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Emma Sorkin
Orient Staff — Class of 2022
Number of articles: 21
First Article: September 14, 2018
Latest Article: April 9, 2020
2 photos by Emma Sorkin
Emma SorkinALWAYS LEARNING: Dan Possumato (right) addresses his “U.S. National Security Structure and Processes” class at the Midcoast Senior College located at the Brunswick Landing. Possumato is a former director of Plans, Training, Mobilization and Security for the U.S. Army and currently works for the U.S. Department of State as a special investigator. His experience provided a rich background and basis for his course this winter.
Emma SorkinALWAYS LEARNING: Dan Possumato (right) addresses his “U.S. National Security Structure and Processes” class at the Midcoast Senior College located at the Brunswick Landing. Possumato is a former director of Plans, Training, Mobilization and Security for the U.S. Army and currently works for the U.S. Department of State as a special investigator. His experience provided a rich background and basis for his course this winter.
Bowdoin will open 12 apartment units for first responders—fire and emergency services personnel who come into contact with individuals infected by the coronavirus (COVID-19)—and 75 housing units for Mid Coast Hospital employees.
After receiving requests three weeks ago from Mid Coast Hospital Parkview Campus and the Town of Brunswick for housing units with an en suite bathroom and kitchen access, the College prepared units in Stowe Inn, 52 Harpswell, Brunswick, Federal Street, Mayflower and Pine Street Apartments, each unit designated to house only one individual to comply with social distancing recommendations.
As thousands of people across the globe are ordered to stay in their homes, many have turned to baking, reading or painting. Two Bowdoin students, however, have opted for a different activity: matchmaking.
The pair, who wish to remain anonymous, created Bowdoin Quarantine Matches, a platform that uses a Google Forms survey in order to match students with similar interests.
When Kailyn Braley started as a security officer at the College late last August, as with any new job, she had to adjust.
“I know sometimes a uniform can be off-putting, and it was something that was a struggle when I first started working here,” Braley said.
Addressing the room in the final session of his “U.S. National Security Structure and Processes” class, Dan Possumato quipped, “My therapist tells me that with a lot of work, I may recover [from teaching this class].” The room broke out in laughter.
“There’s my dream team right there,” History Department Academic Coordinator Rebecca Banks said, smiling and pointing to a picture of two students hanging on the wall in her office. “The students are fabulous. I usually have one or two student workers a semester, and I love them.”
Bowdoin’s academic department coordinators take on a wide range of responsibilities, from working directly with students and faculty and managing course materials, to planning events for majors, bringing speakers to campus and helping hire new faculty members.
When you walk into Amy Maloney’s house, it looks like any ordinary house. Magnets, pictures and notes cling to the fridge, art hangs from the wall and light streams in from the windows. There are three cups on the kitchen table, each full of pencils sorted by color, with a large sheet of paper showing Maloney’s latest landscape design laid out beside them.
In the fall of 1969, Robert Johnson ’71 became the first president of the African American Society (AAS). Fifty years later, Amani Hite ’20 holds the position of president of the Black Student Union (BSU, formerly the African American Society).
There is a long history of Bowdoin alumni going into politics at all levels, from state and local seats to the Presidency. Two recent Bowdoin alumni may soon join the growing list of Bowdoin graduates in political office.
Every weekday morning this semester, nine Bowdoin students pile into minivans to travel to their classroom: the Schiller Coastal Studies Center. Swapping laptops for test tubes and sneakers for rubber boots, students in Bowdoin Marine Science Semester (BMSS) explore coastal environments through a hands-on, intimate semester-long experience.
For some, “art” refers to old paintings in heavy frames hanging in a museum. For others, art is a means of expression. For Bowdoin’s new Curatorial Assistant and Manager of Student Programs Elizabeth Humphrey ’14, art is personal.
Brunswick has been home to a local cinema since 1908. The name and location of this theater have changed over the past century, but today, Eveningstar Cinema on Maine Street carries on the tradition as Brunswick’s go-to specialty box office.
When Alyssa Gillespie, now the chair of the department and associate professor of Russian, came to Bowdoin in the fall of 2016, only one student was majoring in Russian.
Since then, Gillespie has worked tirelessly to expand the department, which now has 15 majors and two minors.
The theater is dark, and nobody is on the stage. The lights are off and the room is quiet until a voice breaks the silence. Assistant Professor of Dance Aretha Aoki’s voice is broadcast throughout Wish Theater, but she remains off stage.
Brunswick is home to many cafes, coffee shops, stores and a variety of well-liked restaurants. As for upscale dining, selection has been slim—until now.
Odd Duck, which opened January 1, prides itself on filling this niche.
This year, the English department brought new and now internationally-award-winning talent to its faculty. Author and Assistant Professor of English Alex Marzano-Lesnevich recently won the prestigious France Inter-JDD foreign book prize for the French translation of their 2017 cross-genre book “The Fact of a Body: A Murder and a Memoir.”
This award is given by a committee of prominent French journalists to one book internationally per year in any genre.
While the Bowdoin College Museum of Art (BCMA) is well-known for its extensive and unique collections, much of the space’s success and innovation is due to its employees. Anne and Frank Goodyear, co-directors of the BCMA since 2014, have played a significant role in facilitating the museum’s growth and creative aspirations.
$1,500 is the minimum bond required to help reunite one family separated at the U.S.-Mexico border and was the original goal of Dave and Charlotte Willner’s ’06 Facebook fundraiser. It’s also the amount they received within 22 minutes after starting the fundraiser in June.
Computational creativity can seem—at first—like an oxymoron. Computer science is often associated with dark rooms and daunting technology while creativity connotes vivid color, energy and novelty. In the case of Assistant Professor of Computer Science Sarah Harmon’s new Computational Creativity course, however, this dichotomy could not be further from the truth.
Director of Religious and Spiritual Life at Bowdoin Eduardo Pazos Palma believes the study of religious traditions can help with understanding many issues that grip the increasingly globalized world. Pazos Palma wants to initiate this conversation with a new Multifaith Program at Bowdoin.
The lights go down, and the whole room is black. Walls, floor, ceiling—everything black. A figure, dressed (you guessed it) in black, emerges from the right, singing in Afrikaans. After nearly 90 minutes of intense interaction and emotional performance, the theater will return to this: everything black.
You’d never guess it from looking at him now—sitting comfortably, a smile spreading across his face as he describes his orchestra, voice bouncing and echoing across the recital hall—but George Lopez, Beckwith artist-in-residence and director of the Bowdoin orchestra, never wanted to be a musician.
