COA Volume 6 I Number 1 I Spring 2010 THE COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE COA Mission: College of the Atlantic enriches the liberal arts tradition through Letter from the Editor a distinctive educational philoso- phy — human ecology. A human ecological perspective integrates knowledge from all academic disciplines and from personal ex- In many ways, the front and back cover pho- perience to investigate — and tographs of this issue tell the whole COA ultimately improve — the rela- story. The photos taken by our alumni speak tionships between human beings and our social and natural com- of their passion, joy, and caring for our glob- munities. The human ecological al society. But underlying that is something perspective guides all aspects of more: the discipline to communicate powerful emotions so that this caring education, research, activism, and and passion can have an impact on the wider world. interactions among the college's students, faculty, staff, and trust- The front cover is by Diana Escobedo Lastiri '09, who pursued part of her ees. The College of the Atlantic senior project in Juchitán de Zaragoza in 2009, and returned to this southern community encourages, prepares, Mexican town over Easter to thank the people she photographed. This ex- and expects students to gain ex- perience launched her into a new photography series, emphasizing connec- pertise, breadth, values, and tions she forged and strengthened during her second visit. practical experience necessary to achieve individual fulfillment and On the back cover are homes. Haitian homes. Emily Troutman '01 took the to help solve problems that chal- lenge communities everywhere. photos. As we reported in the last issue of COA, Emily was named a Citizen Ambassador by the United Nations. Taking her new role very seriously, she traveled to Haiti to document this hemisphere's poorest nation. She had just returned to the United States when the earthquake struck. Within a week, Front Cover Emily was back in Haiti. She has been there for months, applying her acute "Juevesanto," Juchitán de sense of detail to both her images and her words. Emily Troutman has written Zaragoza, Mexico, 2010 by some of the most evocative essays about post-earthquake Haiti that I have Diana Escobedo Lastiri '09. From read. You can find them on AOL.com and on Slate.com, which also features the series Holy Week in Juchitán. more from Emily's Haitian habitat series. Passion, caring, those are the raw materials with which every student enters Back Cover COA, along with a willingness and ability to learn. And in four years (give or "Shelter," Haiti, 2010 by Emily take a year or two), through the intense connections that COA fosters - with Troutman '01. faculty, with fellow students, with others in the community - and through the necessity for self-reliance implicit in the COA degree, that student blos- Troutman has been writing and soms. photographing in Haiti since shortly after the earthquake. The Our major story features a small fraction of the hundreds of COA alumni and back cover images come from students whose education has positioned them to soar from their COA years a series on shelters. Tarps from into a life of meaning and self-determination. USAID, she says, are some of the most prevalent forms of sheeting used. But cardboard boxes are also popular, left over from aid Damn Gold distributions. Especially valuable Donna Gold, COA Editor are those with wax coating on one Photo of Donna in the Historical Hotel Sovietsky in Moscow by Bill Carpenter. side, making them rain resistant. Other material, aluminum sheet- ing, wooden sticks and the "fix- ings" - wire, string, or duct tape to keep things together — are scavenged or even bought, she tells us, as fewer than 10 percent of the 300,000 displaced families who have received a tarp have also received "fixings." COA The College of the Atlantic Magazine Letter from the President: Complex? Or just complicated? 2 Volume 6 Number I Spring 2010 COA Beat: News from Campus 3 EDITOR Donna Gold EDITORIAL GUIDANCE Alice Anderson '12 Colin Capers '95, MPhil '08 Notes from Our Watson Fellows Dianne Clendaniel Dru Colbert Un Mar de Plástico by Michael Keller '09 11 Dave Feldman Jennifer Hughes Honoring a Relationship by Nick Jenei '09 14 Danielle Meier '08 Ross Pike, MPhil '11 Rebecca Hope Woods Donor Profile 16 EDITORIAL CONSULTANT Bill Carpenter Hank Schmelzer: Strategic Designer ALUMNI CONSULTANTS Jill Barlow-Kelley Dianne Clendaniel By Donna Gold DESIGNER Rebecca Hope Woods PRINTING IS McCarthy Printers COA's Legacy Students 17 Augusta, Maine Compiled by Donnie Mullen ('97) COA ADMINISTRATION David Hales Kenneth Hill President Academic Dean Oral History 20 Sarah Baker Sarah Luke Gray Cox: First Student Dean of Admission Associate Dean of Student Life Lynn Boulger Dean of Development Sean Todd Entre Comadres 22 Associate Dean Ken Cline for Advanced Studies Photography spread by Diana Escobedo Lastiri '09 Associate Dean for Faculty Andrew Griffiths Administrative Dean Get in the Car 26 A ten-minute play by Andrea Lepcio '79 BOARD OF TRUSTEES Ronald E. Beard Casey Mallinckrodt Feverish Dreams 29 Secretary Vice Chair Poetry by Jake Wartell '12 Edward McC. Blair Suzanne Folds McCullagh Life Trustee Sarah A. McDaniel '93 Leslie C. Brewer Treasurer Jay McNally '84 connections T.A. Cox Philip S.J. Moriarty 30 William G. Foulke, Jr. Phyllis Anina Moriarty by Amanda Witherell '00, Donnie Mullen ('97), and Donna Gold Chairman William V.P. Newlin Amy Yeager Geier Life Trustee Self-direction: Craig Kesselheim '76 James M. Gower Elizabeth Nitze Life Trustee Helen Porter Taking human ecology to a higher level: Paul Boothby '88 George B. E. Hambleton Cathy L. Ramsdell '78 Samuel M. Hamill, Jr. Trustee Emerita Addicted to questioning: Jennifer Rock '93 Life Trustee John Reeves Life Trustee Charles E. Hewett Endorsing a dream: Beth Nixon '99 Elizabeth D. Hodder Hamilton Robinson, Jr. Vice Chair The solidarity of learning: Yaniv Brandvain '04, Nina Therkildsen '05, Henry L.P. Schmelzer Sherry F. Huber Santiago Salinas '05, and Kipp Quinby '06 Henry D. Sharpe, Jr. Trustee Emerita Life Trustee John N. Kelly Community driven: Elsie Flemings '07 Clyde E. Shorey, Jr. Life Trustee Life Trustee No limits: Daniel Mahler '10 and Alicia Hynes '11 Philip B. Kunhardt III 77 William N. Thorndike James A. Lewicki Cody van Heerden Susan Storey Lyman John Wilmerding Life Trustee Trustee Emeritus Alumni and Faculty & Community Notes 41 COA is published twice each year for the College of the Atlantic community. Please send ideas, letters and In Memoriam 47 submissions (we are always looking for short stories, poetry and especially revisits to human ecology essays) to: Q&A with Todd West '00 48 COA Magazine College of the Atlantic 105 Eden Street, Bar Harbor, ME 04609 dgold@coa.edu Human Ecology Essay Revisited 49 Human Ecology in My Real World by Jenn Atkinson '03 www.coa.edu © 10% PRINTED WITH FSC CERTIFIED Mixed Sources WIND Product group from well-managed POWER forests, controlled sources and recycled wood fiber Cert no. SW-COC-002129 www. fsc.org © 1996 Forest Stewardship Council Printed on recycled paper with vegetable-based inks on equipment using 100% wind-generated power. Letter from the President Complex? Or just complicated? "It's not brain surgery" is one of those phrases that will reverse its meaning in the twenty-first century. It en- tered vernacular English as a way of saying that some- thing wasn't too hard to do, with "brain surgery" as the symbol of a complicated task. As it turns out, that's all brain surgery is: it's just com- plicated. It requires highly developed skills and knowl- edge, but precious little understanding. The phrase will exit our current century carrying the implication, "that's just brain surgery," as opposed to the challeng- es we face that are truly complex. Complicated tasks are pretty much one-dimensional; they're just problems to be solved. Making and using a GPS, putting a human on Mars, even shutting off the flow of oil from the seabed of the Gulf of Mexico these are complicated tasks - difficult, certainly, but not complex. Complex tasks are far more problematic and involve Photo by Donna Gold. multiple dimensions, each involving massive degrees of uncertainty; they are not problems to be solved, but chal- lenges to be resolved. Feeding the hungry, educating billions of children and illiterate adults, aligning our means of production and consumption so that our societies become sustainable, eradicating poverty, control- ling the indiscriminate use of violence, these are the fundamental challenges of the twenty-first century. Each of these requires the ability to determine the relevant context of the challenge and an understanding of how those phenomena interact. At College of the Atlantic, we call this pursuit Human Ecology, the study of human behavior as it influences and is influenced by the natural systems of this planet, and the social, cultural, and economic "worlds" created by the behavior of humans. There are those who argue that individual humans have become irrelevant to their own lives, characters in a complex story that the individual cannot comprehend. Higher education - including College of the Atlantic - has the opportunity and responsibility to make sure this doesn't happen. The articles in this issue of COA are about individuals who are shaping their distinctive paths as authors of their own stories. And they are about a small college committed to enabling an educational experience that allows its students to understand the challenges of their lives, and so fashion a future of purpose and choice. Sr David Hales, President 4 COA COA Beat Rockefellers Endow Chair, Donate Farms "It is a pleasure to see the growing role and influence COA's programs are having." ~ David Rockefeller College of the Atlantic has been delightfully recog- policy, are studying contemporary and historical ana- nized by the Rockefeller family this spring. A gift from dromous fish habitat in the park. philanthropist and conservationist David Rockefeller has established the David Rockefeller Family Chair in It is Cline who now holds the Rockefeller chair. A Ecosystem Management and Protection. Commented conservation lawyer, he has spent the last twenty David Rockefeller in offering the endowed chair, "It years helping students understand policy and law so is a pleasure to see the growing role and influence as to better protect the ecosystem. Cline's extensive COA's programs are having." conservation experience includes numerous positions in the Sierra Club. He has also worked with local, A second gift, of two farms at the junction of the state, and international conservation organizations to Crooked Road and Norway Drive in Bar Harbor, now protect ecologically and culturally significant regions, known as the Peggy Rockefeller Farms at College of including the conservation of rivers in Maine, Ohio, the Atlantic, add new possibilities to the college's Oregon, Pennsylvania, Turkey, and Chile. Sustainable Food Systems program. Said Rockefeller family member Neva Goodwin, "As a former trustee Students in Cline's classes have also done extensive of College of the Atlantic, I am delighted that my fam- conservation work. They have developed watershed ily has chosen to recognize COA's commitment to conservation plans, filed legal documents to protect academic excellence and conservation by asking it to endangered species, lobbied state and national legis- steward these two farms. I am sure my mother would latures, testified at hearings, changed local zoning or- be thrilled to have her caring for these lands contin- dinances, prepared a plan to revitalize a local water- ued by COA." front, organized local citizens, and routinely worked with local leaders, agencies, and citizens on such is- David Rockefeller is the son of John D. Rockefeller, sues as protecting Maine's north woods. Jr., who helped create Acadia National Park. David Rockefeller's wife Peggy was a garden devotee. These gifts acknowledge the longstanding connection both the Rockefellers and the college have to the preserva- tion of land and rural life on Mount Desert Island. Currently, COA students and alumni are involved with numerous park and regional conservation programs, including several studies to determine baseline popu- lations so future changes can be noted. With John Anderson, faculty member in biology, two students have been collecting censuses of winter habitats of snowy owls and loons in and around the park. Simi- larly, Sarah Colletti '10 working with Stephen Ressel, faculty member in biology, has devoted her senior project to researching the baseline numbers of wood- land salamanders. This is especially important given the sensitivity of amphibians to climate and habitat change. Two students are gathering plant data on an offshore island, while others working with Anderson have been funded for a long-term study of the impact of rising sea levels on offshore bird nesting habitats. Photo by Toby Hollis. Closer to home, students working with COA faculty members Chris Petersen, biology, Todd Little-Sie- Ken Cline, inaugural holder of the David Rockefeller Family bold, history, and Ken Cline, environmental law and Chair in Ecosystem Management and Protection. COA 5 COA Beat Attracted by the Mission COA adding four to faculty It's almost dizzying. By next fall, the COA faculty a scholar, she has deep will have four additional faces. Between January and expertise in European April, COA hired three faculty members: in art, food and American art from systems and earth sciences. And last fall, when the the eighteenth through college began to look around for a new botanist, Nis- twentieth centuries and hanta Rajakaruna '94 decided to return. is also schooled in Ro- manticism and critical Molly Anderson, the inaugural holder of the Partridge theory. Clinger bridges Chair in Food and Sustainable Agriculture Systems, these pursuits to the started teaching in emerging field of eco- March. She comes logical humanities. Photo courtesy of Catherine Clinger. to COA with an extensive domestic "When I look at COA's and international mission statement, background in food which speaks about an issues, having co- ethical dimension of education and the importance of founded and direct- civic engagement in accord with the natural world, I ed the Agriculture, recognize a society of first-rate students and faculty," Food and Environ- she says. "I know one has to work hard in such a ment Graduate distinctive place!" Degree Program in Photo by Donna Gold. the School of Nu- Geologist Jaclyn Cockburn is coming to COA in trition Science and September for a two-year appointment in earth sci- Policy at Tufts Uni- ences and geology. She holds a PhD from Queen's versity, directed the University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada in physical ge- Tufts Institute of the ography, has taught environmental geology, climate Environment, and dynamics, watershed hydrology, and the evolution of founded Food Systems Integrity, which works with landscapes, and is generally fascinated by how cli- US and international organizations on agriculture, mate and other environmental change impacts hydro- healthy food access, and food politics. She holds a logical processes. By examining weather patterns and PhD in ecology from the University of North Caro- the subsequent hydrological and sedimentological lina and an MS in range science from Colorado State responses, Cockburn has researched trends in major University. northeastern US watersheds and also has extensive field experience in Alaska and the Canadian arctic. "COA is a unique and exciting environment for teaching and exploring the connections among food "COA has an outstanding reputation for its commit- systems, the natural environment, public health, so- ment to education cial structures, and institutions," says Anderson. "No that aims to change other college or university has demonstrated the the world. I can't same commitment to interdisciplinary collaboration imagine a more and 'walking the talk' on sustainability. COA strives exciting place to for real integrity between what it teaches about sus- work and a better tainability and what it does." group of students and colleagues to Catherine Clinger is the inaugural holder of the Allan engage with. I am Stone Chair in the Visual Arts. She has a PhD in art thrilled to be a part history from the University of London and an MPhil in of this community Photo courtesy of Jaclyn Cockburn. art history from University College London. A painter and contribute to its and a printer (she was a master printmaker at the Hex- exceptional reputa- enspuk Press and the Dayspring Atelier) as well as tion." 6 | COA COA Beat Resolving the Stinking Heaps Nafisa Mohammadi's Project for Peace war, but also the environment in which they live. "In the summer, residents of this area inhale dust mites that cause lung disease and asthma. In the winter, they trudge through human waste, garbage, and mud," she says. Children come to the dump to search for toys and play; others rummage for firewood. Already, the waste has polluted the community's drinking water. Photo by Luke Madden '12. And yet, during a recent visit home, Mohammadi noticed change was coming slowly to Ka- bul. After residents in one neigh- borhood improved their sewage treatment system, others did the same. "When one community Just days after Nafisa Mohammadi '10 graduates, shows a way to live better, others follow," says Mo- she'll be headed back home to Kabul, Afghanistan to hammadi. "I believe that the spirit of the Chaharqala- spend a hot summer on a project that she has chosen, e-Wazirabad community can make a difference." but on which few recent graduates, anywhere, could imagine working. Mohammadi will be cleaning a The Kathryn W. Davis Projects for Peace award was two-acre waste pool that sits in her family's commu- established in 2007, when Kathryn W. Davis turned nity. The Kathryn W. Davis Projects for Peace Foun- 100. To celebrate, this longtime philanthropist com- dation has given the young woman ten thousand mitted one million dollars to fund a hundred grass- dollars to remove the dump in her neighborhood of roots projects by college students. Says Davis, "My Chaharqala-e-Warzirabad, believing that she will not challenge to these young people is to bring about a only reduce disease among the sixty or so families mindset of preparing for peace instead of preparing that live there, but that she'll inspire others in nearby for war." neighborhoods to make a similar effort. Mohammadi's first step when she gets home will be With her fami- to meet with the community to gather their ideas on ly, Mohammadi how to better manage the waste stream and garbage. spent most of She already has support from the women-owned her childhood Banu Construction & Transportation Company. With wandering, es- its help, the backing of her family and other commu- caping first the nity members, and the ability to hire a couple of assis- Soviet invasion, tants thanks to the Davis funds, she is confident that then the Afghan the garbage will be removed, waste water pumped civil war and out, and sewage streams rerouted to the main sew- finally the Tali- age canal. Ultimately, Mohammadi will see that the A boy picks through the dump Nafisa Mohammadi '10 hopes to clean. Photo ban. In 2003, land is sanitized, filling the excavated pond with soil courtesy of Nafisa Mohammedi '10. when she and and rocks; she will also establish a garbage system to her family set- ensure better future waste management. Perhaps, she tled in Kabul, they were hardly alone. The popula- says, the community can build a playground where tion of Kabul has nearly quadrupled in the past eight children once rummaged in the filth for toys. years, exhausting the city's minimal municipal ser- vices. And of all Kabul neighborhoods, Chaharqala- And then? Mohammadi is due back in Maine in the e-Warzirabad is among the most densely settled, fall to take up one of the first positions in the college's causing Mohammadi's neighbors to fear not only the Sustainable Ventures Incubator. COA 7 COA Beat One College: Six Enterprises The Sustainable Ventures Incubator begins By Donna Gold From left to right: Noah Hodgetts '10, Jay Friedlander, Nafisa Mohammadi '10, Jordan Motzkin '10, Kate Christian '10, Emily Postman '12 and Kate Macko. Missing from the photo are Jake Weisberg '10 and Joslyn Richardson '12. Photo by Luke Madden '12. It was hard not to burst with pride - or hold back from writing a check - when in early March, six students who are focused on the college's Sustainable Business Program offered their five-minute business presenta- tions. Each hoped to be one of the select enterprises in the college's brand-new, unique Sustainable Venture Incubator. As far as the college has been able to determine, this is the nation's only sustainable venture program for undergraduate students, shepherding both emerging for-profit and nonprofit entrepreneurs. After hearing all six presentations, I looked at the panel of five judges - three from the college and two from outside - and felt nothing but pity. How could they possibly choose among these fascinating dreams? Turns out they felt the same and decided to admit all six ventures into the incubator. The students, five of whom will graduate this spring, will spend next year building their businesses using campus office space, meeting with local mentors, and attending weekly workshops offering business skills and professional advice. Sustainability will be incorporated into each step. Thanks to grants from the United States Department of Agriculture's Rural Development program, the National Science Foundation's EPSCoR program to stimulate competitive research, and COA trustees Jay McNally '84 and Henry Sharpe, there is funding for the program's first year. THE FOR-PROFIT VENTURES Kate Christian is working on using interviews with women across the globe to assist in policy-making with her venture, Hearing Other Voices. Nafisa Mohammadi's Mending Walls works with traditional craftswomen in Afghanistan to create and im- port custom embroidered wall hangings for use in home decoration. Jordan Motzkin's Big Box Farms™ uses new technology to raise vegetables in under-utilized spaces, mini- mizing distribution costs and emissions. Jake Weisberg's Vegmatics brings new automotive fuel technologies to consumers by offering easily in- stalled diesel-to-vegetable oil conversion kits and developing other alternative fuels. THE NONPROFIT VENTURES Noah Hodgetts' MDI 2030 links local planning efforts of the four communities on Mount Desert Island and Acadia National Park so they can plan as one for a sustainable future. Joslyn Richardson '12, Emily Postman '12, and others are working on Share the Harvest, a COA program connected with Beech Hill Farm that provides families relying on food assistance programs the local, or- ganic vegetables traditionally missing from their diet. 8 COA COA Beat Among the incubator jurors was Erik Hayward who oversees the Libra Foundation's Libra Future Fund, assisting Maine entrepreneurs under age thirty. He said, "It's great to see the Photo courtesy of COA. students trying to use a sustainable model, looking to the so- cial change and environmental change that they're excited about." The program is managed by Jay Friedlander, the Sharpe- McNally Chair in Green and Socially Responsible Business, and Sustainable Business Program Administrator Kate Macko. "We see this capability as both unique and es- sential," says Friedlander. "No other liberal arts undergraduate business program offers this resource; and we regard it as key to fostering the transition from graduating student to functional entrepreneur. The students are using the incubator and their values to build stronger enterprises that have positive social, environmental, and financial footprints." Practical Renewables NASA grant helps COA with renewable energy in class and offshore Concerned about leaving your cell phone charger ized version of sustainability and really puts it into plugged in for a day? It's not the best thing to do - but perspective. Sure, we can say we're being green but it's just about the equivalent, in terms of energy use, what does that actually mean and how can we quan- of driving a car for ten seconds. Yes, seconds. And if tify energy consumption to make smart choices? As a you drive your car as much as sixty miles a day, even class we have made generators, mini wind turbines, if it has decent gas mileage, that uses as much energy and now we are converting chest freezers into energy- as having eighty 40-watt light bulbs burning around efficient chest refrigerators - and we're also learning the clock. Just two intercontinental flights use roughly how to assess different modes of transportation and the same energy per person as leaving a toaster on alternative energy. We are using real numbers instead day and night for an entire year. of 'a lot' or 'a significant amount,' but at the same time we are also learning how to round numbers and These are just some of the calculations that COA stu- get rough estimates that will serve our purpose with- dents are learning thanks to a $100,000 grant over out having to be so exact that the calculations cannot two years from NASA be applied to the big by way of the Maine picture." Space Grant Consor- "I am loving this class because it tium. The effort, led by The research portion David Feldman, facul- takes the very abstract and almost of the grant is focused ty member in physics glamorized version of sustainability on Demeo's efforts and mathematics, and and really puts it into perspective." to design a scalable Anna Demeo, lecturer smart grid for Maine's in physics and engi- ~ Brianna Larson '11 outer islands, optimiz- neering, combines ing their use of wind energy research with power. This smart funding for the development and implementation grid will automatically direct excess power to where of a new interdisciplinary course, The Physics and it can be used. For intermittent energy sources such Mathematics of Sustainable Energy. This class offers as wind, solar, and tidal power to work together to a scientific and economic introduction to evaluating produce a steady electricity supply, smart grids are various alternative energy technologies. In it, stu- essential, says Feldman. Such a grid can also be used dents are learning to calculate the dollar cost, carbon in a hybrid system, such as one generating electric- reduction, return on investment, and payback time of ity from wind or fossil fuel, so communities can ease different forms of alternative energy or conservation into the purchase of renewables. measures. They also learn the basic physics behind key forms of energy generation and consumption. Adds Feldman, "We need a smarter grid to make all these systems work, and we need a lot of people re- Says Brianna Larson '11, "I am loving this class be- searching ways to make grids smarter. Demeo's re- cause it takes the very abstract and almost glamor- search is part of this broader effort." COA 9 COA Beat Thinking Globally, Acting Globally COA's International Environmental Diplomacy receives national honor mental Politics, Cline and Stabinsky train students to carefully read, un- derstand, and analyze detailed treaty texts. "There's a lot going on at these meetings," says Stabinsky, "I want our students not to be glazed over by the experience." In March, this work helped to win COA major recognition from the world's largest nonprofit professional association dedicated to international education, NAFSA: Association of In- ternational Educators. COA received the organization's 2010 Paul Simon Spotlight Award for its work in inter- Students at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate national environmental diplomacy. Change in Copenhagen last November feel the weight of the earth on their shoulders. From left: Noah Hodgetts '10, Geena Berry '10, Lisa Bjerke '13, "The traditional academic response to Jane Nurse '13, Taj Schottland '10. Photos courtesy of COA. student concern about global politics is to study and wait until you finish With more than 15 percent of students coming from graduate school before you can really do anything outside the United States, COA has one of the high- about it," says Cline. "The impetus behind this pro- est ratios of international students of any liberal arts gram is that faculty working with globally aware and college in the nation. International education is so experienced students can prepare them to effectively integrated into the curriculum, both on campus and participate in international environmental negotia- off, says Ken Cline, that "some might even argue that tions as undergraduates." at COA, every student is an international student." Students are so well In our increasingly globalized world, adds Cline, fac- versed in diplomat- ulty member in law and environmental policy, "deci- ic skills that they sions made internationally affect every aspect of our frequently take on lives." Often, it is not possible to resolve local issues youth leadership po- only by thinking globally and acting locally. Local is- sitions at the meet- sues are frequently global and need to be resolved at ings. During her a global level. While local work remains essential, he time at COA, one says, we also need to "think globally, act globally." student helped to SAINT establish an organi- LUCIA Neil Oculi '11 served on his Cline and Doreen Stabinsky, faculty member in glob- zation encouraging nation's UNFCCC delegation. al environmental politics, have been actively prepar- more youth to attend ing students to attend international meetings since the negotiations - thereby fostering additional environ- 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development mental work across the globe. Last December, of the in Johannesburg, South Africa. COA's international twenty-two students and recent alumni who attended environmental diplomacy focus has intensified with the UNFCCC in Copenhagen, one COA student and student concern over the annual negotiations of the one recent alumnus were engaged in the delibera- United Nations Framework Convention on Climate tions as part of official national delegations. Another Change. student was chosen to give the culminating Youth Statement to the convention delegates. Still another To become globally aware and politically savvy, stu- student served as a reporter for his home country. dents have spent entire terms studying international Meanwhile two COA students spent many months law and policy in advance of negotiations. In classes raising funds to ensure participation by more youths like The Road to Copenhagen, Advanced Internation- from Latin America, successfully sending ten youths al Environmental Law Seminar, and Global Environ- to the meetings. 10 COA COA Beat Learning from Don Juan By Todd Little-Siebold, faculty member in history When I met him I knew that Don Juan Witzil Cima was extraordinary, I just did not know how ex- traordinary. I had come to southern Quintana Roo with my wife Christa and our young children to set up this year's program in Mexico's Yucatan penin- sula, and I had been in- vited to a house blessing of a friend and colleague, Francisco Rosado May. I have known Francisco for years; his new role as rector of the local Intercul- tural Maya University of Quintana Roo had been one of the reasons we decided to place our stu- dents in the communities of this region. Don Juan shows Todd Little-Siebold his black-blue corn. Photo courtesy of Todd Little-Siebold. The blessing, known as a Hetz Luum, is a traditional Maya ceremony asking the dueño, or spirits of the land, to allow you to occupy it. As Francisco was finishing his house, he asked Don Juan to ask the dueño to allow him to live there peacefully. The ceremony was an all-day affair involving special sacred tortillas prepared by the men, baked in the ground, and then offered to the spirits. After the spirits consumed the gracia, or essence of the food, we all ate. Watching Don Juan's careful attention to the food, the candles, and the ceremony, I knew he was someone who was a keeper of much knowledge. His thoughtful answers to my questions convinced me he was also an amazing communicator and storyteller. He obviously loved sharing what he knew. Don Juan is a h'men, a Maya healer and a traditional judge. He is also an innovative and successful milpero, a farmer. Three of our students in the Yucatan program worked with Don Juan directly on these aspects of his life and world. Angelica Ullauri '12 lived with his family and learned about Maya cosmology. Don Juan's explana- tions, especially his stories of the end of the world, led her to a naunced understanding of the simultaneously ancient and contemporary worldview of Maya spirtual leaders. Lamira Alisalem '12 focused on Don Juan's role as a juez tradicional, a traditional judge who metes out local justice in a recent effort by the government to recognize and empower Maya leaders. Don Juan told her that the new judicial reforms were good, but frustrat- ing. Though a local leader charged with serving as a sort of justice of the peace without training, his authority is sharply circumscribed, and he finds it hard to impose fines in a community where people have very little. In- stead, he makes them sweep the plaza in the hopes they will feel remorse. Don Juan also shared his knowledge of the milpa with Juan Olmedo '12, patiently explaining why he plants ibes, maiz, frijol, camote, calabaza, rosa de jamaica, the different types of corn, beans, squashes, and succulent hibiscus with which he designs his fields and provisions his family. He proudly showed us all his black-blue corn and delighted in such evocative names as little red dove-colored beans. Don Juan is a farmer, counselor, judge, healer, basket maker, father, teacher, guide, knowledge keeper, and so much more. Our world is enriched by knowing that people like Don Juan are here with us and we are blessed by his feeding of the gods on our behalf. COA 11 COA Beat Earth Day 2010 As in recent years, College of the Atlantic commemo- rated Earth Day with a festival on campus, inviting people from around the state to learn more sustain- able ways of living while having a great time. The keynote address was given by Molly Anderson, the inaugural holder of the Partridge Chair in Food and Sustainable Agriculture Systems. This year's highlight Photo by Luke Madden '12. was the introduction of a ritual borrowed from Holi, the Hindi festival of spring, in which people throw bright-colored, cornstarch-based powder in the air and at each other. Holi participants below from left: Anna Cherubino '11, Heather Wight '12 and Mariana Calderon '13. Photos by Urs Riggenbach '12. Congratulations COA students! This year, two COA students have received remarkable national endorsements, reflect- ing upon the character of COA students and the caliber of their work. Lauren Nutter '10 received a coveted Watson Fellowship. The fellowship, from the Watson Foundation, offers forty students studying in select colleges from around the nation funding for a year of travel on a project of their choosing. Nutter will travel to Turkey, Mexico, India, Maldives, and the Netherlands to learn more about youth empowerment on her journey: "Voices for the Future: Youth, Passion, and Sustainable Change." She writes, "By focusing on how major international events or significant national initiatives impact youth locally, I will gain an understanding of the catalysts, sustained models, and successful approaches for youth par- Lauren Nutter '10. ticipation in protecting the environment." Photo by Rogier van Bakel. Each year, too, the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation offers scholarships to exceptional second- and third-year college students planning careers in science and math. The scholarships are based on academic merit. This year, Kaija Klauder '11 is a Goldwater scholar. Her interests lie in the behavior of carnivores and the relationships between predators and prey, with an eye to the creation of more comprehensive and effective wildlife management plans. In addition to biology, ecology, and public policy, Klauder has been studying literature, partly because she recognizes that writing is essential to successful management planning, but also because, she says, "I've chosen to pursue all of my passions - that's why I Kaija Klauder '11. came to COA." Photo courtesy of COA. 12 COA Notes from a Watson Fellow: Mapping Asylum in Fortress Europe Un Mar de Plástico by Michael Keller '09 H amidou and I travel past a plastic-covered landscape that hides rows of strawberry plants, a scene that the Spanish refer to as un mar de plástico, a sea of plastic. Hamidou, a slim, fit, twenty-three-year-old man born in Senegal, moves about Spain looking for work, first picking pears near Barcelona and now hoping to pick strawberries in Moguer, Huelva. Hamidou has lived in Spain for over a year - having taken a dangerous boat ride from coastal Mauritania to the Canary Islands. Because of Spanish law, he, like many other migrants, has no chance of living a legal, regular life until he has lived in the country for three years. This is not Hamidou's first stay in Spain; he made the risky trip in 2007 but was deported to Mauritania. In 2009 he tried again and says, "This time I have been more lucky." Having been transferred from a detainment center in the Canary Islands to a Red Cross center for immigrants in Madrid, his search for temporary work has led him to yet another center in Sevilla. Spain winks and nods at irregular migrants, acknowledging their pres- ence, but forcing them to live below the radar - in a situation of vulner- ability and social isolation. They ex- ist as second-class citizens for three years as they search tirelessly for jobs simply to survive, and perhaps earn a little extra to send home to their families. The atmosphere of exclusion results in the cheap labor that allows for the inexpensive year- round Spanish fruits and vegetables found in grocery stores. When Hamidou and I arrive at Mo- guer's main plaza, immigrants from Romania, Poland, and at least a doz- en African countries sit on walls and benches waiting for the strawberry picking to begin. This year's harvest Moussa (left), from the Ivory Coast, and Hamidou, of Senegal, rest and share a laugh is late because of Spain's unusually after a pickup fútbol match for the residents of the Centro de Acogida, Sevilla, Spain. dark, cold winter. Hamidou meets with a farm owner and agrees to return with a friend's residence documents to qualify for work. The owner will rent him a bed in a shared, cramped flat with thirteen beds - each costing €140 a month. Hamidou tells me he can live frugally, making €36 a day, and send money to his wife in Guinea. But when we return on a rainy day, the boss says there is no work, to come back another week. Hamidou gives him a sad look while simultaneously not looking him in the eyes, and bows his head; the Stuart Little mouse on his yellow cap hides his face. am observing firsthand in Spain, as in the United States, that the same government and economic structures that contribute to dislocation also encourage the dislocated to fill low-wage, vulnerable jobs. Hamidou and the various immigrants I work with and befriend are indicators of the health of our current, interconnected, global economic system. Moving about Spain, I meet displaced peoples from Mauritania, Morocco, Senegal, Western Sahara, Ecuador, Colombia, and Peru, but my home base is the Centro de Acogida in Sevilla where I met Hamidou and other migrants and failed asylum seekers. Facing a towering fortress Europe, most African immigrants say they intend to stay only long enough to receive a residence permit allowing them to travel more freely between their home countries and Spain, as well as pro- COA 13 viding a legal way to seek jobs in other European Union nations and to make money to send back home. In 2008, Spain granted asylum to only 151 people out of 4,517 seekers. Driving back to Sevilla, Hamidou waves to Afri- can tissue vendors who purchase economy-size packages of tissues that they divide into small personal-size packs for sale. These men also had risked dangerous sea journeys and now struggle economically by selling disposable tissues from a highway median to motorists. W hen I was growing up, the only time I heard the word asylum was in the context of mental illness; the term seemed antiquated. As I grew older, I heard this word less often un- A plastic-covered agricultural landscape that stretches throughout the til the late 1990s when the International Rescue Spanish province of Huelva, known for its strawberries, where many mi- Committee opened a chapter in my hometown to grants go to harvest. resettle refugees seeking asylum, and I became friends with refugees in school, on soccer teams, and in the community. By then, I viewed asylum as a productive process: refugee families found jobs, rented and bought nice homes, achieved high English proficiency, started new businesses, sent their children to public schools and then on to Virginia's public universities. Asylum seemed a new start, a way to escape persecuted and dangerous lives. Before departing on this Watson journey, I was primarily interested in how communities welcomed refugees and migrants, but every day I confront a universal truth of migration: no one wants to feel forced to leave their homes. Many would like to return home, but are ashamed that they have been "defeated" by the expensive journeys of migration that also have cost them years when they could have advanced in an occupation or en- joyed family life. have only been in Spain since the first day of 2010, having spent the early winter months in Sweden and Denmark. While living in Den- mark, I forgot sometimes that there even was a sky: instead, shades of grays and blues blend into each other - asphalt, ocean, lakes, bicycle paths, concrete buildings, wind turbines, sand dunes all smudging together. To most of the Danes and Swedes I met, newly arriving asylum seekers were hidden away, like their sky. In Denmark, unlike Spain, it is rare to find undocumented migrants living in society. Denmark's asylum seekers or ir- regular migrants generally live in small-town cen- ters waiting to receive asylum and resettlement, or to be deported. An appeal of an unsuccessful case could take as long as fifteen years. Zandahar (left) and Zubair, asylum seekers from Afghanistan, awake in To visit to Samir in Denmark's Sigerslev asylum the Sigerslev asylum center in Denmark where both have been waiting center, I need to travel on a Red Cross bus. I am for their asylum decisions for over a year. Some asylum seekers have going there for a party to celebrate an Afghan been waiting for over twelve years. man's recently granted positive asylum status. When I arrive in the nearest town, Samir is wait- ing for me. We hug and shake hands. Using body language learned from Afghans, I put my hand on my chest and bow my head slightly, thanking him for inviting me. He talks with me in his best American (southern) ac- cent that he learned while working on USAID projects with US officials and the military. His shiny black hair 14 COA always looks wet and his face is constantly speck- led with the same density of stubble. His static features seem sadly fitting for his static immigra- tion status: four months in Copenhagen waiting for an initial interview; he is in Phase II. The scale of migration from Iraq and Afghanistan amazes me: Afghan and Iraqi refugees account for half of all refugees under the responsibility of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees. One out of four refugees in the world is from Afghanistan. A small percentage of the refugees from societies spun into constant fear of local or international military forces make it to Europe, each paying human smugglers at least $15,000 to arrange for transport to European Union coun- tries. Heshmat, from Afghanistan, on the train into Copenhagen, is reflective My interpretation of asylum is changing. I see and pensive as he discusses what receiving asylum status means to him. "progressive, developed" nations implementing policies and procedures to isolate asylum seek- ers. I observe substance abuse and emerging mental illnesses that exacerbate the almost universal identity questions associated with migration. I detect that space for the displaced is delineated and deliberate. Denmark places asylum seekers in centers far from its main cities, often in old psychiatric hospitals or military bases, always with a buffer between refugees and towns - it may be a forest or agricultural land. Often the asylum seekers are allowed to come and go on their own, but the remote locations of the centers may require taking several buses and trains to reach a city. On the crowded Red Cross bus taking us to the Sigerslev asylum center, guys from Afghanistan, Zimbabwe, Syria, Iraq, Nigeria, Iran, Eritrea talk loudly and thrust arms in the air as they speak. They all want to know what I am doing, asking, "Are you a photojournalist?" At the center, Samir and I walk through a gate to enter the com- pound where a Red Cross flag droops from a tall, metal pole. We pass rows of brick buildings in a tree-dotted courtyard to the last building where Samir resides. Through glass windows and doors many residents stare, trying to figure out who I am. Inside, Samir introduces me to his roommate Kandahari whose black irises swim in constant tears. He is called Kandahari because he is the only one in the center from Kandahar. He receives a call on his cell phone. Afterwards, Samir knows the look on his roommate's face and asks, "What's up?" Kandahari whispers some- thing, then throws his head in his hands. When he lifts his head, his eyes are red and glassy. Later he has hor- rible dreams and shouts and gasps and thrusts in bed until morning. The floor lamp covered with a red cloth beams a soft glow in the corner of the room, but it is not enough to calm the memories and images that haunt him. That night, men dance and play pool, laughing as I clumsily handle the cue. By three or four in the morning, I fall asleep on the bed of a guy who stays with a sister in Copenhagen. Waking the next day, I hear Kandahari boiling water to make me a cup of instant coffee to go along with a delicious mixture of finely crushed nuts, fruits, cinnamon, and sugar. "This is good morning food for the brain, makes you ready to start day," a friend comments. On the train back to Copenhagen the day after the party, Heshmat, the man who received his positive asylum status, reflected on what his new status would require: "We all have three personalities: the personality we think we have, the personality we'd like to have, and the personality we think soci- ety demands from us. Now, I'm trying to work with these three." Michael Keller '09. Photos by Michael Keller. COA 15 Notes from a Watson Fellow: Journey into Sustainable Entrepreneurship Honoring a Relationship by Nick Jenei '09 It is late November. I have joined a long line of pilgrims, porters, and yaks trudging through a deep river gorge in western Tibet. Sheer granite cliffs of Mt. Kailash fly high above us - a Himalayan cathedral. As I slowly move through the blue Tibetan atmosphere I have ample time to reflect on a journey that has brought me thousands of miles through the manic metropolises of coastal China to the high deserts and jagged massifs of the Himalayas. Funded by the Thomas J. Watson Foundation, I have been exploring sustainable business in China and India, the nebulous pivot point on which the demands of the environment and capitalism are precipitously balanced; and I have specifically come to China to get a glimpse of the future. Why then, am I in Tibet? It's a reasonable question. All I know is that after four months traveling through some of the largest cities in the world, I have gotten the glimpse of the future I was looking for - and it does not leave me feeling hopeful. Three decades of uncontrolled growth are impacting every aspect of our world; sustainable business is no exception. China is positioned to become the world's largest producer of wind turbines and photovoltaics, as well as the market leader in pure electric vehicles. This trend will only continue and spread into other sectors; the national government has recognized the massive global demand for green technologies and has created the perfect economic environment for Chinese companies to become the global leaders in the field. But as I traveled around China and experienced the profound environmental degradation caused by the unprecedented economic rise of 1.3 billion people, I became concerned that China's path towards sustainability - one that the entire world may one day tread - is a futile one. From my perspective, the solutions being created by China do not at all address the dire problems our species has created. Revolutionary ideas are going to be needed to stop the damage, not new technologies or marketing schemes. But the solutions China is offering are market-based notions that fall very neatly into the standard model of modern capitalism - they reinforce our destructive culture of consumerism and materialism. And because these solutions are going to be inexpensive, plentiful, and very profitable, truly innovative economic models will never be successful - the market will make sure of that. Yes, China is taking steps towards green tech and sustainability, but it is "too little, too late," and I fear that the world will follow China's lead, not because it is the right thing to do but because it is the cheapest thing to do. To process these intense experiences, I have come to where I usually go for solace and peace - the mountains. A four-day jeep journey from Lhasa, over some of the most rug- ged roads Tibet has to offer, has brought me to the base of Mt. Kailash, the most sacred mountain in the Himalayas. Early the next morning, after an energy- (and fat-) laden pre- dawn breakfast of roasted barley porridge and yak butter tea, we start our three-day trek around the great mountain. Every so often, when the angle is just so, Kailash appears, an intense stream of snow blowing from its windswept summit like a daytime lighthouse. I am told that the second day will be the hardest but the most rewarding: climbing an eighteen-thousand-foot pass, only three thousand vertical feet shy of the summit itself. I sleep well in the shadow of the mountain and start the arduous push up the pass well before sunrise with Venus shining in the golden light of the eastern sky. I have been hiking alone for hours when my guide Jam Yang, a native Tibetan and former Buddhist monk, joins me on the trail. Since I don't have the physical ability to simulta- neously walk and talk at that altitude, I am eager to stop and chat while catching up on my oxygen. I am also interested in learning more about the significance of the Kora (the Tibetan word for a religious circumambulation) and ask Jam Yang if he can tell me more about why Tibetans walk around mountains. His answer is one of the most profound yet simple insights into the crisis facing humanity I have ever heard articulated: "The Kora is a way of honoring a relationship, honoring our relationship with the mountain." 16 COA Honoring a relationship. These three words not only hold the key to understanding the tension between hu- mans and the environment, they also illuminate a clear path toward a more harmonious relationship with our world. "The pilgrims on this mountain understand the infinitely complex relationships that sustain them," continues Jam Yang. "They understand their place in the greater system; they understand their relationship to Kailash." Because of their sensitivity to this symbiosis, these pilgrims are not trying to conquer the mountain, they are not trying to conquer the environment - they are trying to honor a relationship. We stare at the mountain for a few more minutes and then make the thirty-minute climb to the top in silence, a rainbow of flying prayer flags greeting us as we crest the pass. Honoring a relationship. Is it as simple as that? Is the solution to humanity's crisis as simple as honoring the very relationship that sustains all life on earth? I believe it is. And not only is it that simple, but without this essential first step, I believe all other actions will ultimately be futile. China presented me with two very different solutions to humanity's crisis - a traditional, market-based ap- proach and a renewal of humanity's relationship with the world - but my travels over the past seven months in China and India have made it very clear that only one of these is appropriate if our species is to survive the coming decades. Creating a new, innovative economy will be an essential step for our society to live in balance with our environment, but it is not the first step. The directions that globalization and development are taking us cannot be sustained by our environment; ultimately it is jeopardizing our own species. To survive, we must undergo a cultural shift. We must recognize and honor the relationships that sustain us. Humanity does not lack the intelligence or means to live sustainably - what we lack is perspective. We don't perceive the vast web of life-sustaining relationships that we fundamentally rely on; because we lack this crucial perspective, we see no harm in pillaging and destroying our planet. But if we recognize these relation- ships and honor them, the society we could then build would be fundamentally different - and fundamentally sustainable. Nick Jenei '09 at Mt. Kailash in Western Tibet. Photos by Nick Jenei. COA 17 Donor Profile Hank Schmelzer: Strategic Designer By Donna Gold From his sitting room in Somesville, Maine, Henry "Hank" Schmelzer looks over the lovely wooden bridge spanning a local mill stream; he also sees out to Somes Sound and beyond to the mountains of Acadia National Park. These two perspectives - the long and the close - are basic to Schmelzer's per- ceptions and clearly resonate with his recent involve- ment with the college he calls "so topical, with such a strong message." A trustee since 2008, Schmelzer is deeply impressed by College of the Atlantic's stu- dents. "Their courage and ambition and idealism are awe-inspiring," he says. Hank Schmelzer with his friend Rudolfo while in Italy. Photo courtesy of Hank Schmelzer. To help these students get the best possible education, received an honorary COA degree. "One thing led to Schmelzer has jumped into co-chairing the college's another," he says, "I got more and more interested in current strategic design plan with COA President what the college is doing: the mission is in the right David Hales. That's the long view, exploring where place and it's the right time for what's happening in COA hopes to be in the year 2017. But Schmelzer's the world." Even before retiring from the foundation, connections are also immediate. He served as a judge Schmelzer became a COA trustee. in the Sustainable Venture Incubator, and he and his wife, Cynthia Livingston, have been the host family Creating strategic plans is a natural for Schmelzer. At of Nafisa Mohammadi '10. the Maine Community Foundation he oversaw three such plans in nine years. "I enjoy this work," he says. Schmelzer comes to his interest in the long view from "It enables everyone to have an understanding of an extensive career in the financial industry, and per- where you want to go, but one has to be careful that haps too, because almost inadvertently, his life has it's used to enhance the day-to-day functioning of an modeled such planning. organization," and that all constituents participate. Though he was raised in apple orchard country in At COA, the draft plan is still under extensive review central Massachusetts, Schmelzer's mother grew up in advance of upcoming deadlines. Schmelzer talks in Bangor. Come summer, the family would camp at Seawall in Acadia National Park. After attending about including statements that support COA's val- the University of Maine, he went on to law school ues of sustainability, service, idealism, transparency, at George Washington University, thinking he'd go diversity, honesty, and integrity in all relationships. into public service. But after serving in the Vietnam Others are focused on specific proposed objectives War he got sidetracked and for nearly thirty years and actions. The process continues. Schmelzer excelled in Boston's financial service in- dustry. At age fifty-five, as president and CEO of the This inclusivity - a living manifestation of human mutual fund group New England Funds, he looked ecology - is part of what makes the college so ap- again at his personal strategic plan and decided he pealing to Schmelzer. He is intrigued to find an entire had a good ten years remaining to devote to public school devoted to "finding ways that people can live service. together in the environment and their communities, to be constructive rather than destructive to those re- In 2000, Schmelzer moved to Maine as president lations." He sees COA as performing an essential role of the Maine Community Foundation, the statewide as it becomes "more widely recognized as a model of philanthropic organization that was started by COA's the way to provide healthy, sustainable communities founding president Ed Kaelber. Schmelzer had al- committed to service, whether the communities be ready become enchanted by COA when, in 2006, he on MDI or throughout the world." 18 COA CREATING A NEW GENERATION OF STORIES: coa's legacy students Compiled by Donnie Mullen ('97) COA has finally come of age. Those first courageous and sometimes wild COA students are now parents with col- lege-age children of their own, children who are also choosing COA. With nine current legacy students, we decided to talk to them about why they came - and glean a few of their parents' early stories as well. ~ DG STUDENT: Will Ginn bread (it was on top of the wannagins) and passing Pownal, Maine around a bottle of rum. Years later when my dad Visiting Student and I came to visit COA, he bought a bottle of rum, Memorable COA story? put it in a paper bag, wrote on the bag "To Captain COA was always in the household K, from Mr. K," and had it sent up to Steve's office as a name bouncing around while we waited downstairs. I was half-certain that there's this little place on campus we were about to get kicked off campus, thus ruining called Ginn's Folly which is what my father, back in my chances of ever attending, when a voice drifted the day, tried to make into a sauna in the winter. It down from above: "Josh Klauder? Is that you?" was so uninsulated that it could not get above 80 de- grees, which was not quite sauna-ish enough for his Why did you choose COA? purposes. In high school I attended Chewonki Semester School Why did you choose COA? in Wiscasset, Maine. For the first time I truly expe- I actually met a few of the students at the Common rienced a community of people enthusiastic about Ground Fair. I spoke with them and every one of them learning and committed to living with intention. I was was great. That was a large part of my decision. also taken with the weathered beauty of the rocky coast and the culture of New England. COA was the What's most unusual about COA? logical choice. I would say the level of engagement of the students is really astounding. I've been to schools where you What are you working on? take the class and do what you're expected to do, Synthesizing my passions for science, the out-of- but if COA students are really interested in something doors, and the power and beauty of words by devel- they go a step further. They're really out for their own learning. oping my skills in animal behavior, wildlife biology, poetry, and literature. Alumni: Bill Ginn '74 and June Lacombe ('75) A highlight? How does it feel to have Will at COA? Freshman year, a friend came up and asked if I knew It's been great to get reconnected with COA through how to skin a raccoon. I said that I had never done so our son and also reassuring that the quality of edu- cation remains high even though COA is ten times but I would be willing to try, as it probably wouldn't bigger than when I was a student. It's clear it's still a be so different from the cat in my high school anato- stimulating place - and may in fact be a richer com- my class. Turned out there was a dead raccoon by the munity because the diversity is much greater than parking lot. There we were, skinning this raccoon by when I was at COA. ~ Bill Ginn headlamp in a growing puddle of blood when head- lights suddenly spotlighted us. Next thing we knew, STUDENT: Kaija Klauder '11 David Hales walked up to us and said "Hi, what Palmer, Alaska are you guys doing?" "Skinning this raccoon," we Memorable COA story? responded, nervously - boy, am I good at looking One of the more memorable sto- weird in front of college presidents, I thought, stand- ries was my father's OOPs trip ing there with my gory knife in hand. "Neat," he said. (though I don't think they called it "Should you guys be worried about rabies?" "It's not that then) which was a canoe trip really the season for it," we answered. "Great, have led by Steve Katona, a.k.a. Captain K. They had all fun!" he replied. And walked away. spent a miserable cold day paddling, and when they got to camp, with the rain coming in sideways, most Alum: Josh Klauder ('77) people just crawled under the overturned boats and How does it feel to have Kaija at COA? fell asleep, but a few - my dad and Steve included I'm envious. If I could just come up with a reason - sat around in a huddle, ravenously eating white why I need a master's degree COA 19 From left to right: Heather Wight '12, Lilly Demers '12, Terra van de Sande '13, Henry Owen '14, Becca Hamilton '14, Philip Kunhardt '11, Will Ginn, Kaija Klauder '11. Missing from the photo and interviews: Lilly Allgood '11, daugh- ter of Abby Goodyear '81; missing from the interviews: Terra van de Sande '13, daughter of Jacob van de Sande '95. Photos by Devin Altobello '13. STUDENT: Philip Bradish Kunhardt IV '11 STUDENT: Lilly Demers '12 Waccabuc, New York Bar Harbor, Maine Why did you choose COA? Why did you choose COA? Spending summers here was probably the biggest The environmental focus, com- reason - when I came up for Fall Fly-In, I got to see a mitment to sustainability, beauti- different angle and I wanted more. I wanted to be up ful location and small community here all year round. feel. What are you working on? What are you working on? I'm writing a novel about a summer cottager family Self-exploration. Organic gardening and garden de- in Bar Harbor during the waning days of the High sign. Ornithological adventures. Society. I'm also deeply into anthropological studies and music, as well as fisheries sciences. What's most unusual about COA? The sense of community and inclusivity of students What's most unusual about COA? with academic affairs and all other aspects of school The dispersion and fusion of ideas playing off each planning and development. other in Take-A-Break. While everybody may be studying very different fields, each of our studies can How has COA changed since your dad's day? intersect with each other and lead to a larger picture It seems like back in my father's day COA was much that only comes from human interaction. The dis- wilder but the commitment to openness, free think- course is really special to me. ing and self-exploration are all still here. Along with the beautiful campus! A highlight? Spending one-and-a-half to two Alum: Steve Demers '80 hours a week in a one-on-one ses- sion with Bill Carpenter delving How does it feel to have Lilly at COA? into Jungian psychology As great as COA was when I attended from 1978- my best paper grew out of it. 1980, clearly it has continued to stay far ahead of the curve with regards to studies of the things that really Alum: Philip Bradish Kunhardt III '77 matter in life and career enrichment. The stories I've told Lilly over the years of April Fools' Day pranks How has COA influenced Philip? and dances at the Turrets, and great Take-A-Break COA has intensified Philip's involvement with his ed- kitchen delights take on new meaning as her own ucation. He has become exactly the kind of passion- COA experiences create memories to share with her ate, engaged learner which is my ideal for a student. children as well as her parents. 20 COA How has COA influenced Lilly? Why did you choose COA? She is like a kid in a candy store, excited about the I came to COA because I knew that it wouldn't be course offerings, eager to engage with her fellow stu- just "a system" and that going to school would be dents and professors. But mostly, she is happy, open unique. to the diversity that is COA learning. A highlight? STUDENT: Heather Wight '12 I'd say hackysacking (is that a word?) outside TAB. Wendell, Massachusetts Gotta love it. Memorable COA story? How has COA changed since your parents' day? For his senior project, my dad set Things are generally fixed up more, or so it seems up beehives for the college, so the from their impressions being on campus, the faculty honey served in the dining hall is older, obviously, but I can't think of too many other would be local. Unfortunately, the things (which is good). fire happened the summer after he graduated, so his project was destroyed along with all his other work Alumni: Cara Guerrieri '83 and Francis Owen '83 that was stored on campus. It makes me sad that I will never be able to see the work that he did here. How has COA influenced Henry? We get the feeling that Henry has taken charge of his Why did you choose COA? own education in new ways, that he is a more active I was initially attracted to its focus on the environ- learner, and understands more fully that education ment and its small community. Once I visited, I fell can be about inspirational learning and self improve- in love with the ocean and the students who were ment, not just about getting a degree. incredibly motivated and independent compared to high school students. I knew that this was the college STUDENT: Rebecca Hamilton '14 for me. Whitefield, Maine Memorable COA story? Highlight? My dad used to tell me the story of his friend who de- Last spring, almost every day was an amazing expe- cided to sleep on a different surface every night for a rience. I'd wake up to the smell and sound of the term. She slept on top of picnic tables, in the woods, ocean, bird watch in the early morning, eat yummy in Turrets. There was also the story about the student Beech Hill Farm greens at lunch, write letters to the who decided to live solely off of editor about creating climate policy in the noon sun, grass clippings for a term. transplant seedlings in the late afternoon, talk with friends about the wonders of the world at dusk and Why did you choose COA? dance late into the night. I fell in love with the community. Every person was so motivated, I How has COA changed since your father's day? felt like I had come home. COA has changed a lot since the early eighties. Turrets was once used for student housing and dance parties What's most unusual about COA? were held in the mirrored room downstairs, before The diversity of the students. I have friends who are chalkboards were put up over the mirrors. There used from all over the world, friends who are passionate to be a sauna next to the ocean. But I think the same about marine biology, literature, music, politics, her- sorts of people are attracted to this place and our in- petology, education. What brings us together is the terests are similar to previous generations. desire to study our passions and to create a better world through our individual talents. Alum: Erik Wight '83 How does it feel to have Heather at COA? A highlight? It feels great, nice to realize you've raised someone There was a meteor shower this fall and I set my alarm who cares about our fragile world and is willing to for three a.m. As my friends and I walked across the study at such a unique school. front lawn, the campus was alive. People were ly- ing on blankets, sitting on the pier I felt a strong STUDENT: Henry Owen '14 sense of community as we all witnessed this wonder- Blue Hill, Maine ful natural show. Memorable COA story? Alum: Chris Hamilton '85 The impression of COA that my parents gave me was unique. For How does it feel to have Rebecca at COA? instance, the woman who would Becca really enjoys the international students - that knit during ACM - click click was largely what attracted her to the school. We try click click - and whenever things got heated the not to discuss that I went to COA - it is her experi- clicking would get faster and faster. ence now and I am glad she is enjoying it. COA 21 ORAL HISTORY "I got up every morning thinking I am SO lucky to be here." The first classes held at COA were in the summer of 1971, when Ed Kaelber, founding COA president, invited a range of students to experiment with some of the ideas that would ultimately be integral to a COA education. Among the thirteen students that summer was Gray Cox, 18, just married, and a rising sophomore at Wesleyan University in Connecticut who would later become a COA faculty member in political economy. This excerpt from a longer conversation is part of COA's ongoing oral history of the college. ~ DG Donna Gold: How did you first hear about COA? We don't want you to think that we're going to save Gray Cox: I may have heard something about it the whole world." He had a way of combining ex- through the discussions in the community but it treme idealism and extreme realism that was very ap- didn't really register for me until Katie Good, who pealing. was in drama with me at MDI High School, invited me to come to her house one evening. Her father, DG: So you went off to Wesleyan, and Mel Cote, ad- [early trustee] John Good, had been talking with Ed missions director, invited you to come to the summer Kaelber about starting the college and Ed wanted to program in 1971 - talk with some high school kids on the island to see GC: They wanted a representative group of students what their thoughts were about college in general - different ages, different backgrounds, different in- and about some of the ideas he had for it. It sounded terests - who would try out some of the ideas for very intriguing, but I had no interest in going to col- the college. They were interested in interdisciplinary, lege on the island, having grown up here from the student-centered learning, a real-world, hands-on, age of ten. I was, you know, busy walking the streets problem-centered kind of approach, something that at night, after play practice, saying to myself, "I have Mel was calling a workshop. I thought it would be a to get out of this town." lot of fun and really interesting as an experiment in education. The Saturday before classes started, I got DG: What are your memories of Ed Kaelber? married down in the field here at the college. So my GC: Right from the start he was a really engaging kind new wife and I could serve as resident advisor-type of a guy. He invited you to feel drawn into the proj- folks. I also did a couple weeks of work with Millard ect, mostly by the way in which he felt compelled by [Dority] on the grounds before the program started. the importance of the issues that the college would It was a form of summer employment as well as this address, and the possibilities that it opened up. But great opportunity to try out these experimental edu- also by his self-critical, almost self-deprecating atti- cational ideas - this was right after all the uproar in tude: "We don't want to be too precious about this. the sixties. A flood of visual images comes to mind - particular spaces and moments in the classroom. There was this incredible sense of an emergent kind of vision and of excitement, just incredibly exciting. I got up every morning thinking I am so lucky to be here. I really did. This is so, so exciting. DG: And what were you studying? GC: There were three classes and a workshop on the future of Bar Island. There was a class taught by Glen Paulson, an exciting scientist who had worked on all sorts of environmental issues. He had worked in New York City on issues of lead paint in urban areas, and on larger, global kinds of problems. He was inter- ested in bridging different parts of the environmental movement and other kinds of civil rights movements. And he was also very good at explaining very com- Photo by Toby Hollis. plicated phenomena. And then Seth Singleton taught 22 COA wanted to do with their life. Often we were looking for people who had a center of interest and an ability to drive themselves. We were definitely looking for people who had done learning outside of school, and who'd done anything that was in any sense practical, real world, applied. On the other hand, there was a real interest in trying to get kids who fit the profile of Ivy League quality. DG: And so you worked here and then went off to get your PhD? GC: In philosophy, at Vanderbilt. And then I taught and did research and practical activism on develop- ing a culture of peace. Gray Cox, age 18, prepares a barbecue for the summer DG: Eventually, of course, you came back to Maine students. Photo courtesy of Gray Cox. and ended up teaching here. So how do you see COA's influence on your life? a political science course, which also mixed in some GC: It nurtured my philosophical commitment to the economics. The key text I remember was called core ideas of interdisciplinariness, a democratic ap- TANSTAAFL, There Ain't No Such Thing as a Free proach to knowledge and action and a mix of theory Lunch. And then Bill [Carpenter] taught a wonderful, and practice and provided some good examples and wonderful course. We read The Waste Land, some ways of institutionalizing them. When I talked with Thoreau, and Loren Eiseley's book, The Firmament my philosophy professors about wanting to do ap- of Time, which had a really powerful impact in terms plied philosophy, they had trouble figuring out what of my picture of the relationship between philosophy I was talking about. Whereas, at COA, I think some- and history and environment. It was fun! one like Dick Davis or Dan Kane [former COA fac- I was interested in drama at the time and started writ- ulty members in philosophy and law, respectively] ing notes for a play in the style of an absurdist drama, knew exactly what I was talking about. In that way, like Waiting for Godot, but the exact opposite tem- COA was very influential as a real world exemplifica- perament from Becket. So on the side I was having a tion of what I was looking for - Dick was interested mini-tutorial with Bill. It was about the incredibly rich in not just theoretical speculations about how to re- diversity of new ideas all heading towards something late to nature better, but in building a solar house. I - in fact, maybe it was already here. I went on to think the college governance system also was a really revise the play and it won an award at Wesleyan for good example of people trying to take these ideas of undergraduate writing. human ecology and apply them in their daily lives in their actual institution. Running the school. In a DG: And then you came back to work in admissions, sense the college was one of the most important parts right? Talk about recruiting for COA at that time. of the real world that we were interacting with - it GC: Yeah. I was an admissions officer the third and had real buildings, it had real sources of income, real fourth years of the college. The one key part of Mel's economic problems. And food to be eaten, and floors strategy for recruitment and selection of students was to be swept, and back then there was an especially that they should be self-selected. He had the idea that strong sense of egalitarianism, so as an admissions we don't exactly know what the school is going to be officer I was sweeping floors and cleaning up and do- like, and we don't really know who would do well in ing secretarial stuff as well as taking part in classes it, so we've got to be honest about that with students, and make them realize that they're responsible for and planning and then on the road I would stop in making the place work. And we don't want to prom- and talk with one of the trustees in Philadelphia as ise them too much. But more importantly, I think he part of the fundraising process. I thought of the col- really had the sense that the kind of students we want lege as a necessary idea, as just right, you know? My would be the sort that would be seeking a place like core analysis of the world was that in the twentieth us. At the time, at most schools, I think there was not century we created all these problems by having pro- the kind of long essay-centered application process fessionals and elites run the world, people like Rob- that we had. We asked students to reflect on their ert McNamara. And what we needed were human high school experience, on their values, on what they ecologists. COA 23 & " Entre Coma Diana Escobec "Frente a Juana, Juchitán de Zarag : "El Calvario," Juchitán de Zaragoza, Mexico, 2010. L ast year, during my senior year, I discovered a place filled with characters that defy characterization - Juchitán de Zaragoza, Mexico. Located on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, in the state of Oaxaca, Juchitán's dominant cultural group, the Zapoteca, maintains its vibrant traditions and unique approach to gender struc- tures. For my senior project I walked the streets of Juchitán and talked to every woman and muxe - male homosexuals who identify as women and are yet considered a third gender - I encountered. My book Entre Comadres is composed of my portraiture and oral histories of women and muxes who gave me their trust. I recently returned with my mother - the one who inspired my senior project - to give something back to the people who so kindly opened up to me last year. Perhaps it was a karma-related action, but I genuinely wanted to thank everyone I had met. In doing so I established closer relationships that led to my new, as yet untitled, project. I will go back to Juchitán each year for at least fifteen years, and make a portrait of the same women and muxes who have spoken through Entre Comadres. Because of my deep interest in memory and its connection to photography I look forward to exploring the pas- sage of time and its gradual effects on people who were once strangers to me, through portraiture. ~ Diana Escobedo Lastiri '09 26 | COA F rom Entre Comadres: "I am always radiating beauty, even if you say that I'm fat and ugly, I am always glowing. Me gusta lucir. I like to look fantastic and I also like to share - this is be- ing alive and I like glowing in life. "Look, I'm only going to tell you three things, three phrases from the muxes, three things in life: súbete a un árbol y madura, climb a tree and mature, pintate un bosque y piérdete, paint yourself a forest and get lost in it, y pélate un plátano y siéntate, peel a banana and sit on it." ~ Mistica, 2009 U nsure whether it is cultural or purely local, every- one seemed to be careful when I first approached them one year after our first encounter - people seemed to be, as we say in Mexico "measuring my intentions" or making sure I did not mean them any harm. Mistica, an exuberant muxe, was especially cautious but warmly welcomed me when I introduced her to my mother. Mistica's 2010 portrait, just like the other portraits I made this year, offers more context than the year's before - I know I too, am reflected in each photograph and won- der how I will change throughout the years. ~ D. Lastiri, 2010 Top: "Mistica," Juchitán de Zaragoza, Mexico, 2009. Above: "Mistica," Juchitán de Zaragoza, Mexico, 2010. To see more work by Diana Escobedo Lastiri visit www.desclas.com. COA 27 GET IN THE CAR a ten-minute play By Andrea Lepcio '79 Timothy Gulan and Elise Gulan in a 2004 production of Get in the Car directed by Barbara Gulan at Estrogenius, Manhattan Theatre Source, New York City. Photo by Jef Betz, Reel Alchemy. I grew up with an art dealer stepfather and an appreciation for the importance of Jackson Pollock as a breakthrough artist. I knew he had died in a car accident, but it wasn't until I saw Ed Harris' movie Pollock, that I learned he wasn't alone in the car and that a young woman had also died. Her status as a forgotten footnote haunted me. I dug around for what I could find about her. When I learned she'd escaped Nazi Germany, I knew I had to write this play. ~ AL CAST OF CHARACTERS Our Edith: Twenty-six-year-old woman. She wears a summer evening dress, gloves, purse, circa 1956. Our Jackson: Forty-four-year-old man. He wears loafers, no socks. Holds steering wheel. TIME AND SETTING After Dangerous Curve, Fireplace Road The characters are called "Our" because they are what we imagine as writer, performer, audience, and reader. CURTAIN RISES Our Edith stands by the side of the road. OUR EDITH: The thing about being a house guest is that you OUR EDITH: Papas tell girls, "Don't get in the car with him." want to follow proper etiquette. You want to be gracious. Sometimes girls want to get in the car. Other times, they You want to be a pleasure. If at all possible, you want to do don't. Either way, often, they get in. what your host asks of you. Our Jackson enters holding a steering wheel. OUR JACKSON: Get in the car, please. OUR JACKSON: Want to ride in my convertible Oldsmobile OUR EDITH: When one visits a famous person, one is Coupe? especially courteous. Whether or not one actually fawns, one certainly acts aware of the other person. Of their needs OUR EDITH: Mama told me not to ride with strangers. and mood. It's hard to feel more significant than the father of OUR JACKSON: Jackson Pollock. abstract expressionism. It's hard enough for a woman to feel more significant than a man. Imagine an unknown woman, OUR EDITH: Edith Metzger. known man. Abstract expressionism. OUR JACKSON: Now we're not strangers. Hop in. OUR JACKSON: (To his unseen lover) Get her in the car. OUR EDITH: That's not what happened. You had no need to OUR EDITH: You wanted her in the car, so you needed me in charm me. And you didn't. I was your lover's friend. Here at the car, because she wasn't going to get in the car without her invitation. me. You needed me to get in the car, so she would get in the OUR JACKSON: Visiting. Everyone's always visiting. car, so you could go home. 28 COA OUR JACKSON: Both of you. In. OUR JACKSON: We could've just as easily stopped there, instead of here. OUR EDITH: (To her friend) Couldn't we take a taxi? Or walk. It can't be that far. Maybe someone else could give us a ride? OUR EDITH: Not just as easily, otherwise you would have. Can't we just let him go, meet him there? You go. I'll - OUR JACKSON: A car is a wondrous thing. To go fast, to pick OUR JACKSON: Come on. up one's lover and her friend at the train station, to go to the OUR EDITH: Someone's going to get hurt! That's what my store. To do nothing, but feel the power of shaft turning shaft. Mama would say. She would say this is a situation that you That Oldsmobile was heavy. I had to push hard on the pedal can tell is going to end badly. to go. Heavy, but fast, rubber wheels skimming asphalt, top down, weight and sky. OUR JACKSON: That kind of situation, I had plenty of OUR EDITH: We only see a small piece of life at any given experience with. I never died before. time. A refraction of the whole. OUR EDITH: Were we all just hoping and praying? I must have OUR JACKSON: (Driving) I can feel it. been. OUR EDITH: Yet we have no choice but to act anyway. OUR JACKSON: Only so much is known or even knowable. People try to figure. The ones who knew me or thought they OUR JACKSON: People do things. That's what we do. Not did. Those that only knew what they heard/thought. They can always with the intent of doing them to someone else, or only imagine what happened. What I did or didn't do. even ourselves. I had hands and feet and brains that painted and a mouth that drank. OUR EDITH: That's the thing. I did imagine. I saw you behind the wheel. However I or you or she got me to walk to the car, OUR EDITH: It's odd to me, that all of your brothers were I was already imagining. As a child, I bit Herman Goering. painters. OUR JACKSON: I didn't know that. OUR JACKSON: Yeah. Our EDITH: You didn't know me. OUR EDITH: You're the only Pollock most people know. OUR JACKSON: You were a stranger. OUR JACKSON: I guess. OUR EDITH: Ah, ah! OUR EDITH: I'm footnoted in scholarly papers concerning your death. OUR JACKSON: You were her friend. Here to see her. Here to get out of the City. Nothing to do with me. OUR JACKSON: (Pointing at unseen lover) She lived to tell. OUR EDITH: I escaped Nazi Germany. OUR EDITH: Your lover, my friend. OUR JACKSON: I escaped Manhattan. OUR JACKSON: Her memory ego-stained. Her ego memory- stained. Nothing is pure. She only knew what she knew and OUR EDITH: You broke the ice. Or so de Kooning said. after the fact. She only remembered what she remembered, OUR JACKSON: I painted. And then I started selling paintings. I when she remembered it. And that memory and that ego suppose, if you read some biography, there would be quotes likely mutated over the years. Memory used to mutate for of what I said before Bill said that. What I said after. Selling me. And ego. The truth is very hard to know and impossible felt better than not selling. Nothing felt better than painting. to hold on to. But nothing felt particularly good. So I drank. OUR EDITH: What she said. What the authorities figured OUR EDITH: I managed a beauty salon. Women loved our out. Means nothing to me. Memory is not my concern. My shampoos. I knew how to make every one of them feel concern is loss. special. OUR JACKSON: Death takes away more than life. It leaves OUR JACKSON: You don't say. people to make art of my destruction - OUR EDITH: In the evenings, I read philosophy and all kinds OUR EDITH: Our. of stories. I went to the ballet. Who knows what I might have OUR JACKSON: Like that photographer. Jesum crow!! Still life. done. Who I might have given birth to. Loved. Two cans of Rheingold beer, a hubcap, my right loafer. OUR JACKSON: You might have gone on to break some ice Posed, rampantly obvious. The beer, the crash, the shoe. yourself. Front page of the Star. OUR EDITH: I didn't live to break the ice. You did. OUR EDITH: Jackson Pollock, who in 1947 Williem de Kooning said broke the ice, died when his car crashed in East OUR JACKSON: Don't you want to go home? Hampton. OUR EDITH: All the way back to my cold water flat or even OUR JACKSON: Possible suicide. They said. They didn't know. my Mama and Papa's. Or Germany. When it's that late and They still don't. life has already distressed you, sleep becomes the object. You were going to drive me to your home where I could pull OUR EDITH: August 11, 1956. the covers up tight. I knew I'd walk to the train station in the OUR JACKSON: I cooked steak. Argued. Drank. Drove. Crashed. morning. OUR EDITH: The father of abstract expressionism. OUR JACKSON: We were almost there. So close. OUR JACKSON: It wasn't my first steak, argument, drink, drive, OUR EDITH: Were we? crash. COA 29 OUR EDITH: Also in the car with him were his young lover and OUR JACKSON: We hit. What? his young stranger. OUR EDITH: An embankment. Then we turned. OUR JACKSON: Maybe that should be the rule. Don't let strangers get in your car. OUR JACKSON: Back again, across the asphalt. Then underbrush, under, sky over, still in the car, still in the car, OUR EDITH: That doesn't help me now. we're all still in the car. There was no top. OUR JACKSON: Get in the car - OUR EDITH: No top. OUR EDITH: the famous painter said. Or something to that effect. And though frightened, I got in. My legs carried me, OUR JACKSON: Four white oaks. I knew those trees. We hit. my fingers and arms and friend helped. He was forty-four. OUR EDITH: Flipping end over end. I was twenty-six. He fathered abstract expressionism. I managed a beauty salon. He escaped Manhattan, I escaped OUR JACKSON: I sailed out. Nazi Germany. He broke the ice. I bit Hermann Goering. OUR EDITH: Yes. OUR JACKSON: These physicists measured some of my drip OUR JACKSON: My lover too. paintings, at different scales. The whole painting, and then a section, and then a dot. And, they proved, using arithmetic, OUR EDITH: I did not sail. that each painting was identical, at each of these scales. They said it had to do with the force of movement against OUR JACKSON: I hit a tree. A fifth oak tree. the gravity against the paint. It's called fractal dimensionality. OUR EDITH: I ended up in the trunk. Nature's fingerprint. Which is exactly the way I experienced it. OUR JACKSON: How the trunk? OUR EDITH: It was supposed to be a parade and I liked OUR EDITH: You think I know? parades. But instead there was this man with all these jewels OUR JACKSON: Well, what? I'm trying to imagine. stuck on him - medals I suppose. Papa said he was Goering. He walked by, waving, looking the crowd up and down. First OUR EDITH: Being a polite, well-raised young lady, I'm trying my Papa, then my Mama, then me. He reached to pick me to help you. up. He was going to kiss me. You know politicians. He was OUR JACKSON: Thanks. Appreciate it. ugly. I didn't want him to kiss me. So I bit him. OUR JACKSON: Are you in? OUR EDITH: The car the hood must have opened. I must have fell maybe I started to fly too, but the car caught OUR EDITH: (Gets in the car behind the unseen lover/friend) me Yes. I still don't know why. OUR JACKSON: (Relieved) I'm finally driving. OUR JACKSON: You were in the back seat. OUR EDITH: So fast. OUR EDITH: Let's think if the hood opened, you'd think that would have blocked me. OUR JACKSON: Everyone knows this curve. OUR EDITH: Do they? OUR JACKSON: Pushed you back in the seat. But the car, you said, flipped. OUR JACKSON: Fireplace Road. It's a dangerous curve. OUR EDITH: So if I fell out of the back seat while the car was OUR EDITH: Didn't you see it coming? I did. turning. I must have fallen back into the trunk and then got OUR JACKSON: I'm holding the steering wheel, stepping on the smashed in when it landed. No one could see me. (Pointing) accelerator, racing the curve. You were there and she was there. But I was in the dark, OUR EDITH: I'm no backseat driver. You control the car. No hidden. one else. OUR JACKSON: You shouldn't have gotten in. OUR JACKSON: I hit the curve. It'll have to fly. Flying implies no collision. Until I hear the screaming and know. We will OUR EDITH: Escape sometimes ends in no escape. collide. OUR JACKSON: You're telling me. OUR EDITH: We will. OUR EDITH: Mama always said a car is freedom. OUR JACKSON: Did I brake? OUR JACKSON: Did she? OUR EDITH: I don't know. OUR JACKSON: Get in the car. OUR JACKSON: If the car is in the air and you hit the brakes. What happens? OUR EDITH: Get in the car. OUR EDITH: The wheels stop turning. I guess. CURTAIN Among other works in progress, Andrea Lepcio's Looking for the Pony is upcoming at Venus Theatre in Maryland in October. With composer Brooke Fox and lyricist Cheryl L. Davis, she is the librettist on The Ballad of Rom and Julz, to be performed at Bard College's Spiegeltent in July. © Andrea Lepcio, 2003 30 COA POETRY I dismiss them FEVERISH DREAMS And go to the alchemists; Tinkering at their mercury pools by Jake Wartell '12 And bituminous beakers, Provoking omens and elements. As they pump bellows At the blue flame They remind me I am a miraculous amalgam: Aquatic, aerial, and terrestrial, Physical, emotional, and celestial. I am blessed as blood Thrust into alveoli And I go to the shaman, Sitting alone at his low table, Smoking pipes and slowly Tracing symbols on an old plate. Many silent minutes pass Before he looks me in the face. His house is so crowded with puppets And jars of medicines he makes, I stagger into them. He says, 'You are more important Than anything here you could break.' And at that utterance I break I have spent too many nights now stumbling Like a thunder head collapsing Through strange geometry of feverish dreams, Into a torrential downpour Tense and weary. Forcing open all the hatches. I have ached in my skin The bars of this cage are rattling! And been driven from bed The hull components of this cock-pit By every lump and grain of grit on the mattress. Are cracking apart! I have swollen like the sun about to die, The pipes are dancing under the pressure My lymph nodes; gas giants And breaking the bolts! In unstable orbit. The over-flow repositories I have prayed "surrender" to the heavens, Are filling to brim bursting! Please let me sleep. An ocean of vast proportion Flows through me. Haggard and aloof in the early hours It saturates every cell I walk And surrounds me. Bleary-eyed to the kitchen, Run my trembling fingers along upper shelves I swim to the surface and wake Trying, in my delirium, to find health Startled Between the cereal and the fruit. To find morning I feast And this body both On hot peppers and garlic Sprawled out naked on the twisted sheet. To scrape the daemons from my insides. Light, peaceful, and new. 2/25/10 And when I return to my messy bed I stumble Through strange geometry of feverish dreams This poem was created during an independent To the allopaths study in written and spoken poetry that Jake Pushing pills into piles like poker players. Their laughter is large lumbering, Wartell took with Bill Carpenter in the winter of Slow thundering 2010. Before coming to COA, Jake lived most Dark and stormy. of his life in Portland, Maine where he spent They are fumbling several years exploring performance poetry with For antidotes to antidotes Port Veritas. In March he released his first spo- To their disingenuous prescriptions. ken word CD, Great Hungry Busker. COA 31 CONNECTIONS COLLABORATIONS EDUCATION THROUGH GUIDED INDEPENDENCE Human ecology, COA's driving force, sets the stage for a very special kind of education. Because human ecology asks students to view issues from multiple perspectives, an interdisciplinary approach to learning is a must. And because each student must find his or her own path to this degree, students take a very active approach to their studies - choosing what classes will constitute their vision of human ecology, finding an internship, constructing a senior project - all above and beyond the hands-on, learning-by-doing focus of nearly every class. This active approach is also part of COA's democracy, which considers the opinions of all community members as co-learners in classrooms and co-thinkers on committees. Crucial to this process is the support system behind COA's self-directed learning: COA faculty and staff who give hours of individual time to students, whether informally through lunch conferences, or more concretely in independent studies, tutorials, and senior project advising. What's most significant about this presence is its subtlety. COA faculty members are wise catalysts. They know when to challenge and to push, and they know when to step aside and watch as students take off in their own remarkable directions. We've chosen eleven alumni and current students to demonstrate the powerful connections that have solid- ly placed students in the world over nearly forty years. These represent scores of others whose confidence, careers and very lives have been shaped and launched by COA's particular educational model. Craig Kesselheim '76 offers a detailed list of how COA helped him in his career — mostly focused on the expectation that he figure things out on his own, guided by what he called "some very smart people" who very much wanted him to succeed. Off the Ends, intaglio collograph print by Jenny Rock '93. For Paul Boothby '88, the epiphany came later; when he found that human ecology itself was calling to him - taking him into his future as a minister. That dedicated scientist Jenny Rock '93 could also take classes in the humanities and arts has guided her current research on how value-, or aesthetic-laden the scientific apprehension of the world can be. Through a series of fortuitous events, the senior project of puppeteer Beth Nixon '99 led to a massive commissioned performance with Terry Tempest Williams, Barry Lopez, and others. Rep. Elsie Flemings '06 made a mark on Maine's legislative system even before she became elected - thanks, in part, to faculty guidance. For scientists Yaniv Brandvain '04, Nina Therkildsen '05, Santiago Salinas '05 and Kipp Quinby '06, a synchronicity of friendship, discussion, and studies intensified interests as they worked with faculty and local scientists. Finally, when Dan Mahler '10 connected with Alicia Hynes '11, it was COA's spirited students who made the difference, collaborating on three years of amazing theatrical performances. Donna Gold 32 COA Photo courtesy of Craig Kesselheim '76. SELF-DIRECTION Craig Kesselheim '76 By Donna Gold Craig Kesselheim spends many of his days traveling He would write a story a day for the next week. "And around Maine, visiting selected schools to help them I did," he recalls. "It was huge." help themselves. He's a senior associate with the Great Schools Partnership and he thinks of himself There are commonalities in these disparate experi- as something of a coach, developing an educational ences. They were all hands-on, active, and required rationale for each institution. Among the schools he direction from Kesselheim himself. visits is Deer Isle Stonington High School, where Todd West '00, is principle. Says West, "He basically serves Kesselheim's senior project was similarly self-directed. as someone who asks hard questions." A high school gymnast, he decided to work on physi- cal education with mentally disabled children on the Part of Kesselheim's sense of shaping schools stems island at a time when there were few special educa- from being one of COA's founding students; in 1972 tion services. From around the island, a teacher would he was one of just a handful of 18-year-olds brave bring students to the Bar Harbor YMCA to catch rub- enough to come to a college with four teachers and ber balls, jump on the trampoline, or walk a four-inch- provisional accreditation. Most of his classmates were high balance beam. Kesselheim still remembers the older transfer students. bursts of happiness the children experienced from the physicality of play. "Catching a ball while bouncing Kesselheim precisely delineates his life-shaping ex- on the trampoline was a real joy for them." periences at COA: An internship with The Nature Conservancy on Deer Isle, "provided me with many Continues Kesselheim, "The fact that the whole thing fundamentals of field research and conservation." An was mine to figure out, from how to pace myself, to ornithology class with early visitor Willy Russell began how to motivate myself, to what kind of format to keep a lifelong passion in birding; today Kesselheim's jour- my records in," gave him a lifetime of independent neys around Maine are spiced by forays into swamps research skills. "I was head and shoulders better pre- and meadows in search of rarities. His student leader- pared for my master's in teaching studies at Bridgewa- ship position with the fledgling OOPs program started ter State College than any student I met there." by classmate John March '76 helped him to get sum- mer work with Outward Bound, which in turn helped Equally as important, these experiences - especially him get into environmental and outdoor education the summer he spent in Alaska working with Bill Drury work at the Chewonki Foundation. - gave him a lifetime of stories which Kesselheim has Finally, his work as an advocate for a whaling mora- used to bring science to life in a career that included torium with the International Whaling Commission in serving as a middle school science teacher, a K-12 the Humans and the Great Whales group study with curriculum coordinator, a K-8 principal, a director of former president and founding faculty member Steve education at a Wyoming science school, a science fa- Katona and early administrator Sam Eliot launched cilitator with the Maine Mathematics and Science Al- him on a letter-writing campaign his first year of the liance, an assistant professor of biology and science college. Says Kesselheim, "it made me a better writer education at University of Central Arkansas, and final- for life. Credit to Steve Katona for this." ly his current work helping schools shape themselves. At one point during that class, about six students ar- "Imagine" says Kesselheim, "being a junior high sci- ranged a group study in short story writing with Eliot. ence teacher and being able to take a concept out of a Having run into some difficulties, Kesselheim shared text, and tell a story you've lived. Middle school kids them with Eliot, who promptly turned the question love to learn through stories - you can get a lot of back at him. "What are you going to do about it?" conceptual information into a story and they retain Kesselheim's answer came almost without thought. that much better." COA 33 TAKING HUMAN ECOLOGY TO A HIGHER LEVEL Paul Boothby '88 By Amanda Witherell '00 Paul Boothby feels a deeply intimate con- nection with human ecology through his work as a Unitarian Universalist minister in Lynchburg, Virginia. "Human ecology is all about relationship. Spirituality is also all about relationship," he says. "It's also about our inner life and the development of character, but it's also about being part of a community. That's how I see my work as inherently ecological." Boothby was born in Maine and raised in the Unitarian faith, but COA became a new source for his spirituality by exposing him to different ideas in a physically beautiful and inspiring environment, giving him an important tool he still uses today. "I think the one practice that's held sway through a lot of my ministry is this process of contex- tualizing, of taking a particular issue and Photos courtesy of Paul Boothby '88. looking at it in a much broader context, be it historical, demographic, ecological, cross cultural. This became a habit at COA for me. The process was always about looking deeper, at Darwin and his ventures, at shellfish during low tide. What's the larger context? What's the unwritten story?" he says. "We're taking human ecology to a higher level." Boothby originally intended to become a teacher and studied in the education program with former faculty member Peter Corcoran, eventually serving as an environmental educator for the Chewonki Foundation. But something was missing. During a March 15, 2009 sermon to his congregation, he summed up his career change eloquently: "In my own journey I followed a path to environmental education, a venue that brought together the values I embrace, the gifts I bring, and the opportunity to effect positive change in the world. It was a blessed time in my life. And though it was a career with great heart, I had deeper urgings toward something even more meaningful, urgings that woke me at four in the morning on a camping trip with the idea of ministry. And here I am, twenty years later doing work that allows me the room to keep evolving, searching, being open to what life has to teach me." Boothby says the process of introspection that he began to hone at COA is an essential part of his preaching and should be considered a keystone of education everywhere. "If we understand ourselves we understand more about human nature and if we understand more about human nature then we become more efficient activists and environmentalists. It's important to have a great academic background, but you also need relational skills." In addition to working with his congregation on the routine struggles of life, he performs gay marriages, has helped established a green living ministry, and is working on race relations in the historically segregated community by organizing people of different ethnicities into study cir- cles to discuss their experiences in the context of race. "Helping people see their interdependence within their community and in the larger web of life is work that brings together my spiritual beliefs and the praxis of human ecology." 34 COA ADDICTED TO QUESTIONING Jenny Rock '93 By Amanda Witherell '00 Can a message in a bottle, tossed into the ocean, really end up anywhere? "No," insists Jenny Rock. The ocean is not limitless and unstructured, but rather an environment subject to local currents and microclimates. "Can larval fish spread everywhere? Not the case. Our belief in the connectivity of everything within the sea is one of the reasons we've overfished." The notion that everything within the ocean is mixed and interconnected is just one of many scientific assumptions Rock is trying to change. "One of the things I'm interested in is paradigm shifts in science," says Rock, who has a PhD in zoology but is also a printmaker (with a variety of COA arts and humanities credits), and has been working recently with anthropologists, artists, and geneticists on several animation film projects. "So many paradigms we have in science have their basis in the humanities; the same driving aesthetics shape both." She's working with other scientists and artists to try to highlight misconceptions about how we view nat- ural and social worlds, and soon she'll be reaching deeper into other disciplines in her new lectureship at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand, where she'll be in the Zoology Department's Center for Science Communication, leading classes and re- search that integrate disparate subjects to broaden our conceptualization of science. The Maine native says her "addiction to questioning and understanding paradigms," quite clearly was fos- tered by her COA education. She recalls classes with former biology faculty members Bill Drury and John Anderson, who holds the William H. Drury, Jr. Chair in Evolution, Ecology and Natural History. "One of the things I learned quite quickly from both of them is that the scientific ideas of succession and the lin- ear progression that we look for in nature are part of our aesthetic of structure and order in the world, when in fact variability, and chance, are much more realistic options." Continues Rock, "What really convinced me of the need to broaden our conceptualization of science was not the thought patterns of my scientific col- leagues. They are a bit more ready to accept that theories are changeable, and that intuition and cre- The Final Dive, intaglio collograph print by Jenny Rock '93. ativity are not necessarily separate from science." She found it was other professionals - artists, for instance - who were most uncomfortable with the com- monalities between artists and scientists. "Even though so many aspects of creativity involve components of experimentation common to science," she says, "it now seems there is more resistance from the humanities rather than the sciences to breaking down barriers. We have similar goals for our varied ways of telling stories. If we put them together it's probably closer to the truth." After COA, Rock was a Watson Fellow in New Zealand, Africa, Australia, and the United Kingdom, studying evolutionary paradigms relating to "living fossils" as primitive remnant organisms. She received her PhD in New Zealand and did post-doctoral work in Australia and Wales. All the while, she stayed in touch with COA professors - connections that remain fruitful to this day. "There are many, many COA faculty and alumni that remain a very important part of my working (and social!) life." She corresponds with Steve Katona, former COA president and founding faculty member, about the ocean health index he's working on and they've talked about doing a joint book. "In New Zealand, in January, while COA 35 I was being interviewed for my new job, I ended up quoting Bill Drury left, right, and center. A few weeks later in London I met up with John Anderson and schemed about a natural history program he's working on." Rock also hosted a COA intern, Nataliya Ilyashenko '08, at her University of Wales lab. "I'm writing letters of recommendation for her now, while my COA professors still do the same for me." The cycle continues. She's hoping for more opportunities to host COA interns at Otago and she's interested in developing some sort of graduate exchange as well as pursuing connections with fellow alumni to work on cross-disciplinary collabora- tions. "COA faculty, alums, students they've always been friends, colleagues, family; these connections are just as important now as they were twenty years ago - if not more so." ENDORSING A DREAM Beth Nixon '99 By Amanda Witherell '00 Beth Nixon believes there's no way she'd be leading puppet parades down the main streets of small towns and major cities, staging suitcase puppet shows, and teaching people of all ages how to tell their stories while turning trash into Photo by Donna Gold. puppets, if it weren't for an echoing connection to COA. It began with the internship requirement. "I panicked. What's my career field?" The Rhode Island native wasn't sure, but she'd already spent summers volunteering at Bread and Puppet's annual pageant in Vermont and stumbled upon an internship at Redmoon Theater in Chicago. "These weirdos are making a living doing this," she thought. "Maybe I could too?" She returned for her last year at COA with the idea of staging a puppet show for her senior project. Nixon viewed the project as a way to combine her writing, sculpture, and theater talents; Candice Stover, COA lecturer in literature, agreed to be her advisor, even though she had no puppetry experi- ence. Writer Terry Tempest Williams was the graduation speaker for the class of 1999. Having seen Nixon's show, The Possible Beast: A Rustic Puppet Epic, featuring a canoe beast and the carrot of hope, Williams commis- sioned Nixon to make a piece for the Orion Magazine annual writer's conference. Two weeks after graduation, Nixon, Stover, and fellow COA students and musicians Jessica Hayes '98, Nikolai Fox '00, and Erin Chalmers '00 traveled to Shepherdstown, West Virginia, to perform The Table of Restoration for more than three hundred writers. Williams played a gi- ant bird, Barry Lopez wore the rhinohog puppet, and Wendell Berry gave Nixon a pat on the back. She says the experience had "a real feeling of value in it, an en- dorsement that puppetry was a worthy thing to do with my life." A couple years later, while in Guatemala for a Spanish im- mersion program, Nixon re- ceived an email from writer Rick Bass, who remembered her from the Orion confer- ence and asked if she could help his community create "Forest Beast" from Nixon's 2002 Yaak and Troy Community Timeline Project. a giant puppet timeline of Photo by Randy Beacham. 36 COA Yaak Valley and Troy, Montana. It featured giant pa- per maché meteors and puppets of trains, cowboys, and Native Americans. Nixon involved almost all of the thousand townspeople. It was the first of many artist-in-residence experiences. "I definitely feel the connections I've made through school have rippled throughout my life," Nixon says. Her company, Ramshackle Enterprises, is hired by BRADYPUS THE GREENEN 3-TOED SLOTH TRIDACTYLUS educational organizations, community groups, and theaters all over the United States and Canada. She BRADYODICOLA HAHNELI also facilitates workshops for children and adults in mental health and substance abuse recovery pro- THE MOTH grams. Ten years after graduating, Nixon was invited to be Nixon '99 at COA's 2009 convocation. Photo by Donna Gold. the convocation speaker for COA's incoming class. Once on campus, she recognized some of the college's more everlasting qualities. "You forget when you leave COA that some of it was particular - my friends, my life, my experience - but a lot of it has to do with it being an institution with a set of values made up of people who are attracted to those values. I was amazed to go back and feel many of the feelings I had when I was a student. It was confirming to realize 'Oh wow, this still goes on.'" In 2009, Nixon earned an MFA in interdisciplinary art from Vermont's Goddard College and now lives in West Philadelphia with her partner, musician Joshua Marcus, and their one-year-old daughter Ida. She's currently working on shows for Chicago's Banners and Cranks Festival and the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival, where she'll perform with Pig Iron Theater. "I'm interested in continuing this inquiry into how I can communicate my ideas through cardboard puppets while also working with others to tell their stories, making theater that isn't reserved for people who can afford to pay fifty dollars for tickets to some fancy-pants thing." Beyond the friends she made at COA, she says, "probably the most important connection that still feeds my life and livelihood and artistic endeavors is just the fact that at the school I was met with such open-mindedness, encouragement, and spirit." THE SOLIDARITY OF LEARNING The scientific friendships of Yaniv Brandvain '04, Nina Therkildsen '05, Santiago Salinas '05 and Kipp Quinby '06 Written by Donnie Mullen ('97) This is a story about four College of the Atlantic alumni - Yaniv Brandvain, Nina Therkildsen, Santiago Salinas and Kipp Quinby - whose individual passion for science was enhanced by their shared connection. Discus- sions flowed in and out of class, additional resources were dug up, friendly arguments tossed around, and fresh perspectives grasped and pondered. These friends combined their class time and their residence life into one cohesive, even transformative experience, where learning was their collective focus. "What they all had in common was a desire to learn material," says Chris Petersen, COA faculty member in bi- ology, who worked closely with each student - "and the ability to raise the level of any class they were in." "Ah," says Quinby, but "COA encourages this synergy." And, she adds, there were many beyond the four of them, who were part of the connection. Therkildsen agrees, "Everyone was so driven," she says. Even the faculty, "Their enthusiasm was so obvious. They all seem to give 200% of themselves, trying to convey their passions and get students to share them" This was true for every teacher, notes Salinas, "It was never memorize this and memorize that, but understand this and understand that - COA taught me how to learn by myself. I feel like I can walk into a new situation and be okay." COA 37 YANIV BRANDVAIN '04 For Yaniv Brandvain, the connections went far beyond the college. His senior project, which helped shape his career in evolutionary genetics, consisted of work with Petersen, Jackson Laboratory's Kevin Flurkey and Har- vard University professor David Haig. In an animal behavior class with COA faculty member John Anderson, Brandvain became acquainted with Haig's work in applying the basic principles of animal behavior to help solve problems in seed development. Intrigued, Brandvain read all of Haig's publications, emailed him, and the two hatched an idea - how hybrid seeds respond to crossing - that Brandvain pursued. Brandvain received regular assistance from Anderson, Petersen and Suzanne Morse, COA faculty member in botany, hashed out ideas with Salinas and other classmates, and sent periodic emails to Haig. In 2005, within a year of graduation, Brandvain's work was published in a paper in American Naturalist. These experiences left Brandvain with a deep belief in the value of collaboration. "The close interaction with multiple people definitely was something that I picked up at COA," he says. SANTIAGO SALINAS '05 One of Brandvain's major points of contact was Santiago Salinas, who like Brandvain, was fascinated with evolu- tionary ecology. The discussions were fervent and constant, whether in or out of class, ranging through theory, levels of selection, and scientific philosophy. "We were mates," says Brandvain. "We shared ideas about the major problems in evolutionary biology." Drawing upon their enthusiasm, Pe- tersen created an advanced tutorial in evolutionary ecology, which both par- ticipated in. Come summer, Salinas did field research on the reproduction Santiago Salinas '05 samples larvae on the Hudson River in hopes of estimating of the estuarine fish mummichog with the impact of power plants on fish populations. Photo courtesy of Santiago Salinas '05. Petersen, Brandvain and Therkildsen. While Petersen was the principal investigator, the discussions involved the entire group. Ultimately, it was Salinas and Brandvain who published and presented the findings. One of the least advertised attributes of COA is the learning that occurs between students, says Salinas. "Having so many very smart people around was an education in itself." NINA THERKILDSEN '05 As a child, Nina Therkildsen dreamed of becoming a marine biologist. At COA, this fascination with the ocean led her to examine the interface be- tween science and policy. She soon zeroed in on fisheries, where she thrived on the challenges inherent in the interaction among management, law, so- cioeconomics, and science. Not only did Therkildsen find the zeal of COA faculty inspiring, she loved the drive and enthusiasm of her classmates. "It was really useful to have people who shared the same passions and interests to build our common self-confidence by interacting and supporting each other," she says. Nina Therkildsen '05 on a fishing trip in For a statistics class, she and Quinby teamed up to evaluate the data col- Greenland to sample cod. Photo courtesy of Nina Therkildsen '05. lection strategy of Bar Harbor's clam flats monitoring program. Therkildsen found that her theoretical know-how was nicely complimented by Quinby's 38 COA background growing up in a Maine fishing family. When they were done, Petersen arranged for them to present their findings to the town's marine resource committee. "The project we were able to deliver was much better than either of us could have done alone," says Therkildsen. For Quinby, it underscored her appreciation of the college's learning process. "COA has a lovely balance between practice and theory. A lot of programs do great hands-on, and a lot of schools do great book learning. COA manages to put those two together in a pretty powerful kind of way." KIPP QUINBY '06 Kipp Quinby grew up on a Maine island where fisheries regulations often felt imposed. She came to COA to study marine science and earn a teaching certificate, believing that the educational experience would provide her with a fresh perspective that could benefit her community. Quinby found the support at COA analogous to her island home; everyone wanted her to succeed. Falling in with Therkildsen, Salinas and Brandvain meant a lot. "I was two years behind Yaniv," she says, "a year behind the others, and still I got to ride in on their coat tails as an academic runt." On a tropical ecology class journey to Tobago with Therkildsen as teaching assistant, Quinby and Salinas teamed up to look at compet- itive interactions between two reef species. Quinby was impressed by Salinas' knack for understanding evolution's influence on species and by Therkildsen's approach to answering scientific questions. "I Photo of Kipp Quinby (in the green reached that deeper level of understanding much more quickly by sweater) with sister Dale Quinby '12. working with them," she says. Photo courtesy of Kipp Quinby '06. THE YEARS AHEAD Since COA the four classmates have continued to excel: Brandvain, now a PhD, has published multiple papers, including articles in Evolution and Science. This fall, he heads to the University of California, Davis for a postdoctoral fellowship studying why the sexes of different species recombine at different rates. Therkildsen returned home for her doctorate at the Technical University of Denmark Aqua where she is studying how commercial fishing has genetically affected Atlantic cod over the past century. Salinas is a doctoral student at Stony Brook University in New York where he recently published a paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on how temperature is a primary factor in the lifespan of species. Following a stint at the Shoals Marine Laboratory, Quinby has come home to Maine and is working at the Penobscot East Resource Center in Stonington writing science curricula for its fishermen leadership training programs. COA 39 COMMUNITY DRIVEN Elsie Flemings '07 By Donnie Mullen ('97) After a year at Columbia University in New York City, Elsie Flemings decided to leave school and move to Maine. As a stu- dent at New Hampshire's Exeter Academy, she had grown to love Maine's small rural communities. In Maine, she landed at Merryfield Farm in Cornish, connecting her to the land and the local economy, reinforcing her attachment to the state. Then she learned about College of the Atlantic. "I really loved the mission geared toward preparing students to serve their communities and help solve problems we face, whether at the local, national or global level." COA's courses and comprehensive learning approach intrigued her; Beech Hill Farm and the oceanside location were icing on the cake. Deciding to return to college meant attending COA. Flemings matriculated in 2004. Once there, her enthusiasm only grew. "The faculty were outstanding mentors and guides who worked Elsie Flemings '07 works on a mortise in the one-on-one with me and helped me to develop my course of post and beam class she organized. Photo by Donna Gold. study in the direction I wanted." That direction was established early. During Flemings' first winter, she organized a group study in timber frame construction. She fundraised, received donated materials and helped to build a small structure that now stands at the farm. She enjoyed learning the craft, and found that coordinating the group was particularly satisfying. Soon Flemings immersed herself in public policy. In 2005, she became the student moderator for the All College Meeting, served on several committees and organized for the successful Maine Won't Discriminate campaign. She then worked with COA's branch of the national SustainUS organization to become one of a few youth delegates to the United Nation's climate change negotiations in Montreal. Later, attending the Four- teenth UN Commission on Sustainable Development in New York, Flemings was invited to join the United States delegation as its first youth member since 2001. In 2006, she took an independent study with her advisor, Ken Cline, COA fac- ulty member in environmental law and public policy and the David Rockefeller Family Chair in Ecosystem Management and Protection. The result of this three- credit class was Maine's first-in-the- nation Informed Growth Act, requiring corporations to submit a local economic impact assessment before building a large-scale retail store. "In typical Elsie fashion, any one component of her proj- ect could have been a full independent study," Cline said. "There was a set of skills she wanted to learn and that's what drove her." With Cline's guidance, Flemings re- Elsie Flemings '07 is sworn in as District 35 representative. searched similar proposals, organized a Photo courtesy of Else Flemings '07. 40 COA working group that included professionals from the Maine Fair Trade Campaign, the Sierra Club, the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, and local business groups - and wrote an initial draft of the legislation. Flemings made a point to include commonly disparate groups, such as labor and environmental organizations. Cline said it was clear early on that Flemings was a talented political organizer. "It's in my bones," noted Flemings. "When I see people struggling or see things like climate change or economic disparities, I feel com- pelled to engage and try to find solutions." From Maine, she went on to work on the campaign of a congressman in eastern Ohio, a region depressed by a loss of manufacturing jobs. Having rallied populations as diverse as steel workers and social justice advocates around the theme of economic justice, she reflected on the role of economic issues in electoral campaigns for her senior project. When the congressman was elected, Flemings went to Washington to work as a legislative aide in his office. Yet she always knew she would return to Maine. In 2008, Flemings was elected to represent Bar Harbor and surrounding communities in the Maine House of Representatives, having been encouraged to run by Maine's First Congressional District representative Chellie Pingree '79 when the two met at Flemings' graduation; Pingree was the keynote speaker. As an indication of Flemings' ability to assemble varied perspectives, her campaign garnered the support of Leslie Brewer, COA founding trustee, Bar Harbor businessman, and lifelong Republican. For decades, COA's founding president, Ed Kaelber, had unsuccessfully tried to persuade Brewer to vote Democratic; but Flemings' hard working, issues-based approach so impelled Brewer that he stood with her outside the polls to introduce her to voters. Flemings' first session as a legislator was trial by fire. Reduced revenue forced the legislature to cut over $800 million from the state's budget. Yet Flemings is proud of how the legislature worked to mitigate the effects. "Across party lines, legislators work tirelessly to support our communities and our state. We delve into impor- tant issues and work to find the best solutions for Maine - often in a bipartisan fashion," she said. "It's a great process, and a great opportunity to be of service." NO LIMITS Alicia Hynes 'I and Dan Mahler '10 By Donna Gold The images are unforgettable: Fates writh- ing around a cauldron; a son's severed head in a mother's grasp; a young man donning his first evening gown. The Bacchae, The Tempest, Macbeth. Classics, and one original play, brought to immediacy on the COA stage. Passion, energy, drama - student-conceived and student-run. And no professional actors, not even theater majors. Just Dan Mahl- er, Alicia Hynes, and a cast of classmates with a tremendous amount of trust, re- spect and dedication. Mahler transferred to COA in the fall of 2007. By that spring, Euripedes' The Dan Mahler '10 and Alicia Hynes '11. Photo by Devin Altobello '13. Bacchae was on stage in Gates Com- munity Center with Hynes as stage manager. The multimedia production involving music, dance and acting amazed the campus. As co-directors the next year, Mahler and Hynes created The Tempest - Bollywood style. More music, more dance, and such joyous spirit that COA President David Hales requested - and COA 41 was granted - an encore performance. Last March, the duo staged Macbeth, proving that their strength wasn't just in the production values of great music and movement; the dramatic tension in William Shakespeare's tragedy brought shivers to the audience. What is amazing about these performances isn't just the ex- traordinary vision. Creativity is one thing, but when your palette is a dozen or more students - many with no acting experience and all with a great deal on their plates - com- pletion is another matter. How do they do it? Well, there's the sweat factor: daily re- hearsals for most of the term; weekends, too. But ask Mahler and Hynes about the process and you'll hear them speaking of the play's characters as if they were true acquaintances with whom they had daily conversations - and whose life blood resides in language. Each line of Shakespeare's is a Members of the community surround Stefania real statement by a real person, and it is those words that re- Marchese '11 as Agave in a production of The veal the man or woman. "This isn't the Macbeth, but yours Bacchae performed outdoors at The Shrine on campus. Photo by Noah Hodgetts '10. and our experience, and our interpretation" of the character, says Mahler. And so the directors ask the actors to ponder their characters individually and in conversation, creating a back story to understand the motivation in their role. "No one thinks of themselves as an evil person," notes Mahler. "We want everyone to genuinely like their character." Even Macbeth? Even Lady Macbeth? Yes, insists Hynes, "To the characters, what they're doing is justified, even if it's twisted logic. They've had lives before Adds Mahler, "We don't want them to be just murderers." Even the servants have personalities. "We want to make sure everyone feels the full richness of their character." And so, guided by Mahler and Hynes (who know each other so well that their ideas braid together, each one completing the other's sentences), the actors put a lot of thought not only into their roles, but also into every other role. "When you're doing a scene, you're listening really well to others," says Hynes, "because your character has never heard those lines before," even if the actor has. "If your character isn't experiencing it, then the audience isn't." For The Tempest, Mahler and Hynes brought the cast to Acadia National Park for an afternoon of fooling around - in character. Find- ing an old house foundation overgrown by trees and shrubs, they ran through the script as if they were truly on Shakespeare's deserted island. "It was amazing," remembers Philip Kunhardt '11, who has played a major role in each of the performances. "It made all the difference." Modestly, the directors say that the process feels organic, from the first character games to the last weeks when the cast clearly becomes a unit. "It feels like we haven't done too much to create it," says Mahler. And then he turns to COA. The expansiveness of the COA curriculum means a lot, he says. Having one major, "encourages not limiting one's self." Many of their actors had never done theater, adds Hynes. These actors say that at another school they would never have tried. "It's part of the COA mentality to encourage people to take risks," continues Mahler, "they come to COA with such powerful attitudes to play and learn and grow." Mahler now heads to Emerson College's Theatre Education master's program, while Hynes remains on campus continuing her focus on art. But this spring, Mahler and Hynes teamed up for a spectacular finale - Mahler's senior project, Façades, a play with music, dance, comedy Dan Mahler '10 performing as Fantasia and drama that is written, directed, and acted by Mahler, with Hynes Fabulous in Façades. Photo by Donna Gold. as assistant director. 42 COA Alumni Notes 1974 situation from the perspective of Mexi- a June release in both theaters and local can workers, Vermont farmers, and big screening events. business." The play was augmented by actual quotes from farmers and Mexi- can workers of Addison County, Ver- 1986 mont. Jamien Jacobs teaches middle school science at the Friends School of Port- 1978 land, in Maine. Julie MacLeod Hayes recently married Jim Hayes and moved to a house on 1990 nine acres in Eddington. She is antici- Last September, the Natural Resource After many years of pating her first grandchild, due in Sep- Council of Maine celebrated its fiftieth full time parenting tember. Julie still teaches art to elemen- anniversary with a five-day canoe trip. and home school- tary students in Bangor, Maine. Not surprisingly, it was something of a ing, Emily (Gloger) COA reunion. Looking left to right, the Bracale has taken Rodd Pemble ('78) is working as a recy- second person is Cathy Johnson, the a sabbatical to re- cling manager in Bellingham, Washing- third person (squatting in front) is Gar- cover from chronic ton and enjoying watching his 15-year- rett Conover '78, Alexandra (Brown) Lyme disease, rest, old daughter master geometry and Conover '77 is next to him in front, and and paint. Her mountain biking. Patty (Dodd) Hagge '77 is in the red show, "In the Lyme-Light: Portraits of III- shirt, looking at Alexandra. ness and Healing" was exhibited at the 1983 Blum Gallery in March. Hana, 14, and John Henry, 6, are being well served by 1976 Last October and November, the Emer- the public schools of MDI. son Gallery in Berlin, Germany featured "After a four-year legal battle, the Salva- the work of Ellen Sylvarnes, "Everything Megan McOsker completed her mas- doran Ministry of Education has ruled I Found and Endured." Here's what the ter's degree at University of Maine and in our favor giving Romero University gallery had to say about it: "Mysteri- is now teaching seventh and eighth an independent university administra- ous bottles aligned on a shelf resemble grade science at Conners-Emerson tion," writes Barbara Dole Acosta ('76). misplaced test tubes or archaeological School in Bar Harbor, where she works "The corrupt officials have been ousted artifacts. An appar- with several COA alumni. at last. Now we can begin to launch ently monolithic some creative educational programs stone in miniature Evelyn Katarina Walters was joyfully that are consistent with the university's emanates with the welcomed into the world by mother original mission of education for social sounds of the Celt- Elena Tuhy-Walters and father Carl and environmental justice. Our thanks ic Sea. Here is an on December 28, 2009 at 2:17 a.m. to Rich Borden and Father Jim Gower exhibit offering a Evelyn was 7 lbs. 4 OZ. and 9.5 inches who have helped us keep our vision new world, at once long at birth. The parents were very clear as we struggled through a very disorienting as well grateful for the presence of a doula muddy and treacherous path, and to as inexplicably familiar. The American (birth attendant), which Elena learned Gray Cox for sharing his wisdom." artist studied Human Ecology, a field about years ago in an article in COA's at the dividing line between the hard- former alumni newsletter, The Pere- To bring issues of diversity into the er and so-called softer sciences, the grine. Evelyn accompanied her lawyer open, Alice Leeds wrote a play for her study of the interrelationship between mom to work for a few weeks before fifth and sixth graders to perform based on the Julia Alvarez novel Return to people, society, their surroundings and going into daycare, making her first their natural environment. This explains court appearance at eight weeks; she Sender. Leeds teaches middle school the virtually laboratory precision with slept through the entire proceeding. in rural Vermont. Though it is an area which she approaches the material of commonly considered as lacking in di- her work. Her installations and objects versity, recently many undocumented work like well-defined experiments, 1991 Mexican dairy farm workers, along with but they also offer as much for the eye their families, have come to live. The Two antique whale skeletons were as they do for the inquisitive mind." novel is about a Vermont family farm installed in the new Northwest Labo- and the Mexican workers who help ratory building at Harvard University keep it afloat, told through the eyes of 1985 by Whales and Nails, the company a Vermont farm boy and the daughter launched by Daniel DenDanto. The of a Mexican worker. Says Leeds, "Af- Peter Heller is producing Vanishing specimens, a killer whale and a bot- ter reading and discussing the book, my of the Bees, a documentary film about tlenose whale, were collected in the students went on to discover how US- honeybee colony collapse disorder. mid- to late-nineteenth century and Mexico relations, immigration policy, He calls the film timely, exciting, and taken off display at the Harvard Mu- NAFTA, and Vermont family farms play a call to action to save the honeybee seum of Comparative Anatomy in the into the big picture. We considered the and our food supply. The plans are for 1930s. They remained stored in the at- COA 43 tic until Daniel was asked to consider well as activities in science commu- one mile down the road to the old cab- revitalizing them. COA alumni Toby nication and art can be seen at www. in, so all their alumni friends now have Stephenson '98 and Courtney Vashro bangor.ac.uk/~bssc04. All visitors double the options for where to crash '99 assisted with the effort. welcome! when they come for a visit. This past March COA hit the radio CedarBough Saeji will be conducting world in force! Natalie Springuel and field work in Korea as part of her pur- 1994 husband Rich MacDonald (who offers suit of a PhD at the University of Cali- Restructuring Lives: Interviews with ornithology fornia Los Angeles. Russian Professionals was published sessions at the in 2009 by Patricia Ciraulo '94, MPhil Dorr Museum Lexie (Rothstein) Watson continues to '05. The book, available at Amazon. each spring) run her baked goods business, Little Red com, is a compilation of interviews with returned for Hen. Husband Pat Watson is a project Russian professionals from the oral his- the fourth time manager at Maine Coast Heritage Trust. tory project Patti conducted during her to their role They live on the Crooked Road in Bar Watson Fellowship from 1994 to 1995. of naturalists on board A Prairie Home Harbor with their two children. The interviews focus on the personal Companion at Sea. This year's cruise experience of these Russians during saw them traveling the western Carib- Eric (Weikart) Wolf has been selected their nation's historic changes in the bean working with other naturalists to receive an Oracle Award for Dis- early 1990s, and how people deal with from the COA community. From left to tinguished National Service to the sto- change and uncertainty. Each chapter right are: Kris Bennett ('95), Courtney rytelling community by the National begins with an essay by Patti. Vashro '99, Natalie, COA faculty mem- Storytelling Network. The award is in ber Helen Hess, Rich, and Susan Dren- recognition of his work as producer Heeth Grantham writes, "I am pleased nen (mother to Matt Drennen '86). and host of the Art of Storytelling with to report that I entirely avoided the Brother Wolf Show and will be present- cold Maine winter by working in ed this summer on the last evening of 1992 Egypt. I lived mostly in Cairo for four the National Storytelling Conference in months while producing episodes for Jeffrey Miller and Los Angeles. a new History Channel series. While Lotte Schlegel were the work was challenging, perhaps my married September most difficult task was shopping for, 6, 2009 in Dama- and preparing, a traditional New Eng- riscotta, Maine at land Christmas dinner. A note to other the old family home traveling chefs: some Egyptians are of Steve Thomas, very suspicious about brining a turkey. former COA admis- Endure their skepticism and dark looks, sions director. Other though, and everyone will be happy COA family and friends in attendance with the result." included the late Craig Greene's son Will Greene, a ring bearer, Bo Greene, Suzanne Morse, Ander Thebaud, for- As teammates in a pond hockey tour- 1995 mer student life staff member, and nament, left to right, Dan Farrenkopf, Noreen Hogan '92, photographer. Jeff Bob DeForrest '94, Marty Anderson Darrin Kelly has been running his sea '94, several island community mem- kayaking ecotourism company, Ardea writes, "The support and hard work of bers, and COA faculty member Steve EcoExpeditions for the past six years our amazing community of family and friends made our wedding more mean- Ressel on the far right, helped to raise and recently ingful than anything we could have funds for Camp Capella, a year-round started a mas- imagined." recreational and educational program ter's project for children and adults. Their team, The in the Parks, Quarrymen, won the first game but lost Recreation 1993 the next two. They intend to be back on and Tourism the ice next year. Program at the Jenny Rock has University of accepted a tenure- Heather Martin and Mike Zboray '95 Maine. More track lectureship at are attempting an experiment in Hu- importantly he University of Otago mane Separation. Dissolving their tech- and wife Me- New Zealand. Re- nical marriage, they continue to parent gan are pleased to announce the birth turning to the Zo- Eilon, 9, and Tobiah, 6, as a team, and of their son, Finnan Gahl Kelly in April ology Department remain each other's support and ally. in St. John, New Brunswick where they where she earned her PhD in 1999, Mike continues to enjoy being a princi- reside part time. Once Finn gets a pass- she is joining the faculty in the Centre pal at Connors Emerson School in Bar port they look forward to lots of time for Science Communication. Her forays Harbor. Heather has joined the devel- paddling in Frenchman Bay and explor- in marine and evolutionary biology as opment group at COA. She has moved ing their homestead in Gouldsboro. Class year in parentheses indicates a visitor or student who has not graduated. 44 COA Alumni Notes 1999 in special education and is teaching Alumni high school science. Sarah completed Nicole Cabana and Jay Gallagher are her PhD in ecology and is currently a Resources delighted to announce the birth of their postdoctoral researcher studying infec- daughter, Megan Elizabeth Gallagher, tious wildlife diseases. www.coa.edu/alumni born February 26, 2010. Nicole, Jay, and Megan are currently in Tampa, Florida where Nicole is flying research Alumni Association aircraft for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Update Your Info Search for Events In his role as a teacher at Ashwood Waldorf School, Jacob Eichenlaub just Find Local Alumni graduated the class that he taught from Get Involved first through eighth grade. On April 7, 2010 Zach Soares and Autumn (Darrell) Soares '01 wel- Volunteer The Living Must Bury, the latest book comed Plum Lilou into the world. She of poetry from Josie Sigler was issued joins older siblings Mason, 7, Piper, 5, Contact in April by Fence Books. It is the win- and Tryg, 2. Zach works at COA, runs Dianne Clendaniel ner of the 2010 Motherwell Prize, for a a recording studio at home, and runs 207-801-5624, first or second full-length collection of a live sound reenforcement business dclendaniel@coa.edu poems by a woman writing in English. specializing in PA systems for concerts The book can be accessed at www. and events. While home-schooling four upne.com/1-934200-36-0.html. kids, Autumn runs Autumn Slings and Things. She makes one-of-a-kind ad- Career Services 2000 justable baby slings, bags, aprons, and other fabric creations that are sold on- Career Information With husband Rob, Jaime Duval line, at craft fairs, and at SevenArts in Beranek bought a house and is living in Ellsworth, Maine. Searchable Database Marquette, Michigan, working for the Graduate School Info Marquette County Conservation Dis- trict as their native plants coordinator. 2001 Job Search Skills They've also added another dog, Doc, Marie Malin begins her new position as Relocation Guidance to their family, and are enjoying the director of recruitment and admissions splendor of Lake Superior. at the Bangor Theological Seminary this Contact June. She would love to talk with COA Jill Barlow-Kelley Shawn, Sarah '05, and alumni that have gone to, or might be 207-801-5633, son Noah Keeley wel- interested in, divinity school. jbk@coa.edu comed a new baby girl, Aliyah, to the world in Having recently married, Mindi Meltz October. Shawn con- Friedwald is busy building an off-grid tinues his work as di- homestead in the mountains of western 1997 rector of development North Carolina with her husband. She at the Green Mountain Club in Ver- recently published her novel Beauty, Ryder and Amy (Ferrero) Scott wel- mont and Sarah keeps busy with the the story of a poet's sensual and roman- comed their second daughter, Grace kids while pursuing her interests when tic awakening as she seeks the unattain- Anne Scott, on December 4, 2009. she can. After the Haiti earthquake, able heart of her lover while learning Sarah led a fundraiser and supply col- the stories of animals. Mindi is now lection project for a new birth and 1998 working on her next novel. health center, the Bumi Sehat Clinic, in Jacmel, Haiti. "We're looking forward Bob Collins, MPhil, brings a focus on to getting back to Acadia as soon as we 2003 natural boundaries among people as can!" says Sarah. well as the rhythm and specificity of Julia Davis is plan- place to architecture in his firm ARC, ning to get married Bryan Kiel and www.arc1087.com. Sarah Bevins '01 to Andy McLeod were married in this fall. They are Jasmine Tanguay and her husband Eric July 2009 with looking for land in welcomed their son, Xaven Odonata plenty of COA Maine's midcoast area to start a farm - Studer on October 28, 2009. Jasmine posse members on they can't wait to build a house, plant works as a project manager for Conser- hand. They live in Fort Collins, Colora- apple trees and settle down. They cur- vation Law Foundation Ventures. do. Bryan finished his master's degree rently live in Washington, Maine with COA 45 Gabbie, the dog, and Skunk, the kitten. 2008 Mt. Desert Rock plant communities in After trying out several careers over the the wake of Hurricane Bill last August. years, Julia now works as the steward- Sarah Haughn and ship coordinator and educator for the Wanyakha Timbiti Allied Whale co-hosted the Northeast Damariscotta Lake Watershed Associa- Moses are the awed Regional Stranding Conference in Bar tion. She would love to hear from other and thrilled parents Harbor May 6-9 with the Maine De- of Nora Rose Nab- alumni: juliagdavis@gmail.com. partment of Marine Resources, and the ushawo, born on April 3, 2010. Despite Marine Animal Rehabilitation Center at Elizabeth O'Leary was second author of arriving five weeks early, she greeted the University of New England. Sean "Phylogenetic Distribution and Identifi- the world in perfect health weighing 6 Todd, who directs Allied Whale, served cation of Fin-winged Fruits" published pounds 13 ounces. as scientific chair. Steve Katona, former in Botanical Review, 76:1, 1-82. COA president, presented a paper and 2009 Bill McLellan '88, North Carolina State While teaching Spanish at the Boys Lat- Stranding Coordinator, gave a whale in School of Maryland, Kristen Tubman Joanna Cosgrove is spearheading a necropsy workshop. The conference is also promoting social and environ- new community garden project in Bal- was organized by COA MPhil candi- mental awareness and positive change. timore, Maryland. date Jacqueline Bort. From the Mahindra United World Col- 2004 lege of India, Michael Griffith writes, Allison Rogers Furbish is enjoying life "I've been very well, enjoying the with husband Shawn and new baby busiest and most adventure-filled year Amelia, born February 28, 2010. of my life. I was recently given a new position. I'm going to head MUWCI's 2006 revamped co-curricular program, Trive- ni, in addition to teaching what will In February, John Anderson, the Wil- Jeanne Lambert has completed her now be a half-load of English. My job liam H. Drury, Jr. Chair in Evolution, MFA in design at the University of Tex- is supporting student self development, Ecology and Natural History, was for- as. Her thesis exhibition investigated and my title is almost too bombastic to mally initiated into the Linnean Society the capacity of book design to draw our repeat: Head of Experiential and Com- in London under the gaze of the por- attention to the often-overlooked magic munity Learning." traits of ("I hope approving") Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace. The in the mundane. She is moving to Santa Fe, New Mexico to work at the exhibi- Linnean Society is where both natural- 2010 tion design firm Andrew Merriell and ists' original papers on natural selection Associates. were first read. The book John signed On December 22, 2009, Kyra Sparrow-Pepin Chapin and Miles W. as an inductee would have been signed 2007 Sparrow-Pepin Chapin were married by both Darwin and Wallace. While at the Mountain Top Inn in Chittenden, in England John visited Selborne, the Vermont. It was an intimate fireside home of noted nineteenth century nat- Laura Briscoe and Matt Lavoie were wedding; the bride and groom were uralist Gilbert White for a book project, married June 21, surrounded by family and friends in- and examined letters and sermons by 2009, on Antelope cluding fellow COA students and alum- White at the Linnean Society. He had lunch with Amanda Muscat '06, who Island in the mid- ni Cora Sellers, Evelyn Sandusky, Noah Kleiner, Evan Griffith '11, Tasha Ball is completing her PhD at the University dle of the Great Salt Lake. They are now living in Chicago, '12, Aly Bell, Mikus Abolins-Abols, and of Southhampton examining illegal im- where Laura works at the Field Muse- Megan Williams '09. migration into her native Malta. He also had dinner with Jennifer Rock '93. um as a research/collections assistant in the botany department, and Matt works Faculty & Community Week Three of her first term at COA, at a preschool and afterschool program. Notes Molly Anderson, the Partridge Chair in Matt is enrolled in the Arcturus Waldorf Food and Sustainable Agriculture Sys- teacher training program, and Laura In addition to those reported else- tems, gave the keynote address at COA's has been admitted to the master's pro- where, Tom Adelman, grants manager, Earth Day celebration: "Is Sustainability gram in plant biology and conservation notes the following grants to COA: a for Sale? The Role of Consumption in at Northwestern University, where she grant from the Partridge Foundation for Sustainability." She also met in New will continue her study of liverworts $43,325 to cover capital improvements York with local grassroots food justice with fieldwork in Chile. at Beech Hill Farm; and two grants from activists, the Secretary General of Food- the Maine Space Grant Consortium: First International Action Network, and Anna Goldman recently moved to $6,000 for first-year scholarships and others from the United States and the Clanshaven Farm, her family's fifty-acre another for $5,000 for faculty mem- European Union for a discussion of plot in Kansasville, Wisconsin. She is bers Nishanta Rajakaruna '94 and John international cooperation to promote working to turn it into an organic farm. Anderson to study the repopulation of food sovereignty and food rights. 46 COA Faculty & Community Notes Nancy Andrews and Dru Colbert, both are Bill's "The Ecuadorian Sailors," and of the film Northrunner at Reel Pizza. faculty members in art and design, "Rain." For those curious about "Rain," In the photo are some of the students spent time in Vichy, France over spring Brian Brodeur features an interview and alumni who were in Copenhagen. break, preparing with Bill in his blog, "How a Poem (Standing, rear:) Nina Therkildsen '05, for an anticipated Happens:" http://howapoemhappens. Michael Keller '09, Cory Whitney '03, COA art and lan- blogspot.com/2010/03/william-car- Juan Hoffmaister '07, (Sitting, back:) guage program penter.html. Also, Bill's poem "Luke" Andrew Louw '11, Taj Schotland '10, there next spring. was published in Redactions: Poetry & Richard Van Kampen '12, Oliver Bruce Nancy enrolled in Poetics, Issue 12. Finally, over spring '10, Nina's friend Mads Ville Markus- an intensive French break Bill marked the steps of Fyodor sen, Noah Hodgetts '10, Matt Mclnnis language class at Dostoyevsky's Raskolnikov from garret '09; (Front:) Barry Fischer of SustainUS, Cavilam, where a slum to pawnbroker's apartment in St. Ken, Doreen, Sarah Nielson '09, Em- group of COA stu- Petersburg, Russia. All 730 of them. He ily Postman '12, Geena Berry '10 and dents are spending spring term (see reports that should you be interested Lindsay Britton '12. Gray Cox, below) while Dru looked in doing some participant-observation, into resources for teaching and art mak- an apartment in Raskolnikov's com- ing in Vichy. Nancy reports that "for plex will set you back about $200,000. teaching and learning in Vichy, the Presumably the holes - so perfect for chocolate éclairs and the wine were hiding stolen goods - have been re- quite adequate." paired. Thanks to a nomination by Earl Don Cass, faculty member in chemis- Brechlin, who teaches journalism at try, spent an evening at the Challenger COA and is otherwise known as the (as in space editor of the Mount Desert Islander, shuttle) MPhil candidate Jack Rodilico received Learning Dru Colbert, faculty member in art the Maine Library Association Award Center in and design, has been quite busy with for Journalism in 2009 for his article, Bangor, museum work. Her winter class, Curi- "Jesup Director to Walk Off," about Maine, talk- osity and Wonder, created a delight- the retirement of Jesup Library direc- ing chemis- fully humorous Liquistic Insecta tor Nancy Howland after twenty-nine try and do- and enlighten- years. ing demonstrations with some eighty ing exhibit, "It's children from grades 1-12 as part of a Bugs' World" More library news, this from our own the center's bi-monthly "Expanding at the George B. Thorndike Library. Trisha Cantwell Your Understanding" series. The in- Dorr Museum Keene, associate library director, fi- vitation came from Jennifer (Weston) of Natural His- nally admits that she has been the trea- Therrien '97, who took Chemistry for tory. She has surer of the Maine Library Association's Consumers from Don years ago and also been work- Scholarship and Loan Committee - for now works at the center. "I mostly tried ing with the Abbe Museum on the de- a full dozen years! to get them to think about how stuff is velopment of an exhibition on Indians different from other stuff - and why - and Rusticators as part of a three-part Bill Carpenter, faculty member in liter- and why anyone would care. Don't ask series of exhibitions entitled "Indians in ature and creative writing is now out on me why, but it was apparently record Eden." (In the photo, Anna Stunkel '13 CD! Or sort of. Composer Tom Cipullo attendance!" stands next to the exhibit she created.) has long been creating contemporary classical song settings of Bill's poems COA's inaugural holder of the David Gray Cox, faculty member in political and recently issued the album Land- Rockefeller Family Chair in Ecosys- economics, is teaching "Doing Human scape with Figures tem Management and Protection, Ken Ecology in Cross-cultural Contexts: on Albany Records. Cline, along with Doreen Stabinsky, France" as part of an immersion pro- In a review, The faculty member in International Stud- gram he is overseeing in Vichy, France, New York Times ies, and Global Environmental Politics this spring in collaboration with Cav- writes, "The most joined COA students for an intense ilam Univer- impressive piece time at the United Nations Framework sity www. was the last: Tom Convention on Climate Change in Co- caviliam.com. Cipullo's Land- penhagen last December. Ken later pre- Students take scape with Figures, sented on the events in Copenhagen at classes in setting a narrative the Schoodic Education and Research French at their poem by William Center and to COA faculty. Cline also level for eight Carpenter about a family afternoon, talked about conservation opportunities weeks, then with the roles of father and son half- in the Maine woods coming out of his spend two enacted in the vocal lines for baritone work with the Keeping Maine's Forests weeks in a ser- and boy soprano." Also on this album Forests, in conjunction with a showing vice-learning COA 47 project in the community. All students David Hales, COA president, served of the Guatemalan Scholars' Network, live with families and take part in vari- on a panel at RETECH 2010, Renew- the preeminent scholarly organization ous cultural activities. Also, thanks to able Energy Technology Conference nurturing research on Guatemala and the hard work of Gray, COA received in Washington, DC in February. In advocating on behalf of Guatemalan a grant from the Department of Energy's March, he gave a speech at the annu- human rights, and additionally served Experimental Program to Stimulate al awards dinner of the New England as an informal consultant for the Maya Competitive Research, or EPSCoR, for Board of Higher Education as he and Educational Foundation. $116,763 to cover three forms of sus- Ken Hill, academic dean and faculty tainability research in Hancock County. member in education and psychol- Nishanta Rajakaruna '94 is back in ogy, accepted the Robert J. McKenna Faculty & Community Notes again, Last December, Dave Feldman, faculty Award for Program Excellence. David since he's returning to COA in the fall! member in math and physics, gave a also chaired an accreditation visit of In December, Soil and Biota of Serpen- fractals workshop in Houlton, Maine Goddard College in Vermont for the tine: A World View. Proceedings of for a group of high school math and New England Association of Schools the Sixth International Conference on science teachers as part of the Southern and Colleges. In April, he spoke to the Serpentine Ecology, a 450-page collec- Aroostook Math and Science Partner- Bar Harbor Chamber of Commerce as tion edited by Rajakaruna and Robert S. ship. He was also an invited participant part of COA's offering of cfl bulbs and Boyd of Alabama's Auburn University, in a two-day workshop at the Santa Fe battery recycling to chamber members. was released. It includes presentations Institute, where he is co-director of the He also facilitated at the NEBHE Sus- from the June 2008 conference on ser- summer school, to brainstorm ideas for tainability Summit. David continues to pentine ecology held at COA. Among undergraduate curricula and textbooks be a Washington Post Planet Panelist. the papers is one co-written with in the interdisciplinary area of complex Keep up with his essays at http://views. Tanner Harris '07, now an MS candi- systems. washingtonpost.com/climate-change/ date at the University of Massachusetts panelists/david_hales/. Amherst, noting four species that are specific to serpentine soil in eastern AshokaU At a recent conference run by Lyrasis, North America. The book was pub- the nation's largest regional member- lished by the Humboldt Field Research ship organization serving libraries and Institute, Steuben, Maine. Rajakaruna's information professionals, Thorndike research on plant-soil relations was Library Director Jane Hultberg co- featured in the University of San Jose presented with a Lyrasis staff member. College of Science newsletter last fall. The talk, "Libraries in Facebook: Ap- Also last fall, his article, "Ornithocopro- plications, FBML and the College of philous Plants of Mount Desert Rock, a In February, Jay Friedlander, the the Atlantic Experience," was on cus- Remote Bird-Nesting Island in the Gulf Sharpe-McNally Chair in Green and tomizing Facebook pages and the use of Maine," was published in Rhodora, Socially Responsible Business, and of social media for libraries. You can Vol. 111, #948 by the New England Kate Macko, Sustainable Business Pro- see some of it at www.slideshare.net/ Botanical Club. This article was coau- gram administrator, accompanied sev- sspohnjr/facebook-libraries-and-fbml. thored by Nathaniel Pope '07, Jose en students to Washington, DC for the The Thorndike Library has been busy Perez-Orozco '09, and Tanner. Ashoka Changemaker Conference, a getting COA documents scanned and TEDx event (as in the nonprofit TED: fo- online at www.archive.org. When you In March, Stephen Ressel, faculty cused on ideas worth spreading). COA visit the site, search "College of the At- member in biology, presented a talk at was chosen by Ashoka as one of five lantic." Keep returning, as senior proj- Prescott College titled "A Race Against campuses to participate in this selective ects are currently going up. Time: The ecology and conservation of DC program, where they met with par- vernal pools in New England" as part of ticipants from other changemaker cam- During his time Prescott College's annual spring Envi- puses. In March, the Sustainable Busi- in the Yucatan ronmental Studies Speakers Series. He ness Program received a $73,501 grant this winter, Todd also spent a day in the field at Aqua Fria from the United States Department of Little-Siebold, fac- National Monument with the Natural Agriculture Rural Development pro- ulty member in History and Ecology of the Southwest gram to enhance the program and ex- history, was invited course taught by Prescott faculty mem- tend an even stronger hand to the local to talk to the fac- ber Tom Fleischner. Steve's invitation community than it has in the past, with ulty council of the Universidad Inter- was part of a new EcoLeague initiative free classes to some Hancock County cultural Maya de Quintana Roo. His to promote faculty exchanges among residents, funding of seminars and oth- presentation, "Alternative Education in member institutions. er outreach assistance for the Sustain- Mexico and the United States: Reflec- able Ventures Incubator. In the photo, tions on the Experience of College of Toby Stephenson '98, curator and di- from left to right, are: Jay and Kate, the Atlantic," resulted in a lively discus- rector of COA's Bar Harbor Whale Mu- in the back, and Kate Christian '10, sion on self-directed education and the seum in downtown Bar Harbor, spent Rachel Heasley '11, Nick Harris '12, ways in which the experience of COA much of the winter working feverishly Lisa Bjerke '13, Joslyn Richardson '12, might be relevant to this three-year-old, on the new Adaptations exhibit for Julia de Santis '12, and Noah Hodgets state-sponsored institution. Also, Todd the museum, which opens June 10. '10. was elected to the steering committee This exhibit is the result of an educa- 48 COA Faculty & Community Notes tion grant from the Wittlesey '05 and Margaret (Youngs) The Purloined Poe: Lacan, Derrida, Maine Community Coleman '96, farm manager. and Psychoanalytic Reading, edited by Foundation to the- John P. Muller and William J. Richard- matically link the Sean Todd, the Steven K. Katona Chair son, to investigate the relation between exhibits of three Bar in Marine Studies, presented a summa- psychoanalysis and literary criticism. Harbor museums - ry of collaboration between COA, the Karen's paper derives from student re- the Whale Museum, Maine Department of Marine Resourc- sponses, which were largely aesthetic, the George B. Dorr es and The Bar Harbor Whale Watch seeking to recover literary analysis from Museum of Natural Company to the Zoology Department at the psychoanalytic. She also chaired a History and the Abbe Museum - so the University of British Columbia. The seminar titled "Ur- teachers can bring students to local talk was called "Use of inshore Maine ban Places: The museums for a more comprehensive waters by baleen whales: implications Literary Ecology of educational experience. for conservation management." He also American Cities" served on the organizational committee at the Northeast Bonnie Tai, faculty member in educa- for the National Stranding Conference Modern Language tion, spent the last weekend in March in West Virginia in April, where he Association con- in Santa Fe, New Mexico for the sec- co-chaired and taught an instructional ference in Montre- ond annual meeting of the Education workshop titled "Research Design and al, Quebec. This Circle of Change, a group of thirty-three How to Answer Research Questions - project works on educators, activists, and youth organiz- Project Design and Statistics." Along theorizing the practice of literary ecol- ers from Atlanta, Georgia to Oakland, with Rosemary Seton, Allied Whale ogy in American literary studies, and California who are building a move- research assistant and marine mammal follows on a seminar Karen chaired at ment to transform education. stranding coordinator, and stranding the 2009 NEMLA conference. At the veterinarian Katherine Prunier, Sean same conference, Karen presented a Over spring break, Davis Taylor, fac- received advanced training in necropsy paper on the teaching of Native Ameri- ulty member in economics, took seven and beach response at the conference. can literature: "The Christian Indians: members of the COA Economics Fo- He's also gearing up for repairs to Mt. Wrestling with Conversion in the Na- rum to New York City. The students Desert Rock following the ravages of tive American Literature Classroom," visited the New York Federal Reserve, Hurricane Bill last August (see COA for a panel seeking to explore challeng- Goldman-Sachs, asset management Fall, 2009). A full research season is be- es in the teaching of Native American company W.P. Stewart, the Museum of ing planned for the rock. Meanwhile, Literature. Says Karen, "I am using my American Finance, and the Skyscraper Sean worked as an expert advisor, and COA experience to consider how best Museum. They also met with David served on a panel for a Portland, Maine to pedagogically, literarily, and histori- Katona, a principal of Spruce Point performance of the cantata Jonah and cally approach the realities of the fact Capital Management and son of for- the Whale by Dominick Argento. that 'Native American Literature' as it mer COA President Steve Katona and currently exists is largely the result of a former faculty member Susan Lerner. On sabbatical, Karen Waldron, faculty complex process of many different cul- Davis also spent ten days of his fall sab- member in literature, presented a paper tures learning English by force, creat- batical teaching and giving workshops at the Popular Culture Association in ing a pan-Indian identity, shifting from on economics and sustainability at the St. Louis inspired by her course, "The oral to written cultures, and becoming Chewonki Semester School in Wiscas- Purloined Poe," which used Edgar Al- Christian through missions." set, Maine, facilitated by Marjolaine len Poe's works and the anthology, In Memoriam: Martin Koeppl I was saddened recently to learn that Martin Koeppl, faculty member in media arts and environmental education at COA from 1990 to 1996, lost his battle with cancer last December 21. I was an undergraduate at the college during Martin's years here and valued him highly as a teacher and as a friend. Martin was instrumental in introducing me to the world of film theory, a subject I now teach at COA. Although I had not been in touch with Martin for many years, I have frequently thought of him when revisiting with my own students texts he first introduced me to, or when finally, joyously, tracking down one of the "lost" films he described to me. Giving myself over to Rainer Werner Maria Fassbinder's Berlin Alexan- derplatz (fifteen hours) and Edgar Reitz's Heimat trilogy (fifty-two hours), after fifteen years of searching for and imagining them, was one of the most powerful experiences of my life - a passage through a door long held open with promise. In preparing this piece I went through many of the texts Martin had us read, looking for a quote I could use to pay tribute to his intellect; but what I kept coming back to, unbidden, was the warm, poetic humanism of Wim Wenders' Der Himmel über Berlin (literally "The Sky over Berlin," released in the United States as Wings of Desire). This film resonates with the same combination of gentleness, introspection, insight, and passion that I valued in Martin. As angel-turned-human Peter Falk says to the curious, invisible companion whose presence he senses and for whom he encourages a dive into the pain- ful, joyful world of human existence: "I can't see you but I know you're there, Compañero." ~ Colin Capers '95, MPhil '08, lecturer in writing, composition, and film COA 49 Todd West '00 In 2007, just seven years after Todd West graduated from College of the Atlantic with a teaching cetifi- cate, he became principal of the Deer Isle-Stonington NOR High School. His only prior administrative job was as head of the social studies department of Mount Desert Island High School, where he began volun- In a scene reminiscent of Take-A-Break, Principal Todd teering in his third year at COA. Despite his youth West sits with his students at Deer Isle-Stonington High School. Photo courtesy of The Ellsworth American. and administrative inexperience, when Deer Isle- Stonington was deemed one of Maine's "persistently lowest-achieving schools" in March and offered two million dollars by the federal government if it changed principals, Superintendent Bob Webster refused. His words: "I don't care how much money they've got, I think Todd's doing a great job and we're not going to replace him." Q: Is your school failing? A: Many Maine schools struggle with low aspirations, high numbers of disengaged kids, dysfunctional families, kids with substance abuse issues, parents with substance abuse issues. Five years ago, "low achieving" would have been accurate, but we've made effective gains that are greater than other schools in the state. Q: Can you, as principal, make a difference? A: Deer Isle and Stonington are small, close-knit communities and that carries over to the school. The level of dedication of the teachers is amazing. Most students know we care and want to help them do well. It's up to the teachers to be very creative and engage kids who are sitting in class thinking about the number of [lobster] traps they could be hauling and the amount of money they could be making. How can we make school relevant? How can geometry be beneficial, or reading a classic? I need to get the teachers in the right place to do that. Q: And how do you do that? A: We talk about what we want for our kids, which is primarily to be prepared to do what they want to do. We change the focus from teaching to learning. A big part of my job is helping teachers continue to learn, and this staff, in particular, is really willing to change if we give them a compelling reason. Q: What do you see as your most important achievement? A: Changing cultures. Changing the culture of students - there was a wild discipline situation here - and the longer-term culture of building aspirations, changing the teaching culture to a collaborative practice focused on learning, and changing longstanding community expectations and relations with the school. Q: Is there something in your character that generates this success? A: Some of it has to do with values. I made it clear very early that I was very dedicated to these kids learning and succeeding, and I supported that across all venues: teachers, students, parents. It builds a little trust that this guy from away might actually be here for the right reasons. It's been hard work. Q: Did your experience at COA help you? A: A principal has to see the school as a system; it's all connected, if you make changes in one area, it causes changes elsewhere. I'm looking at numerous perspectives on the big picture - students, parents, community members, and how changes will impact professional development, given a limited set of resources. Being im- mersed for four years in a college that looks at things from different perspectives couldn't help but influence how I approach this job. Clearly, too, part of what COA teaches is to be courageous and advocate for what you think is right. *For now, the school has made an arrangement to keep West on and still receive the federal funding. 50 COA The Human Ecology Essay Human Ecology in My Real World By Jenn Atkinson '03 Welcome to southwest Idaho. Climate: Four sea- very conscious design of the infrastructure is neces- sons, right on schedule. Landscape: High desert sary and a very conscious design of social interac- plains. Population: Sparse once you drive twenty tion is necessary. But what does it mean to have a minutes - in any direction — outside of the Boise conscious management of nature? Metro Area. Politics: Rugged individualism. Demo- graphics: Predominantly white, though a healthy Economy. Community. Environment. The triple he- stream of refugees is steadily increasing our diver- lix of human ecology in my real world. sity. Economy: Struggling to successfully adapt from resource-dependent to resource-related (aren't we In southwest Idaho, I'm addressing the same ques- all?). tions I posed in my senior project at COA, only now I'm a professional land use planner with three I was born here. years of experience working in rural community I went to COA. development. In southwest Idaho, planners are no longer talking about community development and I came back. economic development as independent efforts. The conversation is about community economic devel- For over a decade I have been interested in the rela- opment. The relationships among economy, com- tionship between social systems and physical infra- munity, and land use cannot be ignored. structure development. Specifically, I like to think about how people consciously and unconsciously All climates are changing here: the seasons are no design both to accommodate our fluctuating desire longer always right on time, landscapes are dotted for autonomy and our fluctuating need for security. with empty or half-finished developments; rural no longer means isolated. But we're learning as we Tourism is one of my favorite examples of how the change. Rugged individualism can support compre- autonomy-security grapple plays out through infra- hensive planning. A conservative government will structure design and social networks. As tourists, support public-private partnerships. we'd like to think we are experiencing a place by interacting with the truest form of that place on our In Idaho, the place of government is to provide nec- own terms. But we'd like to be safe from things like essary services: water, sewer, transportation. Eco- disease, war, and theft, too. Every tourist has a de- nomic, community, and environmental health are sire for a certain level of autonomy and a need for a largely left up to those who stand to benefit: people specific level of security. with a desire for a certain level of autonomy and a certain level of security. Designing physical infrastructure that can accom- modate the spectrum of tourist needs and desires Now more than ever there is a need for professionals is wonderfully complicated. Who owns the infra- who understand the complexity of dynamic systems structure? Who benefits from the tourism? In most and who have a passion for facilitating the global cases these are conflicting interests (think Las Vegas, transition to more sustainable economies and com- Cancun, Machu Picchu). The result is haphazard de- munities. Within the urban and rural planning pro- velopment, strained infrastructure, low-wage jobs, fession, human ecology has a lot to offer. Southwest community resentment, and a gradual loss of the Idaho welcomes human ecologists. sense of place that tourists are seeking. Jenn Atkinson manages Eco/green/sustainable/adventure/nature/cultural- the Planning & Develop- ment Services Depart- tourism adds an entirely new level to the equation. ment at the southwest While tourists are coming to see an ever-changing Idaho Economic Devel- nature, to be successful (where success equals eco- opment District, Sage nomic, community, and environmental vitality), a Community Resources. COA 49 NON-PROFIT U.S. POSTAGE PAID College of the Atlantic AUGUSTA, ME PERMIT NO. 121 life changing. world changing 105 Eden Street Bar Harbor, ME 04609 IIANYSAID USAIL