COA Volume 6 Number 1 | 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 Damnghld 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 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 Honoring a Relationship by Nick Jenei '09 Jennifer Hughes 14 Danielle Meier '08 Ross Pike, MPhil 'll 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 JS 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 COA Magazine 48 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 434 PRINTED WITH FSC CERTIFIED Mixed Sources WIND Product well-managed forests, controlled sources POWER recycled wood fiber Cert SW-COC-002129 www.fsc.org Council Printed on recycled paper with vegetable-based inks on equipment using 100% wind -generated power.