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Features

Talk of the Quad

This Bowdoin bubble

This place is a bubble. Of course it is. Every fall, two-thousand students leave their homes—many in affluent suburban neighborhoods outside of major cities—to head to a small town on the coast of Maine. As you cross the state border from New Hampshire to Maine, the “Welcome to Vacationland” sign greets you, and if you flew into Portland, you can find the phrase “Vacationland” stamped on the license plate of almost every car you pass on the ride from the airport to campus.

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We’ve Seen it All: A Column with a Twist

Welcome back to school! Thank you so much to everybody who participated in and tuned into “We’ve Seen it All” last semester. In case you are new here, this is how the advice column works: Bowdoin students can anonymously send in questions about anything—school, friendships, jobs, relationships, etc.

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community

Creating Space in Our Public Place

Nothing captures the essence of Bowdoin like a warm sunny day on the Quad. Students lounge on beach blankets shielding their screens from the sun as they attempt to get a reading done. Hammocks and slacklines anchored between two trees create mini coves in an open expanse of grass.

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Life Lines

Life Lines: Feeling Seen

“I like that we’re on the same wavelength,” I tell my friend over dinner. Our eyes meet and the corners of his mouth curl up. We are pondering the good life and personal needs. The concepts are abstract, and the phrases my friend strings together are fragmented.

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Facilities

An electric love: Facilities Management switches to electric vehicles and equipment

Campus has been feeling electric lately—Bowdoin Facilities Management is aiming to switch entirely to electric vehicles and equipment by 2028. Facilities started this initiative two years ago as a part of Bowdoin’s broader Climate Action Plan for the campus to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2042, and it has made significant strides towards this goal since then.

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Dining Service

18,000 spoonfuls of sugar: the Bowdoin Bake Shop’s sweet and secret operations

At 4:30 a.m. each morning, the Bake Shop above Thorne Hall begins filling muffin tins with homemade batter. 2,000 muffins are baked each week, but the Bake Shop’s operations do not stop there. From homemade breads to pastries to pies and cakes, Bowdoin’s Dining Service relies upon its baking staff for sweets at every meal of the day.

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Burning Bowdoin Questions

Burning Bowdoin questions: Why the polar bear?

Bowdoin has become synonymous with a bear native to a region over 1,000 miles north of its campus—the polar bear. So I set out to finally settle the question: Why the polar bear? In the first installment of Burning Bowdoin Questions, I seek to discover when the polar bear was first introduced as the Bowdoin mascot and how the abundance of taxidermy made it all the way to Brunswick.

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Talk of the Quad

It’s so over

Last month, after a short, two-week stint visiting my family in China, it came time to return to Bowdoin, just in time for Lobster Bake. What troubled my mind wasn’t the imminent 30-hour connecting flight—my personal equivalent to being run over by a concrete roller in terms of magnitude of suffering.

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Arctic Studies

Bowdoin students venture to Arctic as program expands

For over 160 years, Bowdoin has been connecting students and faculty members with the Arctic, forging intellectual and community relationships across Norway, Finland, Canada, Alaska and Greenland. This summer, the Arctic studies program sent student researchers to Greenland and the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador to continue this legacy of years past.

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McKeen Fellow

Students reflect on Global Citizen Fellowship experiences

This summer, Sabrina Kearney ’26, Phincho Sherpa ’25 and Pranav Vadlamudi ’26 were three of six Bowdoin students who engaged in volunteer and public service work in various countries through the Global Citizens Fellowship. Sponsored by the Joseph McKeen Center for the Common Good, fellows received funding to work with non-profit organizations abroad for ten weeks.

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SWAG

Natalie Turrin starts the year as the new director of the Sexuality, Women and Gender Center

In addition to its move from 24 College Street to Ladd House this fall, the Sexuality, Women and Gender (SWAG) Center is welcoming a new face: newly-minted director Natalie Turrin. Turrin, originally from Toronto, Canada, completed her doctorate at Emory University before working there in the Office of LGBT life and later serving as the Associate Director of the Center for Women.

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Schiller Center

Summer research at the Schiller Coastal Studies Center explores important ecological issues in the Harpswell Sound

From students making bioplastic with the shells of invasive green crabs to mapping microplastic levels throughout the Harpswell Sound, the Schiller Coastal Studies Center was far from idle this summer. Students took up jobs and research projects to further their understanding of the complex ecological systems in the Casco Bay region and humans’ vital role in maintaining this habitat.

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Dining Service

From sea to stomach: A peek into Lobster Bake logistics

The beloved Lobster Bake has opened the academic year since the 1960s, with students rushing to the Farley Fields in their finest outfits year after year. When cracking a lobster claw and catching up with friends who you have not seen all summer, you rarely stop to think about the preparation and planning that went into putting that lobster on your plate.

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Dessert Persons

Smart croquembouche

My mom asked me one of her usual “explain English” questions on the phone today. “I’ve always wondered why people say ‘you’re a smart cookie’ but not ‘you’re a smart bagel’ or ‘you’re a smart donut.’” She said it in a way that made me think she was going to tell me why, but she just stopped short right after that.

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Open Edges

Our summer clothes

“My best friend’s name was Gil. We used to blaze down the sidewalks around here on our bikes with no-hands, cutting and weaving. I thought I was invincible, but Gil, Gil had a death wish. Everything I could do he did cooler, faster or with his emerald eyes closed.

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Pokémon GO sees renewed peak-achu

Raids and rivalries plague our campus, not just in the retelling of momentous battles in class or between the pages of a history textbook, but also in the epic pursuit of “catching ‘em all.” Now that the weather has taken a turn for the better, 2016 mobile game craze Pokémon GO has made a resurgence on campus seven years after its release.

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Q&A with the Bowdoin dog spotter

If you’ve ever seen Violet Rizzieri ’23 sprint across the quad, odds are she was chasing down a dog, camera in hand. While her love of canines may be obvious, her motivations for snapping pictures of dogs on campus have long remained a secret.

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International Students

Administrative dilemma: International students advocate for expanded career opportunities

For many Bowdoin students, the number of options for on- and off-campus employment is extensive. From summer internships and research assistantships to volunteer positions, these opportunities offer invaluable experience and often promise post-graduation offers. This situation is infinitely more complicated for international students, who make up almost seven percent of Bowdoin’s student body and generally need a visa to study at Bowdoin.

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Talk of the Quad

My Bowdoin goodbye

I used to think my time at Bowdoin would be separated into a “before” and an “after” with the outbreak of Covid-19 in 2020 being the cataclysmic event. But as I sit here thinking about the last four years, I’ve realized that there is no such “great divide.” And while my life now does look different than it did during my pre-Covid first-year, perhaps that’s to be expected when the world stops.

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Talk of the Quad

Missed Connections

Airports exist primarily as a liminal space to me, so I usually discard my experiences within them as mere figments of my imagination. But last year, in Boston Logan International Airport, something real happened to me—something that wasn’t a dream.

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CSA provides Christian and interfaith community

Whether through Bible study groups or s’mores and songs around the bonfire, the Christian Students Association (CSA) works hard to provide Bowdoin students who identify as Christian with a sense of religious belonging and community grounded in inclusion, collaboration and celebration of their faith.

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We've Seen it All

We’ve seen it all: lessons from six long lives

On April 10, Lilli Frank ’25 and I interviewed six members from People Plus—a community recreation center for older adults in Brunswick. This column is just a snippet of what we learned. Bill, 75 Bill lived abroad for 35 years and developed a knack for languages while intercepting Russian transmissions during the Cold War.

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Open Edges

Open Edges: What kind of times are these?

“I won’t tell you where the place is, the dark mesh of the woods meeting the unmarked strip of light— ghost-ridden crossroads, leafmold paradise: I know already who wants to buy it, sell it, make it disappear.” – Adrienne Rich We move through the darkness like fireflies, bobbing and swerving over the tire treads, like small trenches, dug into the logging road.

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Student Life

Members of the BCBAA create community between Black alumni and students on campus

When Adriennie Hatten ’90 returned to Bowdoin for a visit in 2018, she was surprised to discover how few of the Black students she spoke to had visited the John Brown Russwurm African American Center. When Hatten attended the College, she recalls, the center was where many of the Black students and faculty members at the College could be found at any given moment.

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Talk of the Quad

My nanu, my dinosaur

I knew something was wrong as soon as my mom told me that we could go out to eat “wherever I wanted” after landing back home in San Francisco for spring break. If you live in an immigrant household, you can understand why this would set off alarms in my head.

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We've Seen it All

We’ve seen it all: guilt and self doubt

We have a lot to cover this week, so I’ll jump right into it. Welcome back to the advice column with a twist. This is how it works: all questions are anonymously sent in to the QR code, and older community members from People Plus—a community recreation center for older adults in Brunswick—write back with their advice.

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Inside “Chuffed”: Brunswick’s woman-owned barber shop

Kristy Beury-Moore is an art school drop-out, cosmetologist, the second-best female wrestler in Maine and the owner of Chuffed, Brunswick’s woman-owned barber shop located on Maine Street. Chuffed was founded in March 2022 with a mission to offer a friendly and trendy spot for anybody looking for a stylish, manageable haircut.

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The CSU on cultivating a strong Catholic community

One of many spaces of belonging and shared interest on Bowdoin’s campus, the Catholic Students Union (CSU), provides a community for students who wish to practice and share their Catholic faith with each other. This past weekend, the CSU joined together in celebration of Easter.

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Dessert Persons

Let them eat cake

The size of wedding cakes throughout history started out small, grew really big and now lands somewhere in the middle. Wedding cakes originated in ancient Rome, where a scone or barley cake would be cracked over the bride’s head to ensure luck and fertility.

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How close can we get?

“Time, then, is otherness, a mystery that hovers above all categories. It is as if time and the mind were a world apart. Yet, it is only within time that there is fellowship and togetherness of all beings.” – Abraham Joshua Heschel Modern life.

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Students find strong community at Bowdoin Hillel

“Raucous.” “Awesome.” “Lots of food and lots of complaining.” These are just a few of the words that Lia Kornmehl ’23, Bowdoin Hillel’s co-president, used to describe Hillel’s Passover celebration, one of many Jewish traditions that the club celebrates each year.

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Bowdoin Shuttle driver Angela Keating reflects on decade of late night shuttle connections

During her 13 years as a  driver for a Bowdoin SafeRide Shuttle, Angela Keating has connected countless students to their destinations around the mile-radius of campus and witnessed notable connections made between her passengers. One of Keating’s most memorable moments in the shuttle was witnessing the meeting of two students who began dating and eventually got married.

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Wilco worlds away

My family’s photo albums are filled with mementos of musical pursuits. In one particularly treasured shot, my brother stands on our wooden kitchen floor as rays of sun pour in through wide glass windows. Though the table and chairs tower over him, he is more enthusiastic than his size might suggest as he strums a toy guitar, his head thrown back in classic rock star fashion.

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On books

I used to read more. I would come home from school and spend hours sitting in the branches of the tree in our backyard, high enough above the ground to feel I had been transported to the world of Percy Jackson or Artemis Fowl, later venturing to Middle Earth and beyond.

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We’ve Seen It All: All about relationships

Welcome back from spring break! Hopefully you spent the past two weeks reuniting and relaxing with the people you love. If that didn’t work out, and you returned to campus feeling heartbroken, confused or both, you’ve come to the right place.

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Open Edges

Chronos feasts on his children

“The dead surround the living. The living are the core of the dead. In this core are the dimensions of time and space. What surrounds the core is timelessness.” – John Berger Crouched, drawing circles in the dirt with his finger under the glare of the afternoon sun, the boy waited for his grandfather to return.

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Talk of the Quad

God is dead, but Cupid isn’t!

One fateful day, German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche wrote, “God is dead!” And on an even more fateful day, Chayma Charifi wrote, “God is dead.… but Cupid isn’t!” According to Nietzsche, God’s death means that humans are now free to create their own values and meanings.

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Andrea Louie talks 1952 U.S. Mother of the Year

On Wednesday, Professor of Anthropology at Michigan State University Andrea Louie ’89 examined the model minority myth through an unconventional lens: lecturing about her grandmother. Selected as the U.S. Mother of the Year in 1952, Toy Len Goon was a Chinese immigrant who ran a hand laundry in Portland, Maine.

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Dessert Persons

My Howell House gingerbread home

In the history of my Moore triple’s traditional Sunday bake day, the only food we cooked but didn’t eat was our grand, seasonally in-demand, gingerbread house. We woke up at 6 a.m. two days in a row and in the freezing cold, lugged ingredients and tools from Howell to Mac House, holing up in the kitchen to design and bake a meticulous replica of Howell House, our affiliate house.

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Open Edges

Storyteller

“Nothing remained unchanged but the clouds, and beneath these clouds, in a field of force of destructive torrents and explosions, was the tiny, fragile human body.” – Walter Benjamin Endless fields, meadows and rolling hills stretch towards the horizon, where the earth and sky meet, have always met, will forever meet—except when viewed from the forest floor.

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Talk of the Quad

On snow

It’s become the universalized symbol of winter: the first snow, where you run out in the now cold air. A light dusting covers the ground and you try to catch a snowflake on your tongue. I always look forward to that first snow of the year, because it marks the changing of the seasons and the beginning of a beautiful winter.

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We’ve Seen It All: A column with a twist

We often hear that young people are the future. We’re not just the leaders of tomorrow, but the leaders of today. I call BS. Well, not totally. We do rock. But we only rock and roll with a little nudge—advice from people who are more experienced than we are.

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A Stellar Opportunity: Rare siberian bird 20 minutes from campus

The Steller’s sea eagle is back, and people from all over the country are lining Midcoast Maine’s rural roads and bridges—armed with scopes and cameras—in hopes of catching a glimpse of this rare bird. Attracting throngs of people, the Steller’s sea eagle, a black and white bird native to Eastern Russia, was spotted roosting in pines north of the Route 127 Back River Bridge between Arrowsic and Georgetown on Saturday.

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Quickly Boba Cafe brings bubble tea to Tontine

Nate and Armie Mangoba opened Quickly Boba Cafe on December 15, and in just two months of business, they have taken the Tontine Mall Complex by storm with their authentic boba creations. The franchise, based in California, was originally uprooted in Taiwan and has gained rapid popularity in Brunswick.

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Dessert Persons

Giving baklava

Sheets of silky phyllo dough stretched so thin they’re transparent are buttered, then layered with a filling of finely chopped pistachios, walnuts and cinnamon. Phyllo dough is unleavened so that after it has baked, it does not rise, and the layers settle into each other like the pages of a closed book.

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Brunswick

Woods, Water, World: Kaplan ’23 on 50 years of environmental studies

Maine is a paragon of serene, pristine natural beauty, but has also been affected by pollution and other environmental harm. Lizzy Kaplan ’23 honors Maine’s environmental history—and celebrates 50 years of environmental studies at the College—in her exhibit “Woods, Water, and World: Environmental Studies at Bowdoin College.” Though Bowdoin’s environmental studies department was founded in 1972, the College’s relationship with the environment dates much further back.

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Brunswick

GoGo Refill opens doors to low-waste living

What was once another eyesore on Pleasant Street has recently been recycled into a new business that offers alternatives to plastic products, allowing Brunswick residents to skip the recycling bin altogether. Opened in November, GoGo Refill encourages a low-waste lifestyle by selling reusable, refillable or compostable products, all with the goal of replacing everyday plastic purchases that often end up in the landfill.

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Brunswick

New bagel shop Dutchman’s pops up in Brunswick

Every Sunday before sunrise, Jeremy Kratzer is hard at work putting bagels into a wood-fired pizza oven to prepare for a morning serving customers that travel from near and far. Kratzer and his wife Marina started operating Dutchman’s, a bagel pop-up housed in Nomad Pizza’s cafe space, in November of 2022.

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Talk of the Quad

Drewminating

“Drew is my home name and Andrew is my school name.” – Me, circa 2007, before going off to kindergarten. For my entire life, my family has called me “Drew” and just about everyone else has called me “Andrew.” When I tell people that I go by Drew at home, they usually react with a mix of shock and confusion, which I always find surprising.

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Talk of the Quad

My ADHD Diagnostic Journey

I’ve struggled with my mental health all my life, and what conditions I may have burrowing inside my head have been a mystery to me up until this past year. Even though I have dealt with nearly debilitating anxiety and depression since elementary school, I didn’t get properly diagnosed until spring of last year (happy one year diagnosis-versary to me!) thanks to Bowdoin Counseling and Wellness Services.

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Talk of the Quad

An ode to the moment

As I muster a deep breath in, sniffles ensue. I look around, thinking insistently about zipping up my coat and trudging back to Coles Tower. But instead of making the first motion towards my tan puffer, I stop myself.

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Talk of the Quad

My non-conventional Thanksgiving

As warm aromas of Thanksgiving cooking rose from the kitchen into my bedroom, I woke up with a feeling of excitement that my family and I were finally having a real, home-cooked Thanksgiving meal. As I ran down the stairs, I looked forward to saying goodbye to our annual, premade Costco Thanksgiving dinners and hello to homemade turkey and mashed potatoes.

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COVID-19

The long haul: students navigate long Covid

In a Bowdoin Orient survey sent to the student body in October, nearly three-quarters of respondents said they had tested positive for Covid-19 at some point during the past two years. While the rates of Covid on campus dwindle and pandemic restrictions wane, there are continued implications of having once tested positive.

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Students celebrate Diwali

On Saturday evening, the South Asian Students Association (SASA) invited students to gather in Moulton Union to celebrate Diwali, or the festival of lights. The night was complete with food, dancing and celebration. At 6 p.m., guests were welcomed with food from Mughal Place and the opportunity to eat in community.

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Talk of the Quad

Daylight Savings rambles

One Sunday morning, you wake up, check your phone and gawk at the early hour—who would have thought that you would be up naturally at 8 a.m. on Sunday? The world is your metaphorical oyster, and a quick peek behind the blinds confirms the weather is beautiful.

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Talk of the Quad

Thoughts from the privileged poor

I grew up in a working-class neighborhood a few minutes away from the Newark Airport. My father, a limousine driver, purchased the house right before the 2008 recession. As the mortgage payments rose and the foreclosure letters hit the mail, my father worked longer hours behind the wheel.

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Brunswick

Frontier’s transformation into Nomad Pizza

Nomad Pizza, a business that originated in New Jersey, officially opened its brick and mortar restaurant in the Fort Andross Mill earlier this month. For the past year, Nomad operated as a food truck, serving pizza, homemade pasta and salads in Belfast, Monmouth and Portland, among other cities and towns in Maine.

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Good Old Raisins and Peanuts (GORP)

Thoughts from on the island

I spent most of my fall break circumnavigating Kent Island’s tidepools—slipping over mounds of seaweed, hopscotching boulders, singing to periwinkles, bushwhacking a mile in rubber boots and lifting tiny green crabs out of the water. Until I was closed in by the Atlantic in every direction, my experience with the ocean was limited to yearly beach outings and a few whale watching trips in Canada with my family, and I was fascinated by it.

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