Photo by co-leader Carly Segal '13. ed to go out on their own to track animals and collect data. They keep a field journal of their experiences and observations and complete problem sets to pre- pare them for their outdoor encounters. "Winter Ecology was a great example of how essen- Tonia Kittelson, the college's director of student lead- tial field experience is for me," reflects fourth-year ership and recreation, has a phrase she repeats quite student Brianna Larsen. "Through reading and lecture frequently to students in the outdoor program: "If it's I could grasp most of the content, but it wasn't until predictable, it's preventable." This mantra forms the we were out in the field and Steve would point out basis for a large portion of the training students in the a long 'arm' of snow suspended from a tree, essen- program undergo, from getting certified in wilderness tially defying gravity, that destructive metamorpho- medicine to learning such skills as building fires, con- sis [causing ice crystals to stick together] really made structing shelters, and preparing meals in the wild. The same mantra goes for the preparation of specif- sense to me. And not only did I appreciate the winter ic trips: studying the maps and the weather, know- landscape much more because I was a part of it, but ing what to pack for a specific journey, and how to also I learned additional skills like snow shoeing, ba- gauge the daily route in accordance with the skills of sic winter layering, and chipping ice, which I could the group. never have learned without going outside." In addition to this physical and material know-how, For Brianna and her fellow students the scope of the a leader needs to be able to help group members course is comprehensive. They learn how to do snow become comfortable when challenged by terrain, profiles, measure the rate at which animals cool in weather, or plain shyness in an intimate situation. different habitats, study ice, monitor beaver lodges, These "judgment and decision-making skills," says go tracking, set up carcasses and game cameras to Tonia, "are the most important and hardest to put into investigate the presence of winter predators, hike concrete terms, but they can be developed through Sargent Mountain, and measure the rate of heat loss experience." Since coming to COA in 2005, Tonia when exposed to the elements. This year they even has worked to increase the level of training in out- had the chance to hold newborn black bears. door leadership skills and the number of students being trained. Last year, twenty-eight students ap- "In doing experiential education, my hope for plied to lead COA's Outdoor Orientation Programs, students is that act of doing something transcends the the weeklong pre-convocation experiences for first- requisite course assignments," says Steve. "I find that year students better known as OOPs trips. Each year, when I'm outside with students, walls break down. some twenty students become outdoor leaders for the Whether it be packing up the van, or working in the OOPs and year-round outdoor programs. field, or sitting around talking while we're eating our chili after a day in the woods, learning becomes Katelyn, or Scout, Costello '11 is one such student, seamless. We're all basically a group of individu- having led two of the college's OOPs trips. As a lead- als out there trying to have a common experience er, Scout knows about preparing for the predictable; together." she also knows about the unpredictable. This brings COA 27 her to pair Tonia's saying with the one that Bill Drury, It's not always easy. Scout has dealt with leading suf- the late COA faculty member in biology, was so fond fering students unaccustomed to heavy packs up long of repeating. When challenge leads to discomfort, mountain trails, and canoe trips battered by wind he would say, "Pay attention, you're about to learn and waves so strong that students couldn't make any something." headway. There have been times when Scout has wondered whether she can handle the situation. Yet Preparing for the predictable and learning from the learning "how to navigate that territory," as she says, discomfiting unpredictable might be said to define remembering that the trip isn't about her and her the outdoor program at COA. Of course there is that needs, but about the participants she is leading, has third element: the outdoors itself, connecting to a made a profound difference in her life. world that humans did not create-whether a stu- dent is hiking Maine's Hundred-Mile Wilderness, The outdoor experiences have led Costello, who had or spending an afternoon paddling through a bog to a hard time in high school-transferring to an alter- pick cranberries. native school, then dropping out-to seek to return to high school. She plans to teach social studies and The unpredictable challenges of the wilderness drew work in wilderness therapy, and to eventually cre- Scout to the program. "That's why I'm so interested ate her own school, loosely based on the interdis- in outdoor leadership; it's so transferable to real life, ciplinary, human ecological outdoor experiences as a leader or participant," she says. "When I think of she had at COA. In her plan there's a fair amount of my experience with the outdoor program at COA, I time spent paying attention to the discomforts-and feel I can face anything." She's found that the neces- the beauties-of the wilderness, facing the physical, sity of keeping a level head in challenging wilder- emotional, and intellectual challenges that lead to ness situations transfers well to other experiences, true learning. such as being a Residential Advisor (or RA) in COA's residential housing. It also helps her to handle chal- lenging personal events, like conflicts with a friend or Jay Friedlander: Launching a relative. "There's no manual for unpredictable situ- Sustainable Ventures ations," says Scout. "And since there's no manual, the outdoor program allows you to begin to understand By Jeffrey Dawson '11 yourself." Jay Friedlander, who runs COA's Sustainable Busi- She adds, "It's a really powerful feeling to know that ness Program, knows what it takes to launch a new you can carry a forty-pound bag up a mountain, or venture. Jay was the chief operating O'Naturalist know how to paddle through white water. It builds for O'Naturals, Inc., an organic fast-food restaurant confidence, and this is valuable even outside of this group that has been a revolutionary model in the food industry. As in many small businesses, Jay was program." deeply involved, from menu cre- ation and day-to-day operations to developing concepts and fran- chising. Today Jay is the Sharpe-McNally Chair of Green and Socially Re- sponsible Business at COA. His Launching a New Venture class allows students to pursue a busi- ness idea and go through the formal process of examining and launching the enterprise-all in ten weeks. "The crucible of time forces you into action," Jay says. "Ten weeks is intense, in order to write a business plan you end up living, eating, and breathing the stuff." Matthew McElwee '12, Cayla Moore '13, and Lisa Bjerke '13 worked with Nick Harris '12 Jay is passionate about conser- (on the far right) to develop their award-winning sustainable business plan for Gourmet vation and sees business as a Butanol, turning yesterday's eggplant into tomorrow's fuel. Photo by Julia De Santis '12. way to bring about fundamental 28 COA changes. He sees this class as "essential to human ecology. The thread of business runs throughout the fabric of our existence. As such, it is a powerful RUSSET force for change. Whether the students seek to tack- le issues like climate change, renewing local food systems, or influencing the way multinational com- panies are being run, students need to understand business." The projects are as diverse as the student body- from converting food waste into fuel, to a mobile humane slaughterhouse, to recording people's memoirs. Jay says there is a "tremendous amount of engagement outside of the class. Students are actively investigating the marketplace to help them shape their ideas. Often they need to recon- cile the intellectual argument with the demands of their customers." Many of the students who take Launching a New Apple display from MOFGA's Great Maine Apple Day. Venture go on with their projects. Jay believes that any time he teaches the course, about one-third of his students continue to pursue, develop, or launch their venture. Of this year's class he says, "Almost every- one in one way or another is going forward." Nicholas, or Nick, Harris '12, who took the class Studying the Local to this winter, is working on a business he calls Gour- Connect to the Global met Butanol, transforming food and other organic waste into usable energy through a cutting-edge History of Agriculture: Apples fermentation process. According to Nick, "With our By Julia De Santis '12 process you can run your car on banana peels and coffee grounds." The end result is butanol-a sustain- "With apples, you can them, taste them, and get able and direct replacement for gasoline and heat- splashed by the cider." ~ Andy Curtis '11 ing oil. Nick worked with classmates Lisa Bjerke '13, Matt McElwee '12, and Cayla Moore '13 to create a There is a lot about apples you probably already business plan and hone a professional presentation. know: the variety of colors, how they taste in a pie warm out of the oven, the difficulty of catching one "The classroom was a safe place where we could bobbing in water, and of course the adage that an throw our ideas out to peers," says Nick. "It's impor- apple a day keeps the doctor away. But did you know tant to be able to articulate your ideas in a way that that fresh apples float in water because 25 percent gets people excited about what you're doing. The rest of their volume is air? That every seed will produce of the class saw our project from a different angle a different variety? Or that apple trees need safe en- and often pointed out things that we had missed. vironments with specific nutrients in which to grow, We worked tirelessly to write a business plan and and protection from disease? spent many late nights reworking and rethinking our venture. Every day we had new ideas. It was some- Todd Little-Siebold, COA faculty member in history, thing like creating a clay sculpture that continually is concerned with offering "students skills they can changed form." infuse with the rest of their education in human ecol- ogy." In History of Agriculture: Apples, Todd uses For Nick and his team, the process worked so well apples to explore New England agriculture, attract- that Gourmet Butanol won a statewide business plan ing students interested in history, farming and food contest for creating a sustainable business, earn- systems, community-based research, and policy/plan- ing $2,000 from the University of Southern Maine. ning issues, as well as students who just really like Gourmet Butanol is now part of COA's Sustainable apples. Enterprise Hatchery, with $5,000 in funding from the college; it has already created a laboratory scale dem- "Why apples? Well, we know that apple trees have onstration of what Nick likes to call, "turning yester- been around tens of thousands of years. This gets day's eggplant parmesan into tomorrow's fuel." students asking historical questions," explains Todd. COA 29 "Moreover, trees propagate and seed easily in Maine's Such questions lead students to ask others, such as climate, which creates a high diversity of apples to what are we losing now with the choices we make study. When someone finds a really good apple, they regarding agriculture, technology, and education, want to know, 'Why can't I get this apple?' Maine to name a few. had twelve thousand named apples in 1850; now we have only a couple hundred." Kneading Across Cultures: "I tasted things I have never tasted," says class mem- ber Andrew, or Andy, Curtis '11. "Apples that blow Our Daily Bread your mind." Much of the class focuses on trying to By Blake Davis '11 understand what happened, with students heading into the field to interview the community to answer When Suzanne Morse, the Elizabeth Battles New- these questions. Their experiences then generate new lin Chair in Botany, designed a course about grains questions. and bread making, she wanted it to include not just grains, but farmers, traders, millers, and bakers. She As student Natalie Barnett '11 wrote in her journal, "It wanted her class to experience everything it took to is not only the apple that is the story, it's the farmers, make a loaf of bread-from selecting seed, to harvest- the salesmen, the women in the kitchens, the kitch- ing the grain, to kneading the dough. ens themselves, the recipes, the trees, the barrels, the cider presses, the bottles made for hard cider, the root Equally important, Suzanne wanted to expose stu- cellars storing the fruit, the COWS and sheep eating the dents in Our Daily Bread: Following Grains through fallen apples, the trains carrying the fruit away it is the Food System to more global trends. Using a grant everything." from the Partridge Foundation, the class visited the college's Transatlantic Partners, the University of Kas- The skills Todd hopes the students learn from their sel in Germany and the Organic Research Centre, or field experiences range from understanding sources ORC, in the United Kingdom. like historical atlases, diaries, and aerial surveys, to identification of antique apple varieties. And then Through their travels, students explored how crops there's time management, especially in a ten-week have developed because of changing economic term. "Apples are an excuse to talk to people about conditions and land-use practices across the globe. farming. But you can't pursue all the leads. You Students visited farms, flour mills, and bakeries to need to figure out how to be savvy with your time," understand how grains are grown, processed, and Todd says. sold. They spent three weeks abroad at ORC facili- ties and a week at the University of Kassel, where the Andy is now working on his senior project, a holistic course focused on bread quality, culture, and sensory management plan for the orchards at COA's Beech analysis. Hill Farm. He will plan for the trees that are already there and start a nursery bed with apple trees grafted "Almost every day was a field trip," says senior Steve Wagner, who took the class when it was first offered in a workshop this spring. Andy hopes to use the old in summer 2009. "It was a total immersion." Despite trees that have succumbed to disease to teach proper the intensity of the program and the frequent class pruning and feeding techniques. discussions, Steve says one of the most valuable parts "When I was a kid I would go to the cider mill with of the course occurred during an activity most people my family, collect apples, and watch them press the take for granted-shopping. apples we collected," he recalls. "It was always fun, "That's when it became apparent to me that the con- but it's different now. I have a different context. In cept of organics in the UK is totally different. You class we tried to explain why there are all these trees can really see this when you cook dinner with people that nobody takes care of. Then we visited experts there, or walk down the aisle" of the grocery store. in Vermont and New Hampshire. All those questions Suzanne says it is precisely this reaction she hopes started making a lot of sense when we saw people her students will have during their time abroad. living them." "Organics is a visibly bigger market in the UK than it So where did the apples go? "Well, we know that is the US," says Steve. "Though probably an even big- as people shifted from small to big farms priorities ger deal than being organic was the emphasis placed became about shipping and storing, not taste," says on being British-made." The types of foods available Curtis. But why did people shift to big farms? Did to consumers, he says, were also different. they know what they were losing? The answer is not simple, but it was individuals making everyday Following the grains course, Steve returned to the decisions that slowly led to this dramatic change. ORC as an intern to research and collaboratively 30 COA Michelle Soto '10 stands in a field of grain at the Sheepdrove Organic Farm in the United Kingdom. Insert shows one of the farm's gates. Photos by Stephen Wagner '11. develop possible solutions to the legal restrictions as how our daily bread makes it to the table," says facing ORC's wheat populations breeding project. Suzanne. She says the benefit of a traveling course He sees this work as a way for ORC and the larger is that it allows students to focus on a single topic organic movement to challenge the spread of intel- instead of having to balance several classes at once. lectual property rights over plant genetic resources. "With a traveling course the students have a common commitment to explore both broadly and deeply. It "It's not just how you think about wheat. It's how you provides an incomparable opportunity to become im- think about the world," says Suzanne. By being truly mersed in a continuous educational experience." immersed-not just in agriculture, but in the coun- tries themselves-students do more than understand the theoretical differences between countries' food Carving into Art History: systems. They wrestle with the actual implications of changing agricultural systems. Art Since 1900 In preparation for the course, students attended a By Donna Gold kneading conference in Maine. During the class, they In many ways, Catherine Clinger's Art Since 1900: were required to keep blogs. The course concluded Harmony and Conflict, was a typical art history sur- with a presentation of the results on their discussions vey class examining artists' "concerns with theories and research. of the unconscious, radical political programs, social Although bread and agriculture are the primary fo- upheaval, and how scientific discoveries were ex- cus, Suzanne says the implications of these subjects pressed through artistic production." But during the are far-reaching. "There was one man who just grew week spent looking at German expressionist prints, wheat to thatch roofs," she says. "Students were fas- Catherine, the Allan Stone Chair in the Visual Arts, cinated by him. He was more interested in the stalks asked students to do more than view images. She had than the gluten content." Gluten, adds Suzanne, con- them carve wood panels to create woodblock prints, tributes to the elasticity of bread dough and is empha- so that they would understand "the nature of the print sized by bakers. as a process as well as an end product." Catherine began with selecting the wood, taking students to a "The hardest thing about interdisciplinary study is local mill to choose pine boards. Then she asked the that you can get lost among the tributaries of disci- students to design, cut, ink, and print an image from plines that flow in the watershed of an issue, such a woodblock. COA 31 "The purpose of this physical enactment was to famil- iarize the students with the actual process of creating a print, start to finish," Catherine says. "They gained insight into the aesthetic of the woodcut print through their sometimes frustrated but ultimately physically satisfying encounter with tools and material. We set up a temporary printer's jig in Deering Common; a print shop on the fly!" "We weren't supposed to think about it-just do it," says Natalie Bloomfield '14. "It was really exciting, really easy to get a hold of it and continue." Wood- cuts are both personal and physical, adds Adrienne Munger '14. "Catherine encouraged all of us to ap- proach our block of wood in the same mindset that other artists have in the past-without knowing what we were creating, letting the images come from in- side of ourselves. The final result is a piece of art and a piece of ourselves. By experiencing the power of an art medium, I have recognized art's ability to act as a channel between the inner self and the reality of the world." Antist proofs From top, left to right: Untitled by Austin Bamford '14, Untitled by Natalie Bloomfield '14, March 2011 by Adrienne Munger '14. 32 COA Grace JMD Medium as Subject by Craco Cherubino '11 POETRY OBADE blackcurrant epicurean unreachable above parted lips, betwixt and between picnicking and foliage when you are drunk with sleep and my bark frangible, your mouth, (hollyhock) swilling juvenescence at the peak of this sweltering summer; zaftig, felled falling on eager tongues, tasted- then, absalom! to the damp of your neck. JABULILE MICKLE MOLEFE '14 BOG BOOTS I followed the stream southeast over logs and under branches weaving through young saplings until the sight of orange among the grey light of dusk drew me to cross the stream and to gently brush and shake the snow from the leaves that clung to the tree like it was all they could do to keep the days from getting shorter. The snow fell from them like dust from old memories and I began to think of fall and then summer, time in rewind. Wet dirt. Spring peepers. Dandelion crowns. And further back I would have gone if I had not looked up and seen the longest branch pointing me in the direction in which to continue, north. I traveled through and around swamps not knowing exactly where I was, only feeling lost when I entered dark thickets for a portion of my journey until I decided I'd wandered far enough and turned west in the direction of home. IVY SIENKIEWYCZ '14 34 COA SMOKE curling sweet like maple sap gliding from inside the tree sliding from your mouth to mine twining slowly around the edges of your lips as you exhale rich aromatic and the taste of you on my tongue and down my throat like thick, gooey honey and cool, clear water wisping almost translucent hanging like a cloud before it disappears into the air around us into the trees into the lapping ocean into the tendrils of your hair HAZEL JACOBY '14 SOMEONE who left about twenty minutes into a very good storm: two canopies, cloud over mangrove, and branching whites overexposing everything between them. Everything forgotten on the balcony is gritty with soil from the palm row but drying quickly this morning. And soon I've sunk to where the brand-new blue surface of the pool seems flush with the horizon, I watch the little children waddle to the sky. ALONSO DIAZ RICKARDS '12 COA 35 IN MEMORIAM EDWARD MCCORMICK BLAIR JULY 18, 1915-DECEMBER 22, 2010 By Steve Katona Ed Blair was the grand nephew of Cyrus McCormick, who invented the McCormick reaper. He graduated from Groton, got his BA from Yale in 1938, and MBA from Harvard in 1940. During one Yale summer he and classmates Kermit Roosevelt and Deering Dan- ielson crossed the Andes on horseback from Peru into Brazil. At the time Ed hoped to become an an- thropologist; this trip was an acceptable alternative to his desire to fight in the Spanish Civil War. Ed served in the Pacific defusing mines during World War II, and as a lieutenant commander using cracked Japanese codes and intelligence to guide US sub- marines. After the war he began work in Chicago at William Blair & Co., the investment banking firm his father started, becoming a partner in 1950. He made a lot of money, and donated a great deal of it as a trustee of the Art Institute of Chicago (which received his fine collection of Paul Gauguin and a loan of his John Marin work-but only after exhibiting them at COA's Ethel H. Blum Gallery); he also donated to the Rush University Medical Center and served as chair of the University of Chicago's Investment Committee. He also helped pay tuition for college or graduate studies for children of employees at William Blair & ster fishermen, tub trawlers, gill netters, and other Co., and for many young acquaintances from French marine traffic. We were especially curious about a Polynesia, from COA, and from elsewhere. Boston Whaler driven by a man in a red sweater (or a yellow slicker in wet weather) that arrived a little Beginning as a baby with summer visits to his after ten o'clock each morning, shut down, drifted grandmother, Louise de Koven Bowen, Mount Des- for an hour, then departed. One day, several of us ert Island became Ed's summer love. At her palatial were in a skiff off the rock and went over to meet the estate, Baymeath, in Hulls Cove, he sailed, fished, man in the red sweater. Ed asked what we did on the rode horses, and played with his cousins. island and we told him about COA and our whale I first met Ed twenty-five miles offshore from North- research. We asked why he came out each morning east Harbor, where he and his wife, Elizabeth "Betty" and he said, "Why, to watch the whales and birds." Iglehart Blair, had their summer home, L'Escale. I was And so began many long friendships, both personal and institutional. a COA faculty member in biology then, and we had gained permission from the Coast Guard to use the Ed's last boat, the 39-foot Lovely Lucy, (named for light station at Mt. Desert Rock to observe whales. grand aunt Lucy Blair Linn), could get to the whales Tidal currents upwell around the island, bringing in forty-five minutes and gracefully accommodate nutrients and food to the surface, attracting shoals of copepods, krill, and herring, along with whales, por- whale researchers as well as the hundreds of guests poises, dolphins, seabirds, and other marine life to who over the years took advantage of Ed's open in- eat them. vitation to "Just come to the dock. We leave at nine o'clock." This departure was strictly observed, fog, The island's granite light tower, the farthest offshore wind, rain, or shine. Ed not only sought whales, he along the east coast, made an ideal platform for view- located every eagle and osprey nest within range and ing all this, as well as the comings and goings of lob- frequently checked on their occupants. 36 COA In 1984, after a terrible fire and a short, unsuccess- "Some things do not change. I am a Scorpio, so, true ful presidency had COA reeling, Ed joined COA's to this water sign, I am seemingly programmed to un- board of trustees. He was elected board chairman in cover and shed light on dark places, those truths that 1990 and served until 1995. Ed listened carefully and are hard for most to swallow. No surprise, then, to did not speak often, but when he did his words were see that the time line of my past is rammed full of straightforward, strategic, and convincing. Once a tough hurdles. I have been here long enough to know decision was taken, his motto was "Charge ahead!" that I draw these repeated, intense experiences to me, That philosophy steadily propelled the college from and with the passing of each test, gain a little more the edge of disaster to growth and prosperity. In 1993 understanding of my purpose here At one of my the trustees honored Ed's service, as well as that of darkest junctures, I was instructed by a native teacher his wife, Betty-who matched Ed's gifts to the col- to say thank you for everything: pain, frustration, an- lege dollar for dollar with her own-by naming the ger, impatience, outright indignation. So, though I college's main refectory and social center the Edward recall this practice holding a definite tone of sarcasm and Elizabeth Blair Dining Hall. In 1995, COA hon- at first, by last year I had fully embraced the concept. ored Betty by naming a wing of the college's first stu- Thank you, upon waking and feeling the cat at my dent housing project the Blair-Tyson Dormitory. feet on the bedcovers. Thank you, for the shades of pink that are reflected off the windowsills as I open In 1994, Ed arranged for the donation of a yacht and my eyes. Thank you, throughout the day for the pres- the refit necessary to convert it to the R/V Indigo. In ence of seagulls and crows and turkeys, for to me 2010, Ed recognized the college's need for a larger, they speak of communication, magic, and gratitude. faster boat capable of taking classes to sea, and made Thank you, for the time to slow a breath and feel it, the first gift-writing letters to friends asking them to anytime I choose." match it. The R/V Osprey is slated for launching this summer. This excerpt of a poem by Katrina comes from the 1986 Edge of Eden: Over the years Ed underwrote a healthy portion of the budget for food, logistics, equipment, and salaries 6 december 85 on Mt. Desert Rock. He also made special gifts to oh green of grass and feline eyes give me an ounce renovate the buildings, repairing damage from storms of newness and hurricanes. In dedicating the island as the Ed- of wonderment ward McC. Blair Marine Research Station, the college to raise my stolid, hibernating mind mounted a plaque that reads, "His abiding love for from this dark the sea and his curiosity about whales, seals, fishes, sleeplike trance. and birds encourage all of us to study and conserve marine wildlife." -Donna Gold As a leader he was calm, wise, principled, and stra- tegic. As a mentor he was wise, encouraging, and ELIZABETH "BETH" STRAUS deeply interested. As a friend he was warm, open, generous of spirit, the first to help if illness or trou- NOVEMBER 23, 1916 - DECEMBER 6, 2010 ble arose. Constitutionally optimistic, Ed remained In 2004 and 2005, I had an adventurer always eager to see what lay over the the honor and deep plea- ever-bright horizon, confident that it would be good. sure of helping Beth Straus Thanks to him, it invariably was. write Recollections, a memoir for her family. Beth was a distinguished KATRINA SOPHIA WINDRED '89 woman, a trustee at the NOVEMBER 5, 1963-NOVEMBER 20, 2010 Museum of Modern Art and the New York Bo- It was with graceful tenacity that Katrina Windred- tanical Gardens. She was Katrina Hodgkins at COA-forged life. Katrina strug- also a great friend to the gled with breast cancer even before coming to COA. college and wife to our An avid skier, her untimely death-her ex-boyfriend longtime trustee, the late Don Straus. In 2008, Beth is being held without bail for her murder-marks the received an honorary MPhil in human ecology from passing of a woman who embraced challenges with COA. remarkable courage. We remember her words, spo- ken at First Universalist Church's Looking Forward, Before moving to Maine, Beth was known for her Looking Back service on December 27, 2009: art collection and for introducing people to abstract COA 37 expressionism. She is also credited with helping the In National Public Radio's remembrance of him as New York Botanical Garden move from a public gar- "a scholar and an intellectual and an environmental- den to an educational institution and with encourag- ist," James Fallows said Roger Milliken "represented ing David Rockefeller to fund the restoration of what a kind of high-end, intellectually based conservatism became the Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden using Be- that's not quite as permanent on the American scene atrix Farrand's plans. In gratitude, the Botanical Gar- now." The obituary in The New York Times added den built "Beth's Maze," a children's area at the gar- this about his trusteeship at the historically white den. Beth continued to be active in Maine as a mas- Wofford College: "Mr. Milliken pushed for racial in- ter gardener and chair of the Island Foundation, now tegration at Wofford College in Spartanburg in the the Mount Desert Land & Garden Preserve. Her own 1960s, volunteering to support the college financially Maine garden, on the shores of Somes Sound, was a if its acceptance of black students drove other finan- lyric wonder. But what I remember most about Beth cial backers away." is the way she was transformed through her tales. Her eyes sparked and a mischievous smile came over her Roger skied well into his eighties, and when summer- lips as this gracious, incisive, and effective woman ing on Mount Desert Island, he climbed mountains who was nearing ninety became the daring girl and daily and raced sailboats twice a week. A planter of young woman of her stories. "I think that if you're go- millions of trees, Roger is remembered fondly for this ing to live life, you might as well savor it," she said to bumper sticker: me once. I think she truly did. TREES ARE -Donna Gold THE ANSWER ROGER MILLIKEN -Steve Milliken, nephew and former COA trustee OCTOBER 24, 1915 - DECEMBER 30, 2010 Roger Milliken, whose wife Nita was a COA trustee in DAVID TOWLE the early 1980s, was a gen- MAY 26, 1941- JANUARY 3, 2011 erous supporter of the col- David Towle, longtime Mount lege. Running his family tex- Desert Island Biological Labo- tile and chemical business ratory scientist and director since age thirty-two, Roger of its DNA Sequencing and was staunchly committed to Analysis Core, was responsible keeping manufacturing jobs for starting or boosting the ca- in the United States. Mil- reers of several COA students liken & Company has been listed as one of the "Best who are now working on ad- Places to Launch a Career" in Business Week and one vanced degrees at some of the of the "100 Best Companies to Work For" by Fortune. best universities in the country For five years running, Ethisphere magazine has rec- and in Europe. A great teach- ognized the company as among the "World's Most er, he was one of the most upbeat people I knew. Ethical Companies." Only twenty-six companies in He brought that energy into the classroom where he the world have earned this honor for all five years of had COA students believing in themselves and their its existence. Roger Milliken was also strongly com- ability, and helped them to feel comfortable with lab- mitted to the environment. Milliken & Company is work. David's presence at MDIBL was a critical factor third-party certified carbon negative thanks to recy- in the early success of the lab's collaboration with cling as well as reductions in emissions and waste. It COA some nine years ago. diverts 99.98% of its waste to places where it can be reused, recycled or converted to energy. -Chris Petersen, COA faculty member in biology 38 COA Alumni Notes 1977 Jim and Julie MacLeod Hayes and 1985 Sue and Enno Becker ('76) are In his work for a Vermont com- grandparents of Lydia, born to son Meg Scheid is working at St. Croix munity-building nonprofit, Hugh lain and his wife Emily. Island International Historic Site in MacArthur brings together low in- Calais, Maine, one of the three Na- come homeowners and volunteers 1980 tional Park System sites in Maine. to make urgently needed home re- pairs. He is increasing his sustain- At Gardens by Design, Steve De- 1990 able lifestyle through home gar- mers designs, drafts, and builds dening, PV electrical generation, houses and gardens on Mount Bar Harbor artist, writer, and bicycling, and tending a close, Desert Island, where he loves liv- teacher Emily Bracale held a book tight-knit, loving, three-generation ing. Daughter Lilly is a second- signing for her new work, In the household. year student at COA. Lyme-Light, Portraits of Illness and Healing, at the Southwest Harbor David Winship is finishing a ca- Cynthia Jordan Fisher directs Ba- Public Library. Her exhibit by the same name was on display at the reer in public education at the end bies By The Blue Ridge, a Mon- tessori program for toddlers and library for the month of February. of this school year. He hosts the infants. She also teaches parent/ Intended to raise awareness, Em- weekly radio show "Vinyl Reflec- child classes and provides postpar- ily's book and artwork explore the tions" on WEHC-FM 90.7 in the tum care as a doula. effects of Lyme disease and are southern mountains near Emory, available through www.inthely- Virginia. The show is streamed on www.ehc.edu and features his old 1982 me-light.com. record collections, which some Greg Stone wrote an article on the Gordon Longsworth traveled over may remember from his COA Phoenix Islands for National Geo- ten thousand miles across Can- days. David's recent publications graphic. His recent blog about an ada and the United States on his include Rumble Strips, a self-pub- expedition to Indonesia is avail- motorcycle last year, touring the lished book of poetry; an article in able at the New England Aquarium Canadian Rockies, Pacific North- the magazine of the Historical So- website. west, and many national parks. ciety of Washington County, Vir- He towed a homemade camping ginia about the connections of the 1983 trailer he designed and built. In- Swedenborg Church and Abing- terest from other riders inspired don, Virginia; and "No Child Left At Landmark College in Vermont, the launch of GreenLite Trailers, a Ahead: Gifted Education in Virgin- Abigail Littlefield is chair of the business building and selling light ia," to be published in the Virginia Natural Science Department and camping trailers for motorcycles. Education Association magazine. keeps bees. Working closely with his father, Gordon has designed and engi- 1978 1984 neered a lighter production model, which he will take to Lake George, Elizabeth Tova Bailey's The Sound Vicki Nichols Goldstein is living New York this spring for Ameri- of a Wild Snail Eating, which in Boulder, Colorado, enjoying cade TourExpo, the largest motor- the open space and hip people. was excerpted in the previous is- cycle vending rally in the world. She started the Colorado Ocean GreenLite Trailers promotes the sue, has continued to receive ac- Coalition, a project of The Ocean use of renewable and recyclable colades, including the 2011 John Foundation, an effort to protect the materials to produce a lasting and Burroughs Medal Award for a Dis- ocean from a mile high. The coali- energy-efficient product. Learn tinguished Natural History Book tion is connecting photographers, more at www.GreenLiteTrailers. and the 2010 National Outdoor scientists, advocates, nonprofits, com Book Award in Natural History and all ocean lovers to address the Literature. The New York Review alarming issues of overfishing, ma- Last June, Susi Newborn began of Books labeled it "brilliant," and rine pollution, and acidification. a new position as the CEO for Susan Stamberg called it "a gem," Vicki says she loves to mountain WIFTNZ, Women in Film Televi- listing it among the best books of bike, ski, bird, and coyote watch, sion, New Zealand. Her documen- 2010 on National Public Radio's and hang out with her family. She tary, Kit & Maynie: Tea, Scones Morning Edition. Beth, who lived tries to get to the coast as much and Nuclear Disarmament, was in Seafox while a visiting student, as possible to reconnect with the nominated for Best Documentary still prefers to use a pseudonym. ocean. (short) and Best Director at the COA 39 International Documentary Edge This past fall, Derren Rosbach Josie (Sigler) Sibara writes from film festival in Auckland. Susi was successfully defended his disserta- the Margery Davis Boyden Wil- also the subject of a Dutch docu- tion on cross-disciplinary research derness Residency for Writers on mentary, The Rainbow Warriors efforts and is currently a Visiting the Rogue River in Oregon to say of Waiheke Island, which nar- Assistant Professor and Under- that her collection of short fiction, rowly missed the People's Choice graduate Advisor in the School of The Galaxie and Other Rides, has Award at the International Docu- Public and International Affairs at won the Tartts First Fiction Award mentary Film Festival Amsterdam. Virginia Tech. and will be published by Livings- The feature film of her autobiog- ton Press next year. raphy is in pre-production and 1996 Melita Peharda Uljevic writes she is working on a documentary which will be set in Alaska. James Kellam welcomed Thomas "my biggest news is that on April Fisher '77 as the keynote speak- 29 I gave birth to my second child, er at Saint Vincent College in a baby girl 1992 Latrobe, Pennsylvania, for the named Lara. Lelania Prior Avila performed Bioethics Forum, sponsored by Our 3-year-old in her ten-year-old daughter's the Department of Biology where son Bepo is a Jim is on the faculty. Tom present- proud older production of the Nutcracker brother and Ballet and is engaged in radical ed a talk on "Environmental Eth- unschooling adventures, includ- ics, Green Building and the Third very gentle ing yoga, mindfulness, dance, Factor," in which he discussed the with Lara. I am also researching standards for LEED certification marine bivalves through national puppeteering, organic food, and and international projects, teach- paradigm-shifting toward peace. of buildings and what ecological ing at undergraduate and gradu- She and her children started a and ethical perspectives can in- ate levels, and currently have form and drive the design of green seasonal business, "Barred Owl three PhD students. Quite excit- buildings. Jim has been convener Service," to support their favorite ing. My husband is on the faculty of the Bioethics Forum for three farmers. They are also devising of Kinesiology at University of years and got the idea to invite bumper sticker slogans such as, Split, teaching and doing research Tom after reading the biographi- "Just because I'm not on Face- related to water sports-primar- cal sketch of him in the previous book doesn't mean I'm dead." ily sailing. He is working on his issue of this magazine. PhD and as a coach for Olympic Richard Emmons is a technical class sailors. I sincerely hope that specialist at Edwards Angell Palm- 1997 when kids grow up a bit I'll have a chance to bring them to COA and er & Dodge in Massachusetts. Brenden Moses is dock manager show them a very special place at F.W. Thurston Lobster Compa- for me." 1995 ny in Bass Harbor, Maine, while Rachel Moses '98 owns Sun- Matt and Elizabeth Rousek Ayers 1998 flower Greenhouses and manages welcomed their daughter, Lucy Acadia Farmer's Market in Town Erik Martin is working on fresh- Kearfott, on October 12, bringing Hill. water aquatic connectivity as a their girl count to four! Elizabeth GIS analyst for The Nature Con- does garden design work when Donnie Mullen and Erin Spen- servancy, and living in Durham, she can, but her main focus is the cer-Mullen welcomed Ceri into Maine. kids and their hobby farm. Eliza- their lives beth is bringing human ecology on July 26, Faculty members Chris Petersen to their small-town Pennsylvania 2010. He and Helen Hess joined Abby elementary school PTO. writes, "She Rowe with Toby Stephenson and is crawling everywhere and now pulls herself up to stand- ing. She's very social and is quite the chatter box. Parenthood goes well." 40 COA Alumni Notes Andrea Perry '95 on a trip to the tional therapy assistant and lives On May 9, Jen (Dupras) Dussault Galapagos Islands. in Alna, Maine with her husband and husband Jason welcomed and two children Halena and El- their first baby, Silas Flynn, into Jasmine Tanguay and her hus- lis. Contact cmstone10@gmail. the world. Mom, Dad, and Silas band Eric are keeping busy with com. are all doing very well-albeit their one-year-old son Xaven, adjusting to life with much less who is excited to stretch his new sleep. legs in the yard with the chickens now that the snow has melted! 2003 This winter she assumed a new position as Associate Managing Kathryn Hunninen finished her Director at CLF Ventures and Eric MS in Parks and Resource Man- started an energy efficiency con- agement and Environmental Edu- sulting company, Toward Net cation last May and is now work- Zero Energy. They are living in Amanda Witherell writes from ing as the Community Sustainabil- Stoughton, Massachusetts. her voyage on the sailboat Clara ity Coordinator at Mt. Washington Katherine, having journeyed Community Development Corpo- 2000 more than nine thousand miles ration. She writes, "Life is good from Panama City, to the South with husband, Jose Luis, and six Melinda Casey-Magleby and her Pacific archipelago Tonga, to year-old daughter Hannah." wife Ellen welcomed their daugh- Opua, New Zealand with her ter, Raina Daniel, on December boyfriend Brian Twitchell: "So far Since January, Clementine Mallet 30, 2010. They write, "She is a de- New Zealand is an absolute joy. I has been living in Worcester, Mas- light and quickly becoming more can't seem to wipe the smile from sachusetts, integrating her pas- aware of the world around her." my face. I've loved the tropics, sions for France and its wonderful Melinda has been teaching math but this kiwi land feels like home. foods by working with Crossings, and science at Edward Brooke We sailed through fog into Bay of an importer of fine French foods. Charter School in Boston for the Islands and it looked and felt and She is rediscovering the charms of past five years and is working on smelled like Maine. Except there New England life. Contact her at a master's degree at Harvard Uni- was a penguin in the water!" mallet.clementine@gmail.com. versity in teaching math. They live in Roslindale near the Arnold Ar- 2001 Julia (Davis) McLeod had a won- boretum, where Raina loves to go derful time with COA friends at and look at the trees. A recent graduate from the Uni- her wedding to Andy McLeod versity of Oklahoma's Acceler- in September. Those who came Cerissa Desrosiers is the lead ated BS in nursing program in San were (left to right in the photo): group therapist at Directional Diego, California, Dave Gooch Kate Porter, Adam Czaplinski Behavioral Health Associates in will be starting his nursing career '04, Cory Whitney, Kim Nathane New Hampshire. through the New Graduate Resi- '04, Sarah Bockian '05, Heather dency program at Sharp Memorial Albert-Knopp '99 and Lora Win- Alexa Pezzano continues to work Hospital, also in San Diego. slow '04. for the National Park Service in Acadia National Park. Having completed his MFA from California College of the Arts Coreysha (Lothrop) Stone recent- in San Francisco, Noah Krell is ly published her first children's showing his work, primarily vid- book Let's Go For A Woods Walk, eo and photography, in exhibits a story inspired by her many ad- across the nation. His new work is ventures with regularly updated on his website, her children www.noahkrell.com. in nature. The book is self 2002 2005 published through www. Rickie Bogle is working with both Eamonn Hutton and Amy Hoff- lulu.com. Co- a potter and jeweler in Portland, master '06 are engaged and reysha works Maine and starting a private mas- planning a September wedding. as an occupa- sage therapy practice. Eamonn recently curated Urban COA 41 Fabric: Strategies for American writes, "My fellow VISTA coin- Elena Piekut is a program coordi- Cities, an exhibition at Sasaki in cidentally also worked at Beech nator with Green Mountain Con- Boston. Amy completed her EdM Hill Farm last summer." servation Group in Effingham, from Harvard University in May. New Hampshire, a nonprofit she Amanda Spector is in her second helped found in 1997-yes, when Eda (Kapinova) Holl and her hus- year at Cornell University College she was 10. She writes, "It was a band Matt announced the birth of of Veterinary Medicine. their son very exciting time-a grassroots Benjamin group formed over one initial is- 2009 on April sue of a proposed stock car race- 2, 2010. Laura Howes recently moved to track directly over the Ossipee Both she Gloucester, Massachusetts for Aquifer, a vulnerable and abun- and Matt her new position as the Intern dant source of drinking water. I graduated Coordinator/Database Manager was around for a lot of the early with their PhDs in immunology at the Whale Center of New Eng- meetings, attended contentious last summer (he from Duke Uni- land. Even though she's going to public hearings, got my fourth- versity and she from University of be very busy and is coming in North Carolina). Eda is working at grade friends to sign a petition at a bit of a difficult time for the the Translational Research Center against the racetrack, and started Whale Center, she's very excited at Duke. about her job. In addition to hir- writing little articles for GMCG's ing and overseeing interns, she newsletter (my sister Jill '12 con- 2006 will naturalize on Stellwagen and tributed poems)." Elena's work is in charge of the humpback cata- now focuses on guiding youth Ryan Higgins recently moved log there. She loves Gloucester so leaders to advocate for the pres- back to Maine from Arizona and far, especially that the location is ervation of water quality in the is writing and illustrating a book, close to Bar Harbor. Ossipee Watershed. "I remember How Humphrey Got His Zip- commenting in my interview how per, which will be available next Working on a three-year program spring. I can't say with any certainty that I for a dual master's degree in ma- would have taken the same direc- rine biology and marine policy at Emily Blazek graduated from the tions in my education and life if it the University of Maine, Michael University of New Hampshire hadn't been for this. And now it's Kersula is a research assistant on with a master's degree in public a National Science Foundation my job to provide those experi- health. She currently lives in Ports- mouth and will be completing her project. He is interviewing fisher- ences to a new generation!" fifth year as a science teacher in men and constructing computer models of Gulf of Maine fisher- New Hampshire. 2010 ies; the models will interact with one another, local environments, After graduating from COA, and fish populations. Michael Ncamiso Sonic Dlamini says he is writes "The night before moving enjoying every bit of daily life and to California last autumn, Howdy work! As he gains responsibility [Houghton, COA's night watch- both at work in Mbabane, Swazi- man] found me at the Lompoc at land, and in his personal life, he about midnight, and told me about credits COA and the Davis UWC this research position at UMO. Af- Scholars Program. He appreciates ter getting off the plane out west, I being with his fiancée, Simphiwe 2008 found out more about the project Khumalo, saying, "She's such a and decided it sounded important enough to join. My adviser said great partner, always encouraging At Blue Hill Consolidated School, me to work hard." Chandra Bisberg teaches eighth that Howdy is the only fisherman grade English and Social Studies. he would ever take a reference from, and he did. It just goes to Noah Hodgetts is working with Shoshana Smith is working as an show that good things happen to Glen Berkowitz '82 at Beaufort AmeriCorps VISTA with Preble those of us who stay up late drink- Windpower, to make Bog Wind Street in Portland, Maine. She ing in bars on weeknights." Project a reality. Do you have notes for COA magazine? Email them to Dianne Clendaniel at dclendaniel@coa.edu. 42 COA Alumni Notes ALUMNI DONOR PROFILE Why | Give: Sonja Johanson '95 What I'm doing now: I am fortunate enough, right now, to be able to work as a "professional volunteer." I am a frequent guest science teacher at the Montessori school my children attend; I run an outdoor classroom/organic garden for the public elementary school in my town; I of- fer classes through Trustees of the Reservations (a conservation organization), and I save and reoffer heirloom seeds through Seed Savers Exchange. My most involved project is running the training program for the Massachusetts Master Gardener Association. Our program trains approximately ninety new master gardeners each year, with the mission to offer horticultural outreach and gar- dening support to the public. I get to design the curriculum, work with amazing speakers, and guerrilla teach a little human ecology How I got here: When I was a student at COA, I had no idea that I would become so interested in horticulture. But, no matter which class I took, every single teacher I had taught me to question assumptions and make my own observations; each drilled the concept of interconnectedness into me. Several years after graduation, I hap- pened to read Michael Pollan's Botany of Desire, and I got it. I didn't just get interested in plants; I got that we are interdependent with our food crops, that we have co-evolved with them, and that there is an implicit contract between us and our domesticated plants. It was everything I had ever been taught about human ecology, right there in the seed catalogue. Suddenly, I realized that my work with the school garden (and even- tually the master gardeners) was an opportunity to teach the past and present of our relationship with our domestic plants, and was a vehicle for sharing the concept of human ecology. Why I give: I give to COA's annual fund because I am able to. That sounds like a truism, but it isn't. There was a point when my work schedule did not allow me to volunteer at all; I now have Sonja is a Master Gardener Training Coordinator as a part of the a lot of time to volunteer and give back, and I Massachusetts Master Gardener Association am grateful for every single second of it. COA influences how I choose to live and contribute to The pictures, clockwise from the top, include one of the New society, and permeates every aspect of my life. England heirlooms that I maintain at the Wheelock School Victory Garden, and reoffer through Seed Savers Exchange. Since I don't live close enough to volunteer di- (Photo credit: Ryan Smith) My children often accuse me of loving rectly, contributing to the annual fund is the way my plants more than I love them-the fact that we eat the plants I am best able to give back to the community that does not seem to dissuade them from this idea-and so I had to shaped my life in such an incredible way. also send a picture of one of my children. COA 43 Tom Adelman announced a grant rating student interaction across Beech Hill Farm is home to a from the Quimby Family Founda- continents. This spring, Molly at- Renewable Energy Demonstra- tion to support Islands Through tended the Organicology Confer- tion Project thanks to a $48,000 Time and Rivers: A Wilderness ence in Portland, Oregon, where grant from Efficiency Maine Trust. Odyssey, COA's summer pro- she spoke on improving food ac- The project explores the viability grams for high school students. cess for low-income and minority of various alternative energy ap- The $17,000 grant enables the populations. She also spoke on proaches on traditional Maine college to include more low-in- a panel on food security as part farms. There are now solar pan- come students in the program. of the Boston Science Museum's els on the roof of the farmhouse "Let's Talk about Food" series. In and on one of the farm's irrigation Judy Allen, COA registrar and as- late March, she participated in the pumps, and a wood pellet boiler sociate director of Allied Whale, Community Food Security Coali- will be going into its greenhouse. and Peter Stevick '81, Allied tion's Board meeting in Baltimore Because energy efficiency goes a Whale research associate, were and attended a Stakeholder Fo- long way to sustainability, Curry co-authors on the paper, "Return rum meeting on International En- Caputo '95 of Sustainable Struc- Movement vironmental Governance. tures conducted an energy audit of a Hump- for the farm last November. Anna back Whale Nancy Andrews, performance art Demeo, project director and COA between and video production, showed lecturer in physics, says the ten- the Antarc- her movies, Behind the Eyes are panel array generated a full mega- tic Penin- the Ears and On a Phantom Limb watt of energy in four of the dark- sula and at the School of the Art Institute est months in Maine. That much American of Chicago last December, and electricity would power an aver- Samoa: a the Museum of Modern Art in age Maine home for 2.5 months. Seasonal Migration Record" by New York City and CalArts in Los Jooke Robbins of the Provinc- Angeles in March. In April, she The most recent issue of Com- etown Center for Coastal Stud- screened her films at COA, per- monwealth Human Ecology ies, Massachusetts. The paper, forming on vocals and violin with Council Journal published a con- published in Endangered Spe- a host of others including Zach densed version of Rich Borden's cies Research, Vol. 13: 117-121, Soares '00, COA's audio visual keynote address from last year's 2011, discusses the use of photo- technology specialist (guitar, bass, International Human Ecology identification to identify the feed- and vocals), Lisa Leaverton (vio- Conference in Manchester, UK, ing grounds of an endangered lin), John Cooper, COA faculty "The Future of Human Ecology." sub-population that breeds in the member in music (keyboards), central South Pacific Ocean. Rob- and Mike Bennett, adjunct faculty Haystack Mountain School of the bins found that whales breeding member (drums). In April the films Arts has invited Bill Carpenter, lit- in American Samoa were feed- were shown at Chicago Filmmak- erature and creative writing, to be ing in the Antarctic Peninsula, a ers and at the Transmodern Festi- the school's writer-in-residence departure from historical assump- val in Baltimore, Maryland. The this June. tions about migratory patterns. Museum of Modern art just col- One individual was confirmed lected Nancy's most recent films, Catherine Clinger, Allan Stone to journey at least 11,700 miles, so the MoMA now has a collec- Chair in the Visual Arts, was an round-trip, the largest mammalian tion of six of her works. invited speaker to McGill Univer- migration known to date. sity's Art History and Communi- Internship and cation Studies last December. Her Molly Anderson, Partridge Chair career services paper was titled "Frameworks of in Food and Sustainable Agricul- director Jill Will and Chance: The Dresden ture Systems, has been continuing Barlow-Kelley Pendants of Caspar David Fried- to work with a farm task force re- is a found- rich." Also, with the help of the viewing options for the new Peggy ing member Maurine and Robert Rothschild Rockefeller Farm and updating the of the MDI Student Faculty Research Fund strategic plan for Beech Hill Farm. Toastmasters Award, Catherine and Joslyn The Transatlantic Partnership be- International club, a weekly learn- Richardson '12 are working on tween COA, Elm Farm Organic by-doing workshop in which par- the project, "Seeing Small-In- Research Centre in England and ticipants hone their speaking and vestigating Aesthetic Modes of the Germany's University of Kas- leadership skills in a friendly at- Microscopic Vision," researching sel's Faculty in Organic Sciences mosphere. The club meets weekly the history of microscopy during is beginning to develop three dis- in Bar Harbor; Jill hopes to bring a the nineteenth century and the tance learning modules, incorpo- student chapter to campus. concomitant visual culture that 44 COA Faculty & Community Notes exemplifies the findings of such series that is used by jazz programs the Santa Fe Institute workshop investigations during this period. in eleven states. This is an update on Randomness, Structure, and The research takes Catherine and of John's original Steps Ahead Causality: Measures of complex- Joslyn to Jackson Laboratory's jazz improvisation system of the ity from theory to applications. In microscopes and the New York February, he gave a talk on "Cha- Public Library to look at primary os and Dynamical Systems" at a texts containing early-modern and LINEAR workshop hosted by the institute modern engravings, etchings, and titled Exploring Complexity in Sci- LINEAR LINEAR woodcuts of small life forms. TRANSITIONS TRANSITIONS ence & Technology from the SFI Perspective. During winter and In January, Dru Colbert per- spring terms of 2012, Dave will formed a version of her shadow 1980s. Because John believes that be on a Fulbright Fellowship to play Flotsam about a historic ship- no one can speak creatively in a Rwanda. wreck in Frenchman's Bay as a language in which they are not ar- kickoff event for the Mount Des- ticulate, he has created a method Jay Friedlander, Sharpe-McNally ert Island Historical Society's cel- that "hyper-develops" a student's Chair of Green and Socially Re- ebration of 250 years on Mount music fluency. sponsible Business, has been Desert Island. Local community spreading the word about the Sus- members-many with COA con- Continuing to work on the Na- tainable Business Program. This nections-participated, includ- tional Science Foundation-funded winter the program was selected ing Barbara Meyers '90, former Hancock County Firewood Proj- as a finalist for the Outstanding library staff member Debra An- ect are faculty members Gray Specialty Entrepreneurship Pro- drews, Matt Shaw '11, Alice An- Cox, political economy, along gram by the United States As- derson '12, Gina Sabbatini '13, with Don Cass, chemistry; Da- sociation for Small Business and and faculty members Nancy An- vis Taylor, economics; and Ken Entrepreneurship, the nation's drews and Sean Todd. Last fall, Cline, COA's David Rockefeller premier entrepreneurship confer- students from Dru's class Graphic Family Chair in Ecosystem Man- ence. (Other finalists included Design Studio 1 created posters agement and Protection; staff Penn State with 80,000 students for MDI Hospital's Sexual As- members Craig Ten Broeck, and Kennesaw State with 20,000 sault Nurse Examiner Program, or COA's sustainability consultant; students.) COA was selected as SANE. The organization received Gordon Longsworth '91, GIS di- a presenter from more than one a grant to distribute this work to rector; Kate Macko, Sustainable hundred applicants at the Asho- Business Program Administrator; kaU Exchange Fall Conference at and some nineteen students. The Duke University. Jay, along with group has completed a household students Nick Harris '11, Calya survey of a representative sample Moore '13, Lisa Bjerke '13, and of county residents and a winter Matt McElwee '12, presented survey of particle emissions; it has in the session "From Classroom also presented findings to six lo- to Practice: Giving Academic cal community groups, on WERU, Credit for Social Entrepreneurship at two state conferences and the Projects." The group highlighted Society for Human Ecology. With COA's applied approach to learn- Karen Waldron, faculty member ing. Locally, as part of the Green in literature, Gray has developed Tea Breakfast Series, Jay moder- plans for a French immersion pro- ated a panel for Maine Businesses gram in Vichy focused on French for Sustainability on Green Teams regional program offices. Also, in literature, philosophy, and cul- in the workplace. He was also winter, students in the class cre- ture. Also, Gray has started play- an invited reviewer for two text- ated public awareness pieces for ing bones and guitar with Maclir, books: Sustainability Marketing: the Wild Gardens of Acadia, and a local Celtic music band. In A Global Perspective, by Wiley Opportunity Maine, among other June, Gray is hosting the annual Publishing and Understanding So- local nonprofits. summer research seminar of the cial Entrepreneurship: The Relent- Quaker Institute for the Future at less Pursuit of Mission in an Ever Linear Transitions, the develop- COA. See more at www.quaker- Changing World by Routledge mental method of improvisation institute.org. Publishing. studies for high school and col- lege jazz ensembles written by In January, Dave Feldman, math Helen Hess and Chris Petersen, John Cooper, faculty member and physics, gave a talk titled faculty members in biology, in music, is now a nine-volume "Complexity and Frustration" at visited Belize in February to scout COA 45 sites for the 2011 Tropical Marine Wiggins Professor of Government Ken Cline co-sponsored a Marine Ecology class, which is scheduled and Polity, Jamie McKown, has Policy Speaker series this spring for this fall, with a Caribbean field been focused on the Hazlett Proj- at which alumnus Justin Huston trip over winter break. Back in ect, an attempt to document and '99 spoke about his work in Nova Maine, they co-authored a paper recover the political work of nine- Scotia coastal management. Dur- with lead author Robin Van Dyke teenth century women's suffrage ing his winter sabbatical, Chris '11 on parasitism in intertidal activist and Michigan Republican also created a new website: http:// snails for the Mount Desert Island operative Adelle Hazlett, comb- chriswpetersen.wordpress.com. Biological Laboratory Bulletin. ing archives in Michigan for mate- rials that will help piece together Faculty member in botany, Nis- Conferences have been occupy- her life and hopefully shed new hanta Rajakaruna, along with ing the spare time of Todd Little- light on the relationship between Tanner Harris '07, S. Clayden, suffrage activism and partisan pol- A. Dibble, and adjunct faculty itics in the early upper Midwest. member Fred Olday, published Together with Natalie Barnett "Lichens of Callahan Mine, a cop- '11, Steve Wagner '11, and Eliza per and zinc-enriched Superfund Ruel '13, Jamie has documented site in Brooksville, Maine, U.S.A." and transcribed at least six pre- in Rhodora 113. In early April, he viously unknown speeches on traveled to the Northeast Natural politics and women's suffrage. History Conference in Albany, Thanks to a generous donation New York, along with Louise Kir- by the Davis family, Jamie is also ven-Dows '12, Matthew Dickin- piloting a new program in debate son '13, Jillian Gall '13, Margaret at COA, looking into creating a vi- Siebold, history. He has organized Mansfield '11, Luka Negoita '11, able student-run debate union at and Hazel Stark '11. The students The Guatemala Scholars Network the college. Conference in Antigua, Guate- presented the independent re- mala, on July 7 and 8, bringing search they had done with Nishi. Karla Peña, lecturer in Spanish, together Guatemalan scholars in Hazel gave an oral presentation; has had her MA thesis, a study of history, anthropology, linguistics, the rest offered posters. the innovative immersion Spanish public health, and other areas. He language program she has devel- Steve Res- also traveled to Toronto to par- oped for COA, accepted for June ticipate in a Guatemala Scholars publication in RedELE, www. sel, faculty Network planning session at the member educacion.gob.es/redele/index. Latin American Studies Associa- shtm. The journal is sponsored by in biology, tion Conference, to the American offered the the Ministry of Education of Spain Anthropology Association in New and is among the top internation- public talk, Orleans, and to the Rocky Moun- "Stories in al professional journals for the tain Conference of Latin American teaching of Spanish as a second the Snow: Studies in Santa Fe. Todd's fasci- language. Winter nation with apples has led him to Ecology in help launch the Downeast Food In addition to work mentioned Maine," at Heritage Collaborative with two with Helen, above, Chris Peters- the Schoodic Education and Re- local nonprofits, the Woodlawn en co-authored three papers for search Center in Maine last De- Museum in Ellsworth, Maine, the Mount Desert Island Biologi- cember. He also gave a guest lec- and Healthy Acadia, to talk about cal Lab Bulletin on estuarine fish, ture on the reptiles and amphib- the region's food heritage. On including one with Dale Quinby ians of Costa Rica to the Tropical October 8 and 9, as part of the '12 on reproductive behavior of Rainforest Ecology class at Mount Downeast Apple Week, Todd is killifish. He also had two chap- Desert Island High School. organizing an "Heirloom Apple ters published in the book Re- Seminar" at Woodlawn with Peter production and Sexuality in Ma- Doreen Stabinsky, agricultural Hatch, director of Gardens and rine Fishes (2010, University of policy, international studies, and Grounds at Monticello, in Char- California Press), one coauthored global environmental politics, has lottesville, Virginia. Todd has also with Phil Hastings of Scripps In- been awarded a $25,000 Switzer encouraged several pruning work- stitute of Oceanography and the Leadership Grant to work with shops and a grafting workshop at second with Carlotta Mazzoldi of the Minneapolis-based Institute COA's Beech Hill Farm. Forty the University of Padova. Chris for Agriculture and Trade Policy heirloom varieties have been continues to work with Penobscot on global climate and agricul- grafted to be planted in a new or- East Resource Center on Marine ture policy. In December, she chard next year. Policy issues and together with accompanied a delegation of 46 COA Faculty & Community Notes twelve COA students to the UN The XVIII International Conference of Climate Change conference in Cancún, México. Her work on the Society for Human Ecology global environmental diplomacy also brought her to the UN in As in the past, COA had a strong presence at the SHE Conference, "Hu- March for the Preparatory Com- man Responsibility and Environmental Change Planning, Process and mittee meeting for the upcoming Policy," which was held at the MonteLago Village Resort near Las Ve- Conference on Sustainable De- gas in late April. Executive Director Rich Borden served as co-chair of velopment to be held in Brazil in the conference and also chaired the Mind and Nature symposium, and 2012. She attended the PrepCom delivered the paper, "Personal Ecology-Where is the Environment?" meeting as a senior fellow of the Also in that session were John Visvader, faculty member in philosophy, Global Policy Forum. offering the paper, "Imaging the Human: The Limits of Naturalistic Ex- In early April, Karen Waldron, lit- planation," and Patricia Honea-Fleming, a licensed psychologist and erature, presented the paper, "The COA faculty associate, who gave "Netting the Web: How the Mind Literary Ecology of Willa Cather's Weaves Identity to Naturalize Technology." Rich also took part in the O Pioneers!" at a Northeast Mod- round-table forum on "New Directions in Human Ecology Education" ern Language Association panel with Ken Hill, to whom Rich has passed the mantle of SHE executive on Literary Landscapes: Represen- director. tation and Imagination, in New In the session Teaching and Learning Natural History in the Field, John Brunswick, New Jersey. She also Anderson, William H. Drury, Jr. Chair in Evolution, Ecology and Natu- chaired a panel on Contemporary ral History, gave the paper, "Natural History and a Sense of Place." Women's Novels: The Changing Story? The panel included work With students from COA and Prescott College, Nishanta Rajakaruna from scholars examining novels modeled teaching about desert reptiles in the field. from India, Japan, Haiti, and the In the Food Systems-Food Security session, Molly Anderson gave the United King- dom. Karen paper, "Sustainable Food Security: Who Has the Solution?" Lucy Atkins is currently at '12 presented a poster in the open poster session, "Connecting Self, work editing Community, and Environment: A Sketch of an Education Center." At the a collection Healthy Families and Communities session, graduate student Erik Bond of essays ten- gave the paper, "The Shape of the Family: Human Ecological Impacts of tatively titled Economic Structure on Family Systems." Toward a Lit- erary Ecology Jacqueline Bort, MPhil '11, and Sean Todd, the Steven K. Katona Chair of Place with in Marine Studies, presented the paper "Acoustic Behavior of North an American Atlantic Right Whales in a Potential Winter Breeding/Feeding Ground: Studies colleague at the New Jer- Implications for Management of Human Activity" for the session on sey Institute of Technology. Resource Planning: Creative Solutions. Co-authors were Peter Stevick '81, Sofie Van Parijs and Erin Summers. Mih- nea Tanasescu '06, now at the Vrije Universiteit Connecting Saft, Community, and Environment a Philosophy of Education Brussels, also gave a paper in this session. His was "Nature as Subject: The Problem of Rights." Continuing their work on local fuel for Hancock County, faculty members Gray Cox, Don Cass, and Davis Taylor offered the paper, "Develop- ing Our Energy Future: Residential Heating with Wood in Hancock County, Maine" for the En- ergy: Domestic Uses session. Davis also gave the paper, "The Economics of Community Sup- ported Fisheries: Implications for Communities and Sustainable Management" at the Resilient Roads to Management session. Jay Friedlander and Katharine Macko gave the paper, "Teaching Sustainable Business at Col- Lucy Atkins '12 with her poster presentation "Connecting Self, lege of the Atlantic" at the Business within the Community, and Environment: A Sketch of an Education Center." Human Ecological Framework session. COA 47 Jennifer Prediger '99 Fresh from Sundance Jennifer Prediger wears many hats. At Grist.org, she's Q: How did you get involved with Uncle Kent? the creator and face of Umbra, of "Ask Umbra," Grist's popular environmental advice segment. She I met Joe [Swanberg, the director] a few years ago also happens to be their spokesperson, appearing when I moved to New York. He acted in something on the "Today" show as an environmental expert to I was filming last winter and asked me to be in this. answer questions about sustainable packaging when Joe is a very DIY filmmaker who appreciates the art the SunChips' loud plant fiber bag garnered media of improv. He lets whatever is happening in the mo- attention last October. Come summer, Jennifer will ment unfold. Uncle Kent was filmed in LA over six be a journalism fellow at the Aspen Ideas Festival. days. But at the Sundance Film Festival Jennifer was Kate, Q: And your film? her starring role in the film Uncle Kent which accord- I wanted to tell a story that was emotionally close to ing to the New Yorker review, "is about an amiable me. My dad's generation, the baby boomer genera- forty-year-old bachelor who draws cartoons and then tion, experienced the greatest material wealth of any sends them by computer to collaborators. His social group of human beings on earth, and we continue life is mostly led on the computer, too." Things get that legacy with iPhones and whatever. We're at a interesting when "Kate," an environmental journalist breaking point where the economy and environment whom he met on the website Chatroulette, shows up are no longer able to bear it. The dad in this story at his Los Angeles apartment. has an all-you-can-eat approach to life, a reverence for consumption. My character struggles with ideal- Later this summer, Jennifer will be wearing a direc- ism, sanctimoniousness, and wanting to make a dif- tor's cap when she creates a fictionalized story based ference. Oh, the conflicts that ensue! on a road trip she took with her father in an ailing Miata convertible that she got in exchange for a sushi And like that character, I have a do-gooderist streak dinner. [That last part is not fictionalized.] Jennifer to merge sustainability into a popular sphere via en- has received seed money for a fundraising trailer of tertainment. I love the storytelling and being able to this film-which is about consumerism, sustainabili- connect to people, emotions, and ideas in a visual ty, and happiness in America-from a TogetherGreen medium. fellowship, funded by Toyota through the National Q: You graduated before Nancy Andrews came to Audubon Society. teach film. Did COA help you in any of this? Here's a conversation with COA's first alumna I studied creative writing, poetry, philosophy, psy- film star. chology, the interrelatedness of all things. I remem- ber in Bill Carpenter's poetry class I wanted to write Q: Did you act at COA? a poem to change the world. I thought all it would A little. I was in one of Lucy Bell Sellers plays, King take is one poem that would change the way people Stag. I played a stag. I died on stage and lay there think-like "Howl." I never wrote my own "Howl," dead for half the play until someone dragged me off. I but Bill was so good about grounding me in the spe- also did A Midsummer's Night's Dream, produced by cifics of each poem-ultimately it's about the real the lovely Molly Townsend '97. Molly was Helena moments of poetry, that's how we change the world. and I was Hermia. In LA, I studied improv comedy, Above: Jennifer Prediger '99 with co-star Kent Osborne in acting and did standup. a scene from the film Uncle Kent. 48 COA THE HUMAN ECOLOGY ESSAY REVISITED On Changing the World By David Winship '77 After twenty-nine years as a librarian and teacher/administrator for gifted education in schools in Washington County, Virginia, and in response to our Fall 2010 story about internships, David Winship, '77 sent this recol- lection of his trajectory from internship to education. ~ DG In 1975, I was working on the sixteenth floor of a countability are based on what you know and what Washington, DC office building making, packing, and you can show, not what you can record on a multiple- sending out materials to schools, libraries, and various choice, computer-scanned sheet. supporters in an effort to turn the country away from the crass commercialization of the two-hundredth I ended up spending three decades in public educa- anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Inde- tion. Unfortunately, when efforts in the 1980s were pendence. Along the way, the Peoples Bicentennial on their way toward competency-based education, Commission tried to strike a blow at the domination the political and business interests of the country were and control of giant multinational corporations, and threatened and turned education reform in the direc- to draw the parallels between the domination of our tion of standards-based education-with multiple- lives that these economic entities have, and the con- choice and rote-memory required evaluations, gutting trol that the distant British Parliament and king had the heart and soul of our public education system. two centuries ago. I continue to question and confront global corpora- By the time I started my internship, I'd already tions' grip on our lives and our planet. I continue to marched against the war (the Vietnam War, the last portray characters from colonial times, these days large-scale war of the twentieth century, though there in schools and on the sites where the National Park were other wars in which United States forces were Service preserves history, delivering history-telling to involved). In the internship, in tri-corner hat, I was a whomever will come and listen. I continue to search town crier, peddling newspapers to tell the citizens for that avenue of education that builds and grows our on the busy city streets of Boston that the redcoats abilities and gifts, knowing that there is really no other were back, in the guise of corporate profiteers. I way. helped chase then-President Gerald Ford back across As I retire, I look back on the years. the Old North Bridge when he came to commemorate the Battles of Lexington and Concord. The Peoples Bi- I wanted to change the world and I found that centennial Commission had held an all-night rally and the world changed me. music celebration the night before with Pete Seeger, Arlo Guthrie, and Phil Ochs, among others. We were I tried hard to survive with a small footprint modern-day Minutemen. and I wonder if I've left any tracks. My internship lasted a year. I worked very hard and We are seeing more and noticing less. burned out. One winter night I hopped on a midnight We're connected to more and fewer people at bus to Georgia. One of the things I took with me was the same time. that, in social change, one could work at many lev- els-local, national, or international. I found that the We're reading less and knowing more, local level was more my speed. though how we use this knowledge needs examination. After returning to COA, I completed my senior proj- ect, addressing competency-based education, which The sun still comes up in the morning and is about teaching how to do-whether with your goes down in the evening. heart, your hands, or your head. Evaluation and ac- Sometimes we notice. The Minute Man by Daniel Chester French, located at the Old North Bridge in Concord, Massachusetts. COA 49 College of the Atlantic life changing world changing 105 Eden Street Bar Harbor, ME 04609