MIDDLEBURY, Vt. – Students and community members gathered at Atwater Dining Hall last week to celebrate a year of student first-responder service to the community. Sponsored by the student organization Middlebury First Responders, the event drew rescue and fire responders from across campus and Addison County.

“I want to extend my gratitude, appreciation, and admiration to all of the Middlebury First Responders who have gathered here this evening,” said President Laurie Patton in her welcoming remarks. “Your selflessness and spirit of service bring help and healing far beyond the confines of this campus and this town. Thank you for your time, your energy, your willingness to support, to learn, to volunteer, to mentor, and to train.”

Among several honors bestowed over the course of the evening was the Ed Sullivan Award, named for the College’s former environmental health and safety coordinator who died in 2016. This year’s winners, who embody “Ed’s commitment to bring the College and town together through first response,” were Margaret Weber, copresident of Middlebury First Responders, and Liz Orr, an advanced emergency medical technician (AEMT) with Middlebury Regional Emergency and Medical Services (MREMS).

Current and future members of the Middlebury First Responders Board. Back row, from left: Dylan Montigue ’20, Zack Sieb ’21, Margo Reigle ’19, David Cohen ’20, Peter Palumbo ’21; Front, from left: Zoe Keskey ’18, Marie Vasitas ’18, Margaret Weber ’18, Giulia Napoli ’20.

The Sullivan Award held special meaning for Weber, a Middlebury senior. “Ed was my teacher and mentor and is the vision behind the work we are doing today,” she said.

MREMS director and EMT Teena Betourney recognized several first responders from the town and College with awards, including years of service and for a lifetime achievement award to AEMT Dave Fuller for his 18 years of service. Betourney also presented “most valuable student” awards to Alex Browne ’18 and David Cohen ’20 for their work on heavy rescue. Marie Vasitas ’18, Margo Reigle ’19, and Weber received plaques of appreciation and Read Allen ’18 and Peter Palumbo ’20 were recognized for their leadership in a J-term first responder course. MREMS also recognized all Middlebury College seniors for their contributions.

Although Middlebury students have long participated in first-responder activities with local agencies, Middlebury First Responders, as a student organization, started in 2017 to build an on-campus community of student EMTs and firefighters, advocate for mental health of responders, and provide trainings and programming to maintain certifications. In its first year, the group has grown to 163 members.

“We are very excited by this growth and the increased student leadership we have seen. Our collaborative efforts with our community partners continue to strengthen, and we look forward to continuing this wonderful partnership between the College and the town,” said Weber.

By Stephen Diehl; Photos by Zarai Zaragoza ’18

MIDDLEBURY, Vt. – Geology major Emmet Norris ’19 has been awarded the Council on Undergraduate Research’s (CUR) GeoCUR Award for Excellence in Student Research. This year 15 students will receive the award from the council’s “Geo” or Geosciences Division that recognizes outstanding undergraduate student researchers. All of the students–except Norris and one other–attend universities.  

“Emmet brings a genuine enthusiasm and a sense of wonder to all of his studies,” said Professor of Geology Pat Manley in her nomination of Norris. According to Manley, he assists in the geology classroom by sharing his knowledge and experience in laboratory research. “Through his presence and contributions, he has enriched his classes and the Geology Department at Middlebury over the past three years.”

In her nomination, Manley also cites the wide variety of research that Norris has pursued, including fieldwork in Utah during two consecutive summers. In 2016, he went to Utah to assist Geology Professor Jeff Munroe with the collection of alpine dust samples. In 2017, Norris returned to help Munroe obtain a stalagmite from a cave in the Uinta Mountains for climate analysis. He twice traveled to the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he worked in a lab to analyze samples gathered in Utah in 2016 and 2017.

Norris also spent a summer in 2016 working jointly with Professor Pete Ryan and geologist and environmental scientist Jon Kim of the Vermont Geological Survey studying newly identified groundwater contamination in southwestern Vermont. He presented results of the research at conferences held by the Geological Society of America (GSA) and the European Geosciences Union (EGU).

“Whether through his thesis, independent studies, or summer work, Emmet is one of the few students in recent memory who has conducted such an array of successful geological research at Middlebury,” said Manley.

“I am honored to receive this award but mostly so grateful to the Geology Department for the opportunities to harness my curiosity to address unanswered questions in geoscience,” said Norris. “My professors have been fantastic teachers, but also mentors and guides in my life. All my experiences, from conducting field work in the Uinta Mountains to sharing my research with many audiences, have prepared me to pursue my goal of furthering our understanding of the earth’s processes.” 

Norris will spend his senior year at Utrecht University in the Netherlands studying aerosols and impacts of environmental contamination on global human health. He also plans to apply to a doctoral program in atmospheric chemistry (geochemistry) to study the movement of chemicals and contaminants through air and water and their effect on the numerous systems that control climate and life on earth.

By Sarah Ray, Photo by Robert Keren

MIDDLEBURY, Vt. – Fourteen Middlebury College undergraduates and the members of five student organizations were honored at the 2018 Student Leadership Awards Ceremony held on May 2 in Atwater Dining Hall.

Interim Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students Baishakhi Taylor welcomed the gathering of Middlebury students, faculty, staff, alumni, and community members to the eighth annual event, and said the College has a long tradition of honoring undergraduates for their contributions to the campus, the local community, and the world “through leadership in service, creativity and innovation, activism, academic excellence, spiritual and religious engagement, and personal and social responsibility.”

President Laurie L. Patton said the nominees for the evening’s awards “embody the values that Middlebury intends to imbue in its students. You are the manifestation of our mission to be an institution where students not only receive a thoughtful education, but where they also can, and should, become thoughtful world citizens too.”

The Student Leadership Awards were presented in three categories: Vice President for Student Affairs Awards, Joint Dean of the College and Student Government Association Awards, and Student Government Association Awards. 

Vice President for Student Affairs Awards

The Angels Award for a sophomore woman of color who demonstrates leadership, scholarship, and activism was presented to Jade Moses ’20 by Jennifer Herrera Condry, the associate director of the Anderson Freeman Resource Center. The award is given in memory of four women of color from the Class of 2003: Anisa Gamble, Tiffany Holmes, Maika Prewitt, and Iniko Johnson.

The Barbara J. Buchanan ’62 Memorial Prize for a senior woman who represents Buchanan’s academic excellence and her ideal of service was presented to Jin Sohn ’18 by Dean of the College Taylor.

The Carri A. Smith ’98 Award for Outstanding Intercommons Council Member, which goes to a student who exemplifies the ideals of the commons system, a passion for the College, and a commitment to student life, was presented to Da Thi Hoang ’20 by Professor Matt Dickerson, the faculty head of Cook Commons.

The Interfaith Cooperation Award of the Charles P. Scott Center for Spiritual and Religious Life was presented to the residents of MOSAIC Interfaith House by Mark Orten, dean of spiritual and religious life. The award recognizes students who actively promote and facilitate interfaith understanding, communication, or programming.

The Religious Life Innovation Award of the Charles P. Scott Center for Spiritual and Religious Life was presented by Chaplain Laurel Macauley Jordan ’79 to the members of the Newman Catholic Club in recognition of their originality in the development of religious activities on campus.

The Spiritual Life Leadership Award of the Charles P. Scott Center for Spiritual and Religious Life was presented to Josh Goldenberg Hillel ’18 and Joanna Baila ’18 by Associate Chaplain Danielle Stillman for advancing the spiritual lives of others on campus and supporting the spiritual journey of peers.

The First-Year Achievement Prize for academic excellence and the ability to relate well to others was presented to John Schurer ’21 by Dean Taylor in recognition of his work with MiddVolunteers, MeetMidd, and the Student Government Association.

The Peter Kohn Service Award goes to a student-athlete who “best exemplifies the spirit of community and service” as demonstrated by the late Peter Kohn, who served as a manager for Middlebury athletics for over 20 years. Presented by Director of Athletics Erin Quinn, the recipient of the award was Maddison Morgan ’18.

President Patton stepped forward to present the Newman Civic Fellows Award, given in memory of the founder of Campus Compact, Frank J. Newman. The award exemplifies Dr. Newman’s passionate advocacy for civic engagement in higher education, and the 2018 honor was extended to Luna Shen ’18.5.

The Alexander Twilight 1823 Diversity and Community Leadership Award was presented to Jade Moses ’20 by Will Casso Condry, a visiting faculty member. The award honors students for their leadership and determination to effect change within the Middlebury community by transcending boundaries of race, class, and gender.

The Franklin G. Williams 1913 and Sarah H. Williams 1912 Memorial Award was presented to Thandwa Mdluli ’20.5 by Dean Taylor. It is awarded to a sophomore on the basis of natural kindness, perceptivity to the needs of others, and an abiding sense of personal responsibility. 

Joint Dean of the College and Student Government Association (SGA) Awards

The Outstanding Campus Leader Award recognizes a junior or senior for innovation, motivation, initiative, and perseverance. Thirteen students were nominated for the honor, and the 2018 recipient was Maria Del Sol Nava ’18 in recognition of her work toward the establishment of the Anderson Freeman Resource Center on campus.

The Extraordinary Emerging Leader Award is presented annually to a first-year or a sophomore for organizing events and activities, and for improving the Middlebury community. Presented by Jin Sohn ’18, the president of SGA, the recipient was Jade Moses ’20 for her role in organizing the campus visit by poet Porsha Olayiwola and the Hair Me Out exhibition in Davis Library. 

Student Government Association (SGA) Awards

The Baumgarten ’98 and Udzenija ’99 SGA Memorial Award honors a sophomore who personifies academic achievement, the passion for learning, compassion for others, and involvement in student activities. The recipient was Anthony Turcios ’20 for his passion for learning and his compassion and commitment to helping others. The SGA president, Jin Sohn, presented this and the four other SGA-specific awards that followed.

The Extraordinary Initiative Award recognizes an exceptional program, cultural event, guest speaker, or production that is conceived and carried out by a student or students. The 2018 honoree was the program Humanizing the Refugee Experience, which was organized in cooperation with students at Middlebury Union High School.

The Outstanding Leader of a Student Organization Award is presented each year to a student who has brought honor to a student organization through his or her leadership and selflessness. This year’s recipient was Mikayla Hyman ’20 for her leadership of the Refugee Outreach Club.

The Outstanding New Organization Award goes to a newly formed, SGA-recognized campus group that addresses a need or community issue that had not previously been supported. The 2018 recipient was Mixed Kids of Middlebury, for creating a space for mixed-race students on campus.

The Outstanding Overall Achievement Award recognizes one organization for sustained contributions to the campus and student life. This year’s recipient was the International Students Organization for its work toward uniting students on campus and being a “home away from home” for Middlebury’s international students.

MIDDLEBURY, Vt. – Farid Noori ’18.5 first grasped the power of sports to inspire a nation when he was a 14-year-old in Kabul, Afghanistan.

“The war destroyed everything. So in 2008, we didn’t even have electricity yet. But my family had its own generator, and we would turn it on for four hours at night so my mom could cook and we could eat and study for a couple of hours and go to bed. I remember, we had just turned on the generator, and the TV was running, and there was the news person saying that somebody had gone to the Olympics from Afghanistan and won a bronze medal. And I was like, ‘What?!’ It was just incredible seeing that.”

Rohulla Nikpai’s bronze in taekwondo was Afghanistan’s first Olympic medal—in any event, ever.

“Everybody was so excited. Everybody! For 30 years we didn’t even send anybody, during the wars. Sports in general has always been a unifying moment for Afghanistan. Whenever there is a big achievement in the international arena, everybody just celebrates and forgets about the war and comes together, and they set their ethnic identities aside and just unify as one Afghan.”

Noori’s goal is to become the first Afghan to enter the Olympics in cross-country mountain biking—a goal not for himself alone, but for his country.

“Afghanistan,” said Noori, “is at the center of everything I do.”

At the same time as the economics major studies and writes papers and prepares for exams, at the same time as he pushes toward his Olympic goals, training long hours each week, Noori has also founded Mountain Bike Afghanistan, a nonprofit whose mission is to “empower Afghan youth with the joy of riding and competing on mountain bikes, as well as to connect people across borders and cultures through their shared love of the outdoors and the sport of biking.”

Through mountain biking, Noori wants the international community to see Afghanistan through his eyes—as a place of dramatic peaks, pristine lakes, pastoral villages, and fruit-bearing orchards; a place with a rich culture and history; a place with a forward-thinking young generation ready to rebuild a nation and connect with the world.

Noori also wants to inspire his own generation of citizens and leaders, many now part of a diaspora.

“Mountain biking can help us find or reestablish our deep connection with a place we call home. A lot of Afghans—despite knowing, despite loving this country as much as I do—are hopeless. We saw in 2015 two million fled to Europe leaving behind loved ones. How do you tie them back to the place? Mountain biking will help people see their place with refreshed eyes.”

And what better way to advance these goals than by competing in the Olympics? Noori reasons.

“You can go home and build trails and try to force kids to ride the bikes that you’re gonna provide for them, but it’s not going to be as effective as them seeing a young Afghan representing the country in mountain biking. If they haven’t heard about it, they will hear about it. You won’t need to tell them.”

“He is so disciplined,” said Heather Neuwirth, programs director for the Center for Creativity, Innovation, and Social Entrepreneurship. Neuwirth described how from his earliest days on campus, Noori sought out the center and its resources and began developing projects to transform Afghanistan.

“He has this amazing vision for his community and how to really scale change,” said Neuwirth. “He’s always been really motivated to give back to his community. There are some students that have this light, you know?”

Love at first sight

Noori was drawn to bikes from an early age.

“Bikes are one of the most amusing things for children,” he said. “No matter where you are in the world, if you see one you want to hop on, and you want to try it. It’s a magnetic thing. But my parents, for some reason, were always against it. They thought it was unsafe. We also moved around a lot [Noori’s family fled the Taliban as refugees when he was two]. We went to Pakistan, we went to Iran, we went back to Pakistan, back to Afghanistan, so there was really no opportunity.”

Nevertheless, he created one. Noori rode his first bike at age six, when the family was living in Pakistan. Waiting in the bakery line to buy the day’s naan, he would borrow his friend’s bike and take a short spin. When the family returned to Afghanistan and he was given the classroom responsibility of taking enrollment, he’d sometimes barter a mark of “present” for a ride on a bike. And when his grandfather bought a bike for one of his older brothers, Noori tried to pedal the giant frame by leaning out sideways from underneath the top bar.

Only when he came to the United States to complete high school at United World College-USA in Montezuma, New Mexico, could he grab a bike and just ride and ride and ride.

The summer after high school graduation, he saw his first mountain bike race, rode his first mountain bike, and was hooked.

“It was literally just flying, flying on a bike, flying with feelings, flying with adrenaline. And the thing that kept coming to mind as I was descending was like, ‘Okay, this is mountain biking. But why don’t we have it? We should do this in Afghanistan.’”

He’s been working toward this goal ever since.

Blazing a trail

 “Farid, in so many ways, is creating his own path,” said Middlebury Director of Athletics Erin Quinn. An athlete from the United States who wanted to compete in the Olympics, Quinn explained, would have a difficult but very clear path to follow. Coming from a country without that infrastructure, “there’s no trail from where he is to get there. He’s blazing that trail.”

Lacking funds, Noori started racing and training on bikes borrowed from friend and fellow Middlebury Cycling Club member Kai Wiggins ’16. Just this month he successfully completed a $5,000 MiddSTART campaign and purchased his own race-worthy wheels. Serious sports competition is a pricey business, and Noori laughs as he describes the close bond he has developed with his 17-year-old Subaru Forester. He bought the car for $800 in Colorado and, despite dubious predictions from mechanics, it has delivered him to many races. He calls it his “Olympic MVP.”

Noori’s junior year, Quinn connected him with Middlebury Nordic coach and former Olympic skier Andrew Johnson ’01, and Johnson laid out key training techniques and strategies for endurance sports. Meanwhile, Noori also pored over resources like the Mountain Biker’s Training Bible, and Quinn connected Noori with other athletes in the Middlebury network. He met cyclist Lea Davison ’05, who competed in the 2012 and 2016 summer games (39 alums—to date—have been in the Olympics). He met grand tour racer Ted King ’05, who shares Noori’s passion to connect people through cycling. This winter, King offered to coach Noori as he works toward his Olympic aspirations.

 “Bike racing is hard to do alone,” said Wiggins, himself an aspiring racer who noted that as important as a cyclist’s own “discipline, effort, enthusiasm, perseverance” is, all cyclists also rely on the “kindness” of those who offer “their time, their gear, their insight, their friendship, and, as they say in cycling, their ‘wheel.’”

Noori began racing in earnest in 2016, and within a year moved from the beginner to the semi-pro category. He earned semi-pro “Cat1” qualification last October, when he became the first Afghan to race in the USA Cycling Collegiate Mountain Biking National Championship in Missoula, Montana.

Noori plans to take on 20 races this season and move up to pro status. After he completes his final classes in December, he plans to continue training in Arizona (his sport needs sunshine, not snow).

Ultimately, Noori’s Olympic aspirations come down to one race: the Asian Continental Mountain Bike Championship, to be held May 2019 for the 2020 Olympics. Of Tokyo’s 38 spots for men’s mountain biking, just one is reserved for the winner of that race. Athletes compete from across the region, which Noori describes as running roughly from Turkey to Korea.

Noori, who is 23, has asked himself whether there isn’t some better way to accomplish his dream for Afghanistan or some younger athlete with deeper roots in training and competition to carry this particular standard.

But then, he says, “I think about my journey that has led me to this point. I think about how much I love cycling and what I want to do with it. I think about the unique opportunity that I have in front of me.” And, he reasons, with so few Afghan students in the United States, who else is there to take this on?

“And so for me, it is a moral duty to take it upon myself. I know this is a very tough journey. But I want to give it a shot.”

By Gaen Murphree; Photo by Todd Balfour

MIDDLEBURY, Vt. – A total of 765 students have accepted Middlebury’s offer of admission and will enroll at the College as members of the Class of 2022. As of May 1, the deadline for admitted students to inform the College of their decision, 661 students planned to enroll in September and 104 in February. 

Members of the incoming class are from 46 states, Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico, and 28 countries. The College will award approximately $16.6 million in financial aid to about 48 percent of the incoming class, with an average annual grant of roughly $48,000. 

“We could not be happier with the quality and diversity of the incoming class,” said Greg Buckles, dean of admissions. “These students stand out in so many ways, from their academic promise to their commitment to social engagement, from their artistic and athletic skills to their eagerness to lead in their communities. They have been working hard for a number of years to get to this point, and they deserve to celebrate.”

The incoming class may be the most diverse ever at Middlebury. A record 29 percent of the Class of 2022 (and 2022.5, as the College refers to students starting in February) will be students of color. The percentage of students receiving Pell Grants grew as well, to 17 percent. First-generation students, or students who are the first in their family to attend college, increased to 15 percent. Ten percent of the class are international students, who continue to show a strong interest in the College.

Students from the Class of 2022 will bring a wide range of experiences to campus. Two will attend Middlebury on National Army ROTC Scholarships. One student, who grew up in the wilderness in a national forest in California without electricity or running water, traveled daily to and from an 11-student school an hour and a half each way. Another serves as the student representative to the Hawaii state school board, representing more than 190,000 K-12 public school students. The student flies to Honolulu several times a month to attend board of education meetings. An incoming student from rural Tanzania speaks three languages and attended boarding school in Nairobi, Kenya. Upon graduation, the student was one of 141 in all of Kenya to score a top grade on the national exam.

Buckles said that the final number for the students who enroll in September will be less than 661 as some students—usually two or three dozen—decide to take a gap year and others change plans over the summer, as happens every year. The deadline for students to let the College know if they are taking a gap year is June 1. Buckles also said that Middlebury will offer admission to about 40 students on the wait list.

Along with the Class of 2022, there will be 10 transfer students who enroll in September. 

MIDDLEBURY, Vt. – Isabel Wilkerson, author of the bestselling The Warmth of Other Suns and a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, will deliver the 2018 Middlebury College Commencement address on Sunday, May 27.

National Humanities medalist,Wilkerson spent 15 years working on her book, interviewing more than 1,200 people to tell one of the greatest underreported stories of the 20th century, that of the Great Migration. From 1915 to 1970, six million African-Americans fled the Jim Crow South in what became one of the largest internal migrations in United States history and one that permanently changed the social landscape of the country.

Published in 2010, The Warmth of Other Suns won numerous prizes, including the National Book Critics Circle Award. Wilkerson’s book was also named to more than 30 best-of-the-year lists, including the New York Times’ 10 Best Books of the Year and Amazon’s 5 Best Books of the Year.

Wilkerson won the Pulitzer Prize for her work as Chicago bureau chief of the New York Times in 1994, making her the first black woman in the history of American journalism to win a Pulitzer Prize and the first African American to win for individual reporting.

She has also taught at a number of universities, including Emory, Princeton, and Columbia. 

Jeanne A. Brink

Elaine Ostroff

Velcheru Narayana Rao

William P. Stritzler

“Isabel Wilkerson is a masterful writer and storyteller,” said Middlebury President Laurie Patton. “She brought attention to an important but overlooked episode in American history with her skillful use of fascinating personal narratives. Her book also contributes to an understanding of racism that exists in the U.S. today.

“It is an honor to have Isabel as our commencement speaker,” added Patton. “Her wisdom and her talent as an author and a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist will offer inspiration to our seniors as they begin new challenges following their graduation from Middlebury.”

Wilkerson will receive an honorary Doctor of Letters degree at the commencement ceremony.

Middlebury also will honor four other distinguished men and women with honorary degrees this year:

Jeanne A. Brink is an Abenaki artist and activist. She conducts workshops and programs on Western Abenaki storytelling, history, language, culture, basket making, oral tradition, dance, games, and current issues throughout Vermont and New England. Tracing her Abenaki heritage back to the early 1700s, she continues the tradition of Western Abenaki ash splint and sweetgrass fancy basketry as a master basket maker. Brink has served on the Vermont Commission for Native American Affairs, the Lake Champlain Basin Program Cultural Heritage and Recreation Advisory Committee, and many other local organizations. She is the author of several books about Abenaki art and language. 

Elaine Ostroff is a longtime advocate, author, coach, and champion of universal design, the practice of creating environments and products that are usable by most people, regardless of their age or ability, and that secure civil rights, dignity, and opportunity for all people, particularly those with disabilities. In 1978 she cofounded the Adaptive Environments Center, (AEC) now the Institute for Human Centered Design (IHCD), where she serves on the board of directors. She created the nationwide Universal Design Education Project (UDEP) in 1990 and the national Access to Design Professions Project in 1999. She is coauthor of Building a World Fit for People: Designers with Disabilities at Work and is senior editor of the Universal Design Handbook.

Velcheru Narayana Rao, a professor and author, taught Telugu and Indian literatures for 38 years at University of Wisconsin–Madison. He also taught at the University of Chicago and was the Visweswara Rao and Sita Koppaka Professor in Telugu Culture, Literature, and History at Emory University. He has written more than 15 books, many of them in collaboration with David Shulman and Sanjay Subrahmanyam, including Textures of Time: Writing History in South India, and How Urvasi Was Won, a translation of Vikramorvasiyam, a five-act Sanskrit play by the ancient Indian poet Kalidasa. 

William P. Stritzler is the managing director and owner of Smugglers’ Notch Resort in Vermont. Stritzler, a 1960 graduate of Middlebury College, began his career at Wells Fargo, where he was a vice president of the bank and president of the data processing subsidiary. He then joined AT&T, where he was a corporate vice president for new ventures and vice president of marketing for the company’s U.S. operations. He became Smugglers’ Notch Resort managing director in 1987 and purchased the company in 1996. Stritzler was named the 2016 Vermont Chamber of Commerce Citizen of the Year and has served on the boards of many local and statewide organizations in Vermont. 

The Middlebury College Commencement ceremony will take place on the main quadrangle at 10 a.m. on Sunday, May 27. More than 5,000 family members and friends are expected to attend.

MIDDLEBURY, Vt. – Joshua Yuan, a Middlebury College senior from Portland, Oregon, is the lead author on a new paper that is shedding light on the genetic mapping of complex traits in mammals. The paper was published in the April 2018 edition of the journal Mammalian Genome, and the coauthors include two Middlebury faculty members and seven alumni who were research assistants in the lab.

Under the direction of principal investigator Clarissa Parker, an assistant professor of psychology and neuroscience, Yuan and the collaborators measured the testes weight of 502 “diversity outbred” (DO) mice over a two-year period, while an independent lab genotyped a tissue sample from the tail of each of the animals.

The investigators then performed a genome-wide association analysis between the testes weight and DNA of the mice, which resulted in the identification of specific genomic regions associated with testes weight.

The techniques used in Professor Parker’s lab are helping scientists better understand how to identify genes that are implicated in complex traits, said Yuan. Complex traits are those traits that are influenced by more than one gene across any chromosome. The research also has important implications for livestock fertility and, notably, for human fertility as well.

“One of the great things about the diversity outbred mice”—mice that have been bred from wild strains, as opposed to mice that have been inbred in labs for generations—“is that DO mice are more genetically diverse than traditional inbred strains and, due to their unique breeding design, they are more representative of the diversity seen in human populations,” explains Parker.

“So, for any genes that we identify as being related to out trait of interest [i.e., testes weight], there’s most likely going to be a gene in humans that has the exact same function and will be related to that trait.”

Yuan, who is double majoring in computer science and molecular biology and biochemistry, played a key role in the computational phase of the project, said Parker. Using publicly available databases developed by other researchers, he used search algorithms to determine which genes can have a direct effect on testes weight.

Explaining it further, Parker said, “Let’s assume we have identified a genetic region of a chromosome that has 50 genes in it. We still don’t know which of those 50 genes are really driving the trait in question. Now all the cells in the human body have the same genes, but those genes don’t all have the same function or activity, and the activity of the gene is what determines whether you have a skin cell, or a hair cell, or a brain cell.

“Genes work by turning on or off, and we are going to be most interested in the genes that are active in the testes because if they are not expressed [or turned on], then they are probably not going to contribute to testes weight. One of the databases Josh used showed which of these genes are expressed in the testes, and we are grateful to the other scientists who did the work and made their data available.”

The approach used by the Middlebury researchers can be applied to any complex trait in mammals. “So any trait you are interested in, whether it’s body weight in mice or a neuropsychiatric disorder like depression in humans—our approach can be applied to all of these,” Parker added. “Our results demonstrate the utility of using DO mice in any high-resolution genetic mapping of complex traits.”

Yuan, the Middlebury undergraduate at the forefront of the research paper published by Mammalian Genome, is graduating summa cum laude in May 2018. During his years at Middlebury, the Portland, Ore., resident was a research assistant and a volunteer emergency medical technician on campus.

Yuan capped off his senior year by presenting the paper at a poster session at the recent Population, Evolutionary and Quantitative Genetics Conference at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Hoping to attend medical school beginning in the fall of 2019, Yuan will spend the next year gaining clinical experience by working as a medical scribe in a physician’s office.

The alumni collaborators on the research project, all of whom are listed as coauthors on the groundbreaking paper, are Steven Kasparek ’16, Andrew Kreuzman ’16, Benjamin Mansky ’15, Kayvon Sharif ’16, Dominik Taterra ’17, Walter Taylor ’15, and Mary Thomas ’17.

Also coauthoring were: Jeremy Ward, the Albert D. Mead Professor of Biology at Middlebury; Daniel Gatti, Vivek Philip, and Elissa Chesler – three scientists from the Jackson Laboratory for biomedical research; and Andrew Holmes of the National Institutes of Health’s Laboratory of Behavioral and Genomic Neuroscience.

Parker earned a BA in psychology at Colorado College and PhD in psychology at the Center for Neuroscience at the University of Colorado. She was a postdoctoral research fellow in behavioral genetics for four years at the University of Chicago prior to joining the Middlebury faculty in 2013. Her research uses mouse models to develop concepts, test neurobiological hypotheses, and identify genes that underlie traits with relevance to human psychiatric disorders.

MIDDLEBURY, Vt. – The Middlebury Bread Loaf Translators’ Conference and Bread Loaf Environmental Writers’ Conference will each offer free lectures and readings to the public when they are in session June 1–6. Both conferences are modeled on the Middlebury Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, the oldest writers’ conference in the country.

The Translators’ Conference, now in its fourth year, is the first such forum to highlight the important role that literary translators of poetry and prose play in the United States and beyond. The fifth annual Environmental Writers’ Conference is designed for those who want to bring more depth of knowledge and understanding to their writing about the environment and the natural world. The two gatherings will take place concurrently at Middlebury’s Bread Loaf campus in Ripton.

The intensive weeklong sessions incorporate the Middlebury Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference model of small, focused workshops coupled with readings, discussions, lectures, and specialized classes focusing on the craft of writing at the Environmental Conference, or, in the case of the Translators’ Conference, on the art of literary translation. Each morning there are lectures in the Barn and Little Theater on the Bread Loaf campus given by faculty from the Translators’ and Environmental Conferences respectively. Each evening there are readings offered by both conferences in the Little Theater.

The Translators’ Conference will feature such faculty as Susan Bernofsky, Sora Kim-Russell, and special guest Emily Wilson. Bernofsky directs the Program in Literary Translation in the MFA Writing Program at the Columbia University School of the Arts. Among her many published translations are retranslations of Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha (2006) and Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis (2014). A winner of numerous translation awards, she specializes in the work of the Swiss-German modernist author Robert Walser­­, and is currently writing his biography for Yale University Press. She will give a lecture on June 2 and a reading on June 5.

Kim-Russell lives in Seoul where she teaches literary translation at Ewha Womans University and at the Literary Translation Institute of Korea’s Translation Academy. Her translations include I’ll Be Right There by Shin Kyung-sook (2013) and Our Happy Times by Gong Ji-young (2014). She will give a reading on June 3 and a lecture on June 5.

A professor in the Department of Classical Studies and chair of the Program in Comparative Literature and Literary Theory at the University of Pennsylvania, Wilson has served as the classics editor of the Norton Anthology of World Literature for many years. Her books include The Death of Socrates (2007) and a translation of selected tragedies by Seneca (2010). She will discuss and read from her ground-breaking translation of The Odyssey, followed by a Q & A, on June 2.

Ginger Strand, who will be a faculty member at the 2018 Middlebury Bread Loaf Environmental Writers’ Conference, is the author of one novel and three books of narrative nonfiction. She will give a lecture on June 2 and a reading on June 5.

Ginger Strand and Luis Alberto Urrea are among the faculty of the Environmental Conference. Strand is the author of one novel and three books of narrative nonfiction, including The Brothers Vonnegut (2015) and Inventing Niagara (2008). Her work has appeared in a wide range of publications, including Harper's, Tin House, the New York Times,  the New Yorker, Pacific Standard, the Believer, OnEarth, and Orion. Strand will give a lecture on June 2 and a reading on June 5.

Urrea is the best-selling author of 16 books, including The Devil's Highway and The Hummingbird's Daughter. He has won a number of awards, including an American Book Award and an Edgar Award. He will give a reading on June 6 at the final event of the conferences.

The complete schedules of the Bread Loaf Translators’ Conference and Bread Loaf Environmental Writers’ Conference lectures and readings are available online. 

Events are subject to change. To confirm dates and times, contact the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conferences at 802-443-5286, blorion@middlebury.edu, or blt@middlebury.edu. 

More information about the Middlebury Bread Loaf Writers’ Conferences is also available online.

MIDDLEBURY, Vt. – The Middlebury College Board of Trustees at its spring meeting approved tenure recommendations for eight faculty members. This spring’s newly tenured group includes Tara Affolter (education studies), Ata Anzali (religion), Luis Castaneda (Spanish-Portuguese), Kemi Fuentes-George (political science), Jamie McCallum (sociology-anthropology), Andrea Robbett (economics), Marcos Rohena-Madrazo (Spanish-Portuguese), and Max Ward (history).

The promotions from assistant professor to associate professor will take effect July 1, 2018.

Tara Affolter, of the Education Studies Department, is the author of Through the Fog: Toward Inclusive Anti-Racist Work, which has been praised as a groundbreaking work that focuses on anti-racist pedagogies. Describing Affolter’s accomplishments at the College, Vice President for Academic Affairs Andrea Lloyd said that Affolter had “distinguished herself as one of the finest teachers at our college, epitomizing the spirit of inclusion that she studies as a scholar.”

Tara Affolter

Ata Anzali

Luis Castaneda

Kemi Fuentes-George

Jamie McCallum

Andrea Robbett

Marcos Rohena-Madrazo

Max Ward

Prior to her arrival at Middlebury in 2009, Affolter taught high school English and theater for more than 15 years and has worked for racial and social justice within the public schools. She also taught part-time at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in the Educational Policy Studies Department. She earned her BA in English from Eastern Illinois University and her MA and PhD from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in education policy studies. In her teaching at Middlebury, she seeks to provide her students with the tools to critique and dismantle inequities in the schools, while exploring new ways to build inclusive learning environments at all levels of education.

Ata Anzali is a religion scholar whose teaching and research focuses on the Islamic traditions, Sufish, and comparative mysticism. He is the author of ‘Mysticism’ in Iran: the Safavid Roots of a Modern Concept, which Lloyd describes as a “pathbreaking” work that demonstrates “a profound knowledge of a complex textual tradition and a sophisticated theoretical approach.” Anzali, who began his higher education with a BSc in electrical engineering from Tehran Polytechnic, earned his MA from the University of Tehran Divinity School and his PhD from Rice University in Houston. He began teaching at Middlebury in 2012. His research interests include theories and methods in the study of religion, the comparative study of mysticism and religion, the early history of Islam and the Qur’an, Persian culture and civilization, and modern religious reform movements in the Middle East.

Luis Castaneda, a member of the Spanish and Portuguese faculty, works at the forefront of Latin American avant-garde. A highly regarded teacher and scholar, Castaneda has taught introductory courses, first-year seminars, and upper-level elective courses since his arrival at Middlebury in the fall of 2012. Castaneda’s many research and teaching interests include 20th- and 21st-century Spanish American and Spanish narrative; avant-garde and neoavant-garde movements and alternative communities; fictional representations of authorship and writing; and Utopia, nostalgia, and the Latin American left. Lloyd said Castaneda embodies the liberal arts ideal of a teacher-scholar. “As a scholar, you are held in high regard by your colleagues and peers for your truly remarkable record of writing and publishing that ranges expansively from Spanish literature of the early 20th century to contemporary Spanish film.” Castaneda earned his BA from Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú and his MA and PhD from the University of Colorado–Boulder. He is the author of the monograph Communidades efimeras.

Kemi Fuentes-George, a political scientist, has devoted his professional career to exploring crucial questions of international governance. His highly regarded scholarship in the field of international environmental politics has pushed the discipline in new directions. Lloyd says Fuentes-George’s book, Between Preservation and Exploitation, “breaks new ground in articulating a nuanced and convincing argument for the importance of non-state actors in environmental governance and offering a lively and thoughtful engagement with scholarship on neoliberalism.” Admired by colleagues for his teaching, Fuentes-George has become known at Middlebury for his emphasis on diversity and representation in the curriculum. “You combine high expectations and challenging course work with accessibility and openness to students, and they find that the combination pushes them to work harder and dream bigger than they thought possible,” said Lloyd. Fuentes-George, who arrived at Middlebury in 2011, earned his BA from Ohio Wesleyan University and his PhD from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Jamie McCallum, a member of the Sociology/Anthropology Department, is the author of Global Movements, Local Power, a book “held in high regard for the fresh and innovative look it provides into global labor movements and for the rigorous methodology it employs,” said Lloyd. Since the publication of his book, McCallum’s work has helped shape the debate about global labor movements. He has especially worked to share insights with broader, non-scholarly audiences through documentary films. As a teacher, McCallum has been praised for his infectious enthusiasm and creating a classroom environment that maximizes student participation in class discussions. He has become known as a teacher who encourages students not to take ideas at face value and to challenge ideas that are pervasive in society and those found in classroom texts. McCallum began teaching at Middlebury in 2011. He earned his BA from Syracuse University and his PhD in sociology from the City University of New York Graduate Center.

Andrea Robbett, an economist whose research interests include experimental economics, behavioral economics, and public choice, has earned a reputation for her “creative and meticulous research designs to address complex social questions.” As a teacher, she has developed a student-centered approach that has greatly benefitted students. “Students and colleagues alike praise your talent at making difficult and abstract concepts understandable,” said Lloyd, “and they applaud your commitment to integrating teaching and research.” The author of numerous journal articles, Robbett is currently working on a book (under contract with MIT Press) with Middlebury colleague Jeffrey Carpenter titled Game Theory and Behavior. Robbett, who began teaching at Middlebury in 2011, earned her BS from Haverford College and her PhD from California Institute of Technology.

Marcos Rohena-Madrazo is a sociolinguist in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese with research interests in, among other things, phonetics, language variation and change, language and identity, attitudes toward accented speech, and language and popular culture. His recent research, in collaboration with colleague Brandon Baird, has drawn praise for its insights into how perceptions of language may unknowingly perpetuate gender and racial stereotypes. As a teacher, Rohena-Madrazo is recognized as someone who meets students where they are and pushes them to achieve more than they thought possible. “You have contributed an energetic and energizing presence within the Linguistics Program, and colleagues in both Spanish-Portuguese and linguistics appreciate your crucial contribution to the study and teaching of linguistics at Middlebury,” said Lloyd. Rohena-Madrazo began teaching at Middlebury in 2011. He earned his BA in Russian language and literature from Columbia University; an MA in Spanish lexicography from Escuela de Lexicografía Hispánica, Real Academia Española in Madrid; and his MA and PhD in linguistics from New York University.

Max Ward teaches in the History Department and is the author of Ghost in the Machine: Imperial Ideology and Thought Reform in Interwar Japan, which Lloyd described as a “tour de force that provides a nuanced account of the history of the Peace Preservation Law in Japan.” Lloyd notes the book has been praised for “combining theoretical sophistication with superb research and nuanced textual exegesis—all in support of an argument that contributes to a more complex understanding of power, ideology, and social control in interwar Japan.” He has also been recognized for his superb teaching, especially in communicating complex topics clearly and establishing a classroom environment that balances rigorous expectations with a relaxed manner and easy rapport with students. Ward, who began teaching at Middlebury in 2011, earned his BA from the University of California–Berkeley and his PhD from New York University.

At their May meeting, the Board of Trustees also approved promotions to the rank of full professor to Bert Johnson (political science), Kareem Khalifa (philosophy), Marion Wells (English and American literature), and Wei Xu (Chinese).

MIDDLEBURY, Vt. – The Middlebury College Class of 2018 gave a standing ovation to author Isabel Wilkerson for her stirring Commencement address on May 27, 2018, calling for radical empathy “in the dangerously fragmented world we live in.”

The Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist said basic empathy does not go far enough in these fractious times. “Empathy is commonly viewed as putting yourself in someone else’s shoes and imagining how you would feel. To me that’s a start, but that’s not true empathy. It’s role playing.” Empathy alone can be “dismissive of another person’s truth” and “a barrier to understanding.”

“Radical empathy on the other hand, means putting in the work to learn and to listen with a heart wide open, to understand another's experience well enough to know how they are feeling it, not as we imagine we would feel.”

The author of the 2010 bestseller The Warmth of Other Suns, for which she interviewed more than 1,200 people about the Great Migration of six million black Americans from the Jim Crow South to points north and west, said, “Radical empathy is not about you and what you would do in a situation you have never been in and perhaps never will.  It is the generosity of spirit that opens your heart to the true experience and pain and perspective of another.

“We need more of that in this world. If you love yourself and if you love humanity, if you have empathy, you cannot hurt another human being any more than you would want to feel that pain yourself.

“The work that goes into learning another person's reality opens up new ways of seeing the world, allows you to more accurately assess any situation that you happen to be in,” asserted Wilkerson, who told the graduates that she learned empathy (and much more) from her late father, who was a Tuskegee Airman during the Second World War.

Author and Pulitzer winner Isabel Wilkerson speaks to the Class of 2018.

Wilkerson, who also received an honorary Doctor of Letters degree from Middlebury, closed her address with these few words of advice: “When you discover your strengths, you have no competition. You are your only competition. Make yourself and all of us proud. Get your Gamaliel Painter’s cane, Class of 2018, and as my father would say, ‘We are with you!’”

Middlebury President Laurie L. Patton welcomed parents, family members, friends, and community members to the 2018 Commencement on the Quadrangle between Voter Hall and McCullough Student Center. Under overcast, but dry, skies amid temperatures in the low 60s, the 532 members of the Classes of 2018 and 2018.5 waited patiently for the moment when they would cross the stage and receive their Bachelor of Arts degrees.

Patton praised the graduates’ family members and friends – numbering in the thousands – whose “devotion and support have enabled these graduates to be here today.” She noted that the senior members of the women’s lacrosse team were in Salem, Va., on Sunday playing for the national championship and could not attend their formal graduation, so she would conduct a ceremony with them on their return. 

Sebastian Sanchez, of Brooklyn, NY, gave the student address for the Class of 2018.

The president announced that the Classes of 2018 and 2018.5 have started a scholarship fund as their class gift to help keep a Middlebury education accessible. She also said every graduate will receive a replica of Gamaliel Painter’s cane, which has been a Middlebury tradition for decades, “to signify Middlebury’s founding spirit, its optimism, and its future.”  

At every graduation since the College’s bicentennial in the year 2000, a member of the graduating class has been selected as the Student Commencement Speaker. This year, Sebastian Tomas Sanchez ’18, of Brooklyn, N.Y., decided not to offer words of wisdom to his classmates – “After all,” he said, “what do I really know? I am only 21 years old.” – but rather to share “some things I love about Middlebury, the lessons I’ve learned, and what lies ahead.”

Some of my fellow graduates, Sanchez said, may be “leading the next charge on climate change, developing new breakthroughs in science and technology, improving race relations, or becoming the next pioneer in gender and sexual equality. The world is one big problem set, research paper, or science lab waiting to be solved… [and] the answers are sitting right there in our minds. 

President Laurie Patton congratulates co-valedictorians Ry Storey-Fisher and Naomi Eisenberg. Hannah Hudson was salutatorian.

“More importantly, we have gained a multi-faceted view of the world, seeing beyond one perspective or viewpoint. We might not like it and we might not agree, but we have the tools to challenge opinions and engage in deliberative dialogue.

“We are transitioning into a world where harsh views and fake news seem the norm, where people are unashamed to spew hate. But now we have the tools to engage with this world, leaving it a little more truthful, a little more kind,” the political science major said.

“Though the world is wildly unforgiving, we learned to be intellectually fearless in the face of adversity. We must press on with persistence and resilience… So, let’s keep learning, let’s keep progressing, let’s keep loving. Let’s keep pressing on.”

In addition to the baccalaureate degrees and the honorary doctorate conferred to Commencement speaker Wilkerson, Middlebury also granted:

- an Honorary Doctor of Arts degree to Jeanne A. Brink, the traditional Abenaki artist and activist, for her commitment to preserving the culture of her people, including Abenaki storytelling, history, language, basket making, oral traditions, dance, and games;

- an Honorary Doctor of Arts degree to Elaine Ostroff, a pioneer in the practice of Universal Design as a social justice issue, for her work in creating environments and products that are usable by people regardless of age or ability;

- an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters to Velcheru Narayana Rao, a literary scholar, author, and translator of classical works in Telugu, India’s second most-spoken language, and for reinterpreting Telugu literature and for introducing it to Western audiences; and

- an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters to William P. Stritzler ’60, the managing director and owner of Smuggler’s Notch Resort, for redefining what a Vermont ski area can be, and for having a positive impact on the state’s economy and environment.

In one of her last official acts as Middlebury chaplain, Laurel Macauley Jordan ’79, who is retiring at the end of June, gave the Benediction just before the graduates sang the alma mater “Walls of Ivy, Paths of Beauty,” and recessed into the arms of waiting family members, friends, and classmates.

By Robert Keren; Photos by Todd Balfour, Brett Simison, and Yeager Anderson

MIDDLEBURY, Vt. – In a Commencement Weekend ceremony at Robison Concert Hall, 51 Middlebury College students participated in the 150th Middlebury Phi Beta Kappa induction. Phi Beta Kappa is the country’s oldest honor society for the liberal arts, having been founded in 1776 by a group of undergraduates at the College of William and Mary. The members inducted Saturday joined 13 classmates who were inducted last fall after three years at Middlebury.

Professor of Classics Jane Chaplin, the president of Middlebury’s Phi Beta Kappa chapter, welcomed the audience and asked the new inductees to reflect on the responsibilities that come with membership.

“My guess is that a majority of the people here this morning are so familiar with liberal arts education that, as I often do, you take for granted that critical inquiry and love of learning enrich human life,” said Chaplin. “In reality, however, liberal arts education is not the dominant mode of education in this country or elsewhere in the world. So nowadays, Phi Beta Kappa has a fresh purpose: articulating and celebrating the value of liberal arts education. My colleagues and I hope your education feels precious to you, and that you will want to share it with others. Perhaps in another sesquicentennium, everyone who wants to will be able to enjoy what you have gotten at Middlebury.”

Caley Henderson ’18 gave the student address, an interrogation of the value of earning high grades. The only thing certain about a high grade, she noted to her fellow students, was that they had met the expectations of a teacher. The grade itself did not say anything about what motivated them to achieve it or what may have been lost in the pursuit of a high GPA, she said.

Fifty-one students were inducted to the Middlebury chapter of Phi Beta Kappa on Saturday, May 26, joining 13 of their classmates who were inducted last fall.

Henderson said that it would be a mistake to assume that because they were leaving school, it meant the end of grading. Life offers all kinds of “new grading” after graduation, she said. She offered two bits of advice to her classmates: First, try to notice the new kinds of grades in your life, whose expectations are being applied to you, and how those expectations are influencing your decision making. And, second, try to be intentional about whose expectations you plan to meet.

“Strive to meet the ones that will stretch you in new ways and help you to lead a fuller and deeper life on your own terms,” Henderson said. “Try to stake your own self-worth on your own standards.”  

Professor of Classics and President of the Middlebury Phi Beta Kappa chapter Jane Chaplin teaches students the Phi Beta Kappa handshake.

Henderson and classmate Naomi Eisenberg, both of whom were elected after three years at Middlebury, received the Phi Beta Kappa Prize, which is presented “to the graduating senior(s) whose scholarly or artistic accomplishment and breadth, and contribution to the intellectual life of the community, best exemplify the Society’s regard for intellectual excellence.”

Professor of Psychology Susan Baldridge, vice president of the Middlebury Phi Beta Kappa chapter, introduced each of the new inductees and read a brief reflection—supplied by the students—which included descriptions of their plans for the future.

The group of new inductees on the stage at Robison Concert Hall during the induction ceremony on May 26.

Each year the Middlebury chapter elects up to 10 percent of the senior class to Phi Beta Kappa membership. Two percent of the class is elected in August, on the basis of six semesters’ work, and up to an additional eight percent is elected in May, on the basis of work completed over eight semesters.

One of the traditional symbols most often identified with Phi Beta Kappa is the key, which the society developed in its early days. Middlebury owns one of the oldest Phi Beta Kappa keys still in existence—that of Middlebury’s first president, Jeremiah Atwater. In addition to Chaplin and Baldridge, Middlebury’s chapter officers include Laurie Jordan, chaplain of the College, who serves as secretary, and Ellie Gebarowski-Shafer, assistant professor of religion, who serves as assistant secretary.

Elected after four years at Middlebury

Annie Beliveau

Kevin Benscheidt

Deniz Bingul

Noelle Blose

Benjamin Borgmann-Winter

David Brockington

Benjamin Brown

Katherine Brown

James Callison

William Case

Javier del Cid

Robert Erickson

Lauren Finkelstein

Matthew Floyd

Morgan Grady-Benson

Hannah Habermann

Shane Healy

Jim Qiwei Ho

John Husson

Abigail Jameson

Oscar Johansson

Chloe Johnson

Deborah Leedy

Addie Mahdavi

Katherine Mayopoulos

Timothy McGovern

Hazel Millard

Delaney Moran

Alexandra Muck

John Overstreet

Ryan Peer

Aayam Poudel

Dylan Quenneville

Chico Sanchez

Meg Sayre

Joseph Schindler

Charles Shotton

Julia Shumlin

Reid Silverhart

Priyanjali Sinha

Jonathan Turnage

Marie Vasitas

Cassandra Wanna

Margaret Weber

Thomas Wentworth

Remeny White

Bryce Williamson

Kaitlin Wood

Maya Woser

Mika Wysocki

Joshua Yuan

Elected after three years at Middlebury

Bernardo Andrade

Eleanor Eagan

Naomi Eisenberg

Maximillian Greenwald

Caley Henderson

Hannah Hudson

Katherine Johnson

Alison Kraner

Tamar Matiashvili

Jason Meuse

Nellie Pierce

Victoria Pipas

Ry Storey-Fisher

MIDDLEBURY, Vt. – On Commencement morning, just before 9 a.m., families and friends eager for a good view of the stage began to file into the rows of folding chairs lined up on Middlebury’s main quad. At the same time, on the east side of Old Chapel Road, the first students trickled into the line-up area, out of sight from their families, looking for friends and their academic departments.

For students, it was a moment of complex emotions—excitement, wistfulness, anxiety, joy—all flooding in at the same time.

“It’s really bittersweet,” said Brooke Angell, a molecular biology and biochemistry major from Ranolph, Vt. “I’m excited to finish it all, but my biggest reservations are from leaving the people and wondering when I’ll get to see my friends all in one place again.” Angell is ready for her next adventure: she’s heading to the University of Washington this summer to work with fellow Middlebury alumnus Stanley Fields, professor of genome sciences and medicine, in his lab.

Andrew Jenkins and Brooke Angell

Mathematics major Andrew Jenkins, of Colton, NY, said the whole senior week and graduation day felt a little surreal. “I don’t think it’s all entirely registered yet,” he said. “You want to do justice to all the friendships you’ve made here before you leave.”

Ratang Sedimo, an economics major from Gaborone, Botswana, said he was trying to focus on the all the happy moments and not think about how much he’ll miss his friends. He plans to go back to Botswana for about seven months before returning to the U.S. to begin his master’s in applied economics at Johns Hopkins University.

Ratang Sedimo

As the lineup of students began to fill the sidewalk from the Axinn Center to Old Chapel, Stephen Bissainthe cut a striking figure among the sea of black academic regalia. At six foot six, the political science major, who was also a participant in the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps through the University of Vermont’s Green Mountain Battalion, towered above his classmates in his Army dress uniform. Bissainthe will take a well-deserved break this summer before starting a four-year commitment as an active-duty field artillery officer at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, in the fall. “I feel good, prepared, and eager,” he said. “It’s definitely excitement balanced with some nerves, but it’s a healthy mix.”

Stephen Bissainthe

Quincy Simmons will head back home to Brooklyn, NY, after graduation. “It’s been good to be at Middlebury, but I’m excited to get back to the city.” Simmons, a BOLD scholar who majored in theatre with an education studies minor, has a job lined up in the education outreach program at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. But before she starts her new post in July, she’ll be working on a women-in-theatre program and traveling to London.

Quincy Simmons

One of the graduates, Michelle Yaruqui, completed her degree in February and participated in Feb Celebration. But the economics major from Newark, New Jersey, was originally a member of the regular Class of 2018 and wanted to be with her friends on Commencement weekend. She is currently teaching calculus at a charter school in Newark, though she eventually plans to move into consulting and research in developing countries.

Michelle Yaruqui

Not everyone was nervous about the great unknowns to follow graduation. Iram Asghar, a joint theatre and studio art major from Brooklyn, NY, said she was planning to “wing it.” She’s planning to return to the city and find some work to pay the rent while she makes connections in the Brooklyn arts community and develops her own show. “I’ve been kind of winging it this whole time and it brought me to Middlebury, so I think if I keep winging it, something good will happen.”

Derek Ding, a psychology major from Shenzhen, China, will join Asghar this summer to work in costuming for a couple of months before starting a master’s program in clinical social work, specializing in clinical psychology, at Columbia University this fall.

Iram Asghar and Derek Ding

For some students, the future includes staying in the Middlebury fold. Innocent Mpoki, a political science and religion major from Masvingo, Zimbabwe, is planning to attend the Middlebury Institute of International Studies to earn his master’s in international policy and development. Before he starts that program, though, he’s hoping to find a job to gain some experience and earn a little money.

Innocent Mpoki

“This has been home for the last four years,” said Mpoki. “I’m going to miss home. I enjoy the daily challenge of thinking continuously and I’m going to miss that.”

By Stephen Diehl; Photos by Todd Balfour

MIDDLEBURY, Vt. – A new film by recent graduate Nate Wiener ’18 tackles the distinctly uncomfortable issue of safe injection sites as a way to mitigate the risks of overdose in Vermont’s opiate crisis. In “Nothing Else Has Worked,” Wiener’s short documentary thesis project, the New York City native interviewed numerous high-level stakeholders in Vermont, including Burlington State’s Attorney Sarah George, Burlington Police Chief Brandon del Pozo, and Lieutenant Governor David Zuckerman. He also spoke with the father of a young man who died of a heroin overdose.

Wiener, who shot and edited the vast majority of the film completely on his own, had been working as a news intern at WPTZ, the NBC affiliate in Colchester, Vermont, covering the State House. He was looking for a story angle on Vermont’s opiate crisis that he could cover in depth.

“In January, there was some buzz about safe injection in Montpelier,” said Wiener. “So, given the immediacy and relevance of the issue, I decided to focus the documentary on safe injection and I did my best to do a deep dive into the subject matter.”

Wiener contacted more than 30 people for interviews, including the director of a supervised injection facility in Montreal, who allowed him to tour the facility with his camera. The owner and general manager of Spectre de Rue, Gilles Beauregard, told Wiener he was the first Vermonter or American to visit the facility, which has been open since last November.

“Nate's film manages to give us a compelling overview of the discussion around safe injection sites in Vermont, within the context of the larger opioid crisis,” said David Miranda Hardy, associate professor of film and media culture and Wiener’s thesis advisor. “It is very difficult to achieve such level of clarity in the exposition of a social problem while advancing a point of view, in a visually compelling audiovisual piece under 12 minutes. Nate managed to get access to important political and law-enforcement stakeholders, while keeping an eye on the people directly affected by the problem.”

Wiener says the biggest challenge of the project was narrowing 13 interviews and more than five hours of film down to a short piece. “Many facets of the crisis and intricacies that I discovered while making this project had to be cut to simplify and help make a cohesive narrative,” he said.

The film explores the issue from a variety of perspectives, including from city and state law enforcement officials who express reservations about the idea of safe injection, and from State’s Attorney Sarah George who, as a prosecutor, believes the life-saving potential makes it worthwhile. The man identified only as “Bob,” whose son died from an overdose, says he has no idea whether supervised injection sites would work but is willing to try it because nothing else has worked so far.

Wiener has submitted his film to the Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival, which will take place in August, and the Vermont International Film Festival scheduled for October.

MIDDLEBURY, Vt. — June marks the beginning of the Middlebury Language Schools, known internationally for their full immersion approach to language teaching. This summer the School of Hebrew–one of a total of 11 Language Schools–will celebrate its 10^th anniversary.

The Language Schools will welcome over 1,500 students and 300 faculty to both the Middlebury College campus and Mills College campus in California to study Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish. This year’s students will represent 50 states and 124 countries, with Middlebury undergraduates representing 2 percent of the student body. 

Students will live, learn, and interact in the language they have come to study, and all sign the Language Pledge, a formal commitment designed by Middlebury to speak the language of study for the entire summer session. The Language Schools will also host cultural events that are often open to the public. 

Board games in another language, such as these available to the students at the School of Hebrew, provide another way for students to build vocabulary and fluency.

Students will bring a wide range of experiences with them this summer. One student is a flight attendant who travels to Central and South American countries and wants to improve her Spanish. A student from Texas graduated with a degree in creative writing from Stanford and has been named a finalist multiple times for Best American Short Stories. Another is an immigration lawyer who wants to improve his communication with his clients. One student is currently working on an MBA in renewable energy at a German business and engineering school. Another student from the South Korean Navy wants to become an interpreter of Japanese culture. Universities with the highest representation of students include Brown University, Columbia University, Kenyon College, the University of Chicago, and New York University.

Since 1915, more than 50,000 students from all walks of life—including more than 12,000 advanced degree holders—have attended one or more of the Language Schools.

The late philanthropist Kathryn Wasserman Davis funded the Davis Fellows for Peace, which continues to grant 100 scholarships to cover tuition, room, and board in the 11 Language Schools. The initiative, which began in 2007, is intended to challenge Middlebury to use its expertise in language acquisition and policy studies to recruit and train future potential peacemakers.

More information about the Middlebury Language Schools is available online or contact the Language Schools at 802-443-5510. For a list of main events open to the public this summer, please see the event list.

MIDDLEBURY, Vt. – Capping off a year of celebration for the 25th anniversary of the Mahaney Center for the Arts, Middlebury has released a new short video tour of the center that gives viewers a taste of the many activities that fill the venue during the academic year.

To anyone who has set foot in the Mahaney Center, much of the video feels familiar—the outside courtyard, sculpture garden, museum entrance, soaring lobby, and concert hall stage. But then we go deeper into the building to areas that visitors seldom see. New artwork arrives at the museum’s loading dock, set builders work on a production of Glengarry Glen Ross, students in a music course learn to play African instruments. The creative process behind countless artistic ventures comes to life.

Throughout the past year, the campus community has enjoyed special events recognizing the center’s anniversary. In September, the aerial dance troupe Bandaloop kicked off the celebration with a gravity-defying performance on the side of the Mahaney Center. The year ended with a nightlong series of performances and events in and around the center, including a rousing performance by Brazilian percussionist Cyro Baptista and the first-ever “Nocturne,” a student-run arts festival.

The Kevin P. Mahaney ’84 Center for the Arts opened in 1992 as the Middlebury College Center for the Arts, serving the College and surrounding communities. Its primary purpose is to provide an environment for the creation of art and to invite audiences to experience the work of local, national, and international artists. Known on campus as the "MCA," the Mahaney Center is home to the Middlebury College Museum of Art, the black-box style Seeler Studio Theatre, the dance theatre, and Robison Hall, a 370-seat recital hall.