The Bowdoin Orient

Sophomores Ian Kline, Jared Littlejohn, Jun Choi, Matt Goodrich, Ollie Klingenstein and Omar Sohail have all been selected to compete in the third-annual Polar Bear Pageant, Bowdoin’s premier male talent contest, in Kresge Auditorium on Saturday. The winner will be crowned Mr. Polar Bear. 

This event started three years ago when Melody Hahm ’13 promised to produce the pageant as part of her successful bid for sophomore class president. The sophomore class council has planned the event ever since. 

Current sophomore class president John Izzo ’15 believes the pageant is a fun way to foster class unity. 

When winter settles in the Maine woods, most people scurry indoors to take comfort in a modern marvel called the thermostat. Yet for a select group of students, the arrival of winter means it is time to throw off cushy comforts and boldly go where few have willingly gone before—the wilderness.

At least that’s where you’ll find the men and women of the Bowdoin Outing Club’s Advanced Winter Leadership Seminar (AWLS).

The Outing Club also offers a popular Leadership Training (LT) course, where selected students learn how to organize and lead outdoor expeditions safely. Although seemingly similar, Assistant Directors of the Outing Club Rebecca Austin and Devin Farkas explained that AWLS is different in two critical ways.

“I’m somewhat of an environmentalist,” said Blier. “We didn’t expect oil to go through the roof like it did. We recouped the costs of conversion in three months because of all the money we didn’t spend on oil.”

As the ice returns to Watson Arena, a tight-knit and dedicated group of athletes begin their training, ready to earn Bowdoin yet another championship. Watch out hockey: it’s curling season. When most Americans think of curling—if they think of it at all—they call up vague Olympic memories of an accentric sport that resembles ice bowling, but for Carl Spielvogel ’13 and his friends, watching the event during the 2010 Vancouver games led to an important realization. “We decided that we should start a team at Bowdoin,” Spielvogel said. They soon hired a coach and began practicing at a facility in Belfast, Maine.