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With almost two weeks of social distancing under my belt, I’m about one bad Zoom call away from talking to the walls. I’ve run the gamut of classic quarantine activities, from finally purging my wardrobe of nostalgic high school t-shirts to telling myself I have the personality to get into baking (wrong).
Diana Grandas ’20 was in Austria over spring break visiting a friend when she received word that the College would be transitioning to remote learning. Suddenly, she found herself unable to return to campus and had no way to retrieve her belongings.
Stage One: Denial. I arrive in one of my last classes before spring break in a huff. “West Trek is cancelled,” I complain. “All because of coronavirus. It’s all fear mongering. I refuse to take part.” That day, I receive an email from The Atlantic with the subject line, “Why you’ll probably get coronavirus.” I delete it immediately.
About a month ago, I swam in my last race ever: the 200 butterfly at the NESCAC Championships. My coaches told me my fly had been looking good. My teammates were cheering me on behind the blocks.
It’s easy for me to remember the last time I felt this hopeless and distraught. It was in the fall of my freshman year, after the 2016 general election. Before election night, I was really excited.
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.
I wake up, and I check the phone. Here’s a novel idea of the day: How’d you figure the world would end? As it turns out, feeling like the world’s going to end creeps in unsuspectedly.
John Rensenbrink was working in the fields of his family’s farm in northern Minnesota when his mother told him that America had dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The year was 1945, and Rensenbrink was 17 years old.
Adrienne Rich (1929-2012) was a renowned feminist poet throughout the second half of the 20th century. Her poems explored themes of feminism, social justice, queerness and environmentalism. One of my favorites is called “My heart is moved.” “My heart is moved by all I cannot save: / so much has been destroyed / I have to cast my lot with those / who age after age, perversely, / with no extraordinary power, / reconstitute the world.” Two of the most influential people in my life, a married couple who teach at my public high school, introduced me to this poem.
Every Saturday in Thorne Dining Hall, the Bowdoin College Republicans meet for dinner and conversation—with a touch of politics. The club has an email list of 95 people, but attendance is usually limited to the same six or seven people each week, admitted club co-president Theo de Quillacq ’21.
Over the years, there’s been an overabundance of conversations at Bowdoin around hookup culture. Whether it’s over brunch after a night of partying, under blinking fairy lights at a group of girlfriends’ weekly wine night or onstage at “RISE: Untold Stories of Bowdoin Women.” It’s been the subject of countless Talks of the Quad and columns in the Bowdoin Orient.
Produced, edited and filmed by Marcus Ribeiro ’23 The noise level in Moderation Brewing Company oscillated between murmurs and shouts at Tuesday’s trivia night. Bowdoin students, faculty and staff sat alongside Brunswick-area residents as they all huddled around tables to discuss where the seat of the Anglican Bishop of London is.
I miss my dog. A lot. I miss him so much that I have taped not one but two photos of him to my carrel in the library, and sometimes I talk to them when no one is around.
My heart flutters when the door creaks open—the stage is dimly lit, empty. I grip my crinkled note card too hard, and my palms smudge the ink. I step out onto the stage. The clapping slows, my feet wander ahead despite hesitation.
Saturday, February 1—Rochester, N.H. The calluses first appeared around day 12 in Sioux City, Iowa, says Penny Mack ’22. “You knock like two doors, and the calluses are already coming back,” she says, making a fist with her right hand, her knocking hand.
I identify as religious. My father comes from a long line of Irish-Catholics; he and my mother, who was raised Lutheran, decided to raise my sisters and me in the Catholic Church. In high school, my religious identity became an active choice: even when my parents took breaks from going to church, I would drive myself.
The earliest memories I have of America involve a slew of mystical reveries about how the nation on the other side of Earth works. How did I even begin to explain America? It was immaculate. It had 50 states with so many different time zones.
Two men, four dogs, one champion. The inaugural Helmreich House Hot Dog Eating Contest ended in a tie Saturday afternoon, forcing an electrifying overtime period from which a winner emerged, much to the delight of dozens of raucous students gathered in the residence’s living room.
With its elegant interior, locally-sourced ingredients and a pared-down menu, Maine St. Steak and Oyster strives to create a casual ambience with high-end versions of classic dishes. The restaurant, which opened last Thursday, saw a busy first weekend and looks forward to an exciting future on Brunswick’s Maine Street.
Bowdoin is a campus of many tattoos, but perhaps the College’s most famous ink is Doug Calhoun’s honey bee, located on his left wrist. The tattoo, which Calhoun got at age 74, is an homage to his beehive and can be spotted as Calhoun swipes students into Thorne Dining Hall.
As a sports fan, I am not someone who is offended easily. I believe in boo-ing a bad ref and have no problem with a rowdy crowd. I was at Fenway Park for Alex Rodriguez’s final game in Boston, and I made it on to the big screen holding a giant asterisk, in an attempt to remind Rodriguez of his impending legacy as a cheater.
Have you ever experienced a really, really bad jet lag? Not the type where you crave dinner at 4 p.m. or feel the need to pop a melatonin before bed. This is something much more daunting and debilitating, an out-of-body experience where all is at once foreign yet familiar.
The first episode of Amazon Prime’s “Modern Love,” “When the Doorman is Your Main Man,” tells the story of Maggie, a single woman in New York who becomes pregnant. Despite the pregnancy being unplanned and the fact that the father declines involvement in the baby’s life, Maggie chooses to move forward as a single mother with some help from her doorman, who offers her unwavering support and guidance.
“I really enjoy conversations,” explained Ruby Ahaiwe ’21 as she described her favorite part of working with the Africa Academic Hub, which has emerged as a steadily growing presence on campus since it was first proposed last spring.
If you’ve ever wondered what your peers are churning out during late nights in the library or hours in Smith Union, you’re not alone. Whether it’s an interpretation of Chaucer or the results of a psychology experiment, Bowdoin students are constantly at work.
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.
On the evening of November 8, 2016, Donald Trump was elected president. The next morning, school was the last place self-described progressive Morgan Edwards ’22 wanted to be. In Frostburg, Md., where Edwards grew up, around 80 percent of residents were Trump supporters.
Luis Miguel Guerrero ’20 and Sasa Jovanovic ’20 admitted that there were a few bumps in the road during the Alternative Winter Break (AWB) trip they led last week. “Those back roads in Maine are barely plowed,” Guerrero said.
“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.
The other night, I had the immense pleasure of eating a meal cooked by Jacob Baskes ’20, a fantastic chef and the most eligible bachelor at Bowdoin. Jacob and I have been friends since our first year when we both joined the frisbee team.
If you’re familiar with Bowdoin, you’re probably familiar with the Russwurm African American Center. This house was constructed in 1827 and named after John Brown Russwurm, an 1826 graduate of Bowdoin and the first African American to receive a Bowdoin degree.
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.
The recent influx of asylum seekers in the American Northeast has motivated Bowdoin students to engage with refugees in Brunswick and its surrounding cities and develop new service programs tailored to meet the needs of these communities.
In just over a week, the busy hallways and quiet study nooks of the College will have a new addition: a collection of stories from the Bowdoin community relating to disability hung all across campus. In hopes of increasing visibility on International Day of Persons with Disabilities (IDPWD) on December 3, the DisAbled Students Association (DASA) is asking faculty, students and staff to contribute submissions expressing their own experiences or those of friends and loved ones.
“We fix catastrophic mistakes,” Joel Amsden said, pulling a replica of a 1959 Gibson Les Paul electric guitar out of its case. The neck was unfinished and barren. The guitar, worth around $5,000 according to Amsden’s off-the-cuff estimate, needed extensive repair.
Maine loses nearly a person per day to opioids. But on campus, students are largely insulated from the crisis, which hits Maine’s aging populations and manual laborers especially hard. In Cumberland County, there were 74 overdoses during the first quarter of 2019, down from the previous quarter’s 86.
My family moved to Maine the summer before I started high school. I had spent most of life among the skyscrapers of Chicago, where anonymity was expected in the bustle of city crowds. Yet I felt very connected to my city.
When I see the word “mental illness,” my mind goes straight to the word “illness.” Then a host of other words start to flow through my mind: disease, disability, impaired, bad, inferior, unworthy. The list continues, but the negative connotation of the words remain the same.
As Maine’s Democratic primary on Super Tuesday approaches, students across campus are bringing the race to Bowdoin. Presidential campaigns realized the power of the college-student voting block; the rates of college students who voted doubled in 2018.
During his first semester at Bowdoin, Joe Hilleary ’20 signed up for an introductory Arabic class. He did not have any previous experience, and he definitely did not expect to fall in love with the language.
It didn’t take me long to realize that the Bowdoin campus is a goldmine for obscure references to the College’s history. Exhibit A: in the fall of my first year, I was strolling through the quad alongside my upperclassman friend as she told me about compass engravings—yes, you read that right—scattered throughout the landscape of the College as some sort of historical reference.
Allen Daniels, Bowdoin security officer first class, warned me that he was going to cry during our interview. “I can’t block it out,” he said of his time in the military. “It’s like a watermark. It’s always there, over the image that is real life.
I recall my Bowdoin experience through excessive cultural consumption. It sounds like Nick Hornby “High Fidelity”—like mumbo jumbo, but it’s a great cataloging method. Fall 2016: I over-played Frank Ocean’s “Blonde.” Fall 2017: I discovered Pavement, and logically started to think I grew up in the 90s.
Once daily, I swallow a tiny pill that contains 100 mg of the drug Sertraline, more commonly known by its brand name, Zoloft. Sertraline has many side effects, including, but not limited to, worsening depression, dizziness, drowsiness, vomiting, diarrhea, decreased sex drive, impotence or difficulty having an orgasm.
During my three years at Bowdoin, I have dined at nearly all of Brunswick’s restaurants. I have enjoyed meals at Frontier, Little Tokyo, Enoteca Athena and Shere Punjab. I have eaten passably at Richard’s, Joshua’s and Sweet Angel.
From conducting cutting-edge research in the nation’s capital to publishing an article about the preconception of gay areas as white, Assistant Professor of Sociology Theo Greene has done it all. During his sabbatical in Washington, D.C.
This fall, five tenured or tenure track professors joined Bowdoin’s ranks, settling into the community and bringing new ideas to their departments. They specialize in a wide array of subjects, including religion, Asian and Africana studies, music, neuroscience, biology and chemistry.
On the fourth Sunday of every month, a small group gathers in the hole-in-the-wall space above Moderation Brewing to sip beer, chat and reflect on feminist texts. Open to people of all genders, the Brunswick Feminist Book Club met for the first time last November when Kira Bennett Hamilton brought a couple of friends together from the Brunswick area.
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 Monday night for the past five weeks, 16 members of the Intergroup Dialogue (IGD) on race gathered at 30 College Street. Through dialogue, rather than debate, participants aim for honest understanding across racial identities. Facilitated by Director of Religious and Spiritual Life Eduardo Pazos and Associate Dean of Student Affairs for Inclusion and Diversity and Director of the Sexuality, Women and Gender Center Kate Stern, the program is designed to allow students of various racial backgrounds to come together to discuss issues of race on campus and in society at large.
In an often high-stress environment like Bowdoin, self-care is encouraged, whether it’s in the form of writing, drawing or taking a warm shower. “Stress might be [a] unifying factor, but [it’s] not something I encourage us to over-identify with or let run our lives,” said Kate Nicholson, Bowdoin’s new assistant director of Student Wellness.
Everyone remembers something different about their first time on Bowdoin’s campus. Maybe it’s the stress of move-in day, the excitement of that one soccer game you watched as a prospective student or even running through the quad as a little kid on a sunny summer day.
As most upperclassmen know, Bowdoin offered “express breakfast” at Moulton during finals in the spring of 2019. Students could swipe in at the Moulton Express counter and grab a breakfast sandwich, a cup of coffee and some yogurt to go.
Career Exploration and Development (CXD) is introducing a new peer advisor program this semester in an effort to provide students with more opportunities to learn about the office and receive career support. The three peer advisors—Elly Veloria ’20, Mike McAlarney ’21 and Amanda Rickman ’20—offer regular drop-in hours in the CXD and David Saul Smith Union to help students with basic career tasks like crafting a resume or drafting a cover letter.
Fashion is an essential part of my identity; it’s partly rooted in my personality, but it truly stems from a cultural expectation of dress I learned while growing up in an African family living in Boston.
These self-portraits were made by William Utermohlen, a 20th century contemporary artist. He was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 1995. At the onset of his Alzheimer’s, he decided to sketch a portrait of himself once a year until 2000—he died in 2007.
Maine celebrated its first Indigenous Peoples Day on Monday. For many Bowdoin students, their awareness of Native Americans comes only from history books or environmental justice readings. Native students are very much present on campus, and Indigenous people have been present in the Brunswick area since well before Bowdoin’s founding.
After roughly four years on Pleasant Street, Twice-Told Tales is turning the corner. The used book store is making its highly anticipated move from the current location on Pleasant Street to Maine Street. Twice-Told Tales is a volunteer-run used book store that serves as a part of the Friends of the Curtis Memorial Library Program, a due-based organization that raises funds for the local library by selling donated books that are in good condition.
When I was younger, I would go to my friend Clara’s house around Halloween to bake pumpkin pie, watch TV and tell scary stories with our friends. I remember huddling in a circle under a tent we’d made from sheets, taking turns narrating the eeriest, most haunting tales we could imagine.
Last week family friends came up to Maine for a wedding. They made a stop to visit me, and I took them to breakfast at Mae’s Café and Bakery in Bath. A fifteen minute drive from campus, Mae’s offers a picturesque setting, high quality service and excellent food.
When I was 16, I started starving myself. Troubled with weight issues—real and imagined—my whole life, I took advantage of a stomach bug I caught while traveling. I began a trend of underfeeding myself, going hungry for hours every day, then working out for upwards of 60 minutes, six to seven days a week.
Growing up, the High Holidays were the only time my whole family would go to synagogue. “High Holidays” is the collective name for Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year) and Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement).
Even in her 10th year at Bowdoin, Professor of Earth and Oceanographic Science Collin Roesler’s eyes light up as she discusses her research in oceanography. For the past three years, Roesler has been studying how phytoplankton in the ocean capture and export carbon dioxide into deeper areas and remove the gas from the atmosphere as part of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Export Processes in the Ocean from Remote Sensing (EXPORTS) mission.
Produced, edited and filmed by Zoe Stilphen ’22 At Wildflours, Maine’s first entirely gluten-free market and bakery, customers who would usually be limited by dietary restrictions can enjoy sweets, breads and savory treats worry-free. The bakery, located at 54 Cumberland Street, has grown since its opening in 2008.
Last Tuesday, newly-appointed Dean of Students Kristina Bethea Odejimi led a morning spin class while the regular instructor was on vacation. Why? Because there was a problem to be solved, because Odejimi really likes to cycle and because the class gave her the chance to do what she enjoys most: meet the individuals who make up the community she has been hired to serve, while getting in a tough workout.
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.
Whether it’s thanks to the sunlight seeping through the skylight, the endless display of cookies and cupcakes or the freshly baked bread, Bowdoin students and the greater Brunswick community gravitate toward Wild Oats Bakery & Cafe, a long-time Brunswick staple.
It’s officially fall. Apple picking season has descended upon us, frisbees litter the quad and College House residents are finally settling into their castles on Maine Street. The same houses, I might add, which many years ago were home to fraternities; famous members of these organizations include William S.
My freshman fall, I was still reeling from two breakups I’d gone through my last year of high school. One was with a friend, and one was with a boyfriend. At 17 years old, the loss of those relationships wreaked total havoc on my sense of self.
I am a profoundly uncomfortable person. I don’t make people feel uncomfortable, and I often feel emotionally comfortable, but I struggle to be physically comfortable—especially when seated. I squirm, tap my foot, adjust and re-adjust my seat.
I’ve always held that the coffee from Bowdoin’s Cafe is superior to the brew in the dining halls. Even though both locations carry the same types of coffee made by the same company, the Seacoast Coffee Company, I thought I could taste a difference.
Many Bowdoin students flock to The Little Dog Coffee Shop, a Brunswick fixture located on Maine Street, but as students return to campus for a new year, they will return to a new version of The Little Dog, complete with changes in decor, an expanded menu and extended hours on Thursdays and Fridays for “Lit Nights” and live music.
My mom drinks from her Bowdoin coffee mug every morning. And she’s got the whole process down to a science. Grab mug, choose coffee flavor, shove mug into Keurig, wait. Pick mug up, walk over to comfy corner table, do crossword of the day and drink coffee.
As I drove through Brunswick Industrial Park toward Elevated Remedies, I was hit by the unmistakable smell of weed. The skunk-like scent was unsurprising, but it disappeared as soon as I pulled up to the storefront.
Since opening in 2012, Tao Yuan—Pleasant Street’s Asian fusion restaurant—has been in the business of serving the delightfully unexpected. With dishes like “duck confit fried rice” and “Maine Jonah crab wide noodles,” chef and co-owner Cara Stadler deftly crafts a cuisine that is both delicious and surprising.
At 3 p.m. today, students, faculty and staff will gather around five exhibit cases on the second floor gallery of Hawthorne-Longfellow (H-L) Library for the opening of “Tension/Tenacity: Africana Studies at 50,” an exhibition that explores the five-decade history of Bowdoin’s Africana studies program, the John Brown Russwurm African American Center and the Black Student Union (formerly the African American Society).
For Rowan Byrne ’21, the first days of September mark not only the start of a new school year, but also the launch of a surf program he has been organizing since arriving at Bowdoin two years ago.
Unlike most seniors, Carolyn Brady ’19 had the opportunity to walk across two stages this summer: the first, in May, to collect her Bowdoin diploma, and the second, on June 22, to collect her sash and crown as Miss Maine 2019 at the Freeport Arts Center.
Even a cursory glance around campus reveals the ways in which the College has changed since its founding. Buildings, in a range of architectural styles across various time periods, reflect not only the College’s evolution, but also the changes in its leadership.
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.
Last June, we stuffed all of our books and beauty products into Phoebe’s old Volvo and hit the road. From Houston we blasted through Memphis, Nashville, D.C. and then New York, the city, eventually landing in Brunswick.
On March 28, 2019 there was a significant passing in my world. The series “Broad City” aired its final episode after a wildly successful five season run. For those of you who aren’t familiar, Broad City is a raunchy buddy comedy starring two millennial women living and working in New York City.
There should be a Schoolhouse Rock episode about how the Orient’s production night works. Without the help of a nifty jingle, I will not attempt to describe the full process, but rather set down here that it involves six rounds of edits, various photo and design checks and a weekly $50 snack budget.
This Monday, I traveled to space. While my corporeal body remained in the familiar comfort of the first floor of Hawthorne-Longfellow Library, my perception was responding to a different world altogether—the unwieldiness of zero-gravity movement and a limitless expanse of black, punctuated by hazy starlight.
“Name a college from every state that touches the ocean,” Bob Stuart ’77 announced last Thursday in Kresge Auditorium. Teams of elementary schoolers grabbed their pencils and began listing off schools: Bowdoin in Maine, Tufts in Massachusetts, Stanford in California.
Rushing to catch a bus back to Jerusalem, Sophie stops at Sabich Shel Oved (Oved’s Sabich in English) for a not-quite sandwich, not-quite taco Israeli delicacy: sabich. Back in Brunswick, Eliana strolls down Maine Street after class and picks up lunch: sweet potato and fish tacos from the Taco the Town food truck.
If you walk past the Hannaford’s parking lot, you’ll find a small, white building with a sign that reads, “Welcome is our mission.” Inside, the main room is packed with people chatting, reading and drinking coffee.
Pete Seeger stood on the stage of Pickard Theater in front of a single microphone. He picked the strings of his signature long-neck banjo and whistled a gentle harmony, his foot tapping out the beat. After a minute, he stopped playing and began to explain the history of the long-neck banjo and the folk music he played on it.
Isabella Angel ’22 is too nervous to eat dinner, drinking ginger ale instead in hopes of calming her anxiety. In 10 minutes, she will no longer be a Bowdoin College student but Fulvius Nobilior, a Roman general and esteemed member of the Senate, where she will face her rival in a court case over stolen goods.
When you “take financial resources and human beings and juxtapose them such that they produce an added value in human beings,” what do you get? A college, according to former Bowdoin President Robert H. Edwards.
This past Monday, over 400 students, Stanley Druckenmiller and I packed into Pickard Theater to listen to John Kasich. The talk was very informative. For instance, I learned that Ohio had dealt with race, that presidential power is overrated and that the Nixon White House tapes probably include a recording of an 18-year-old Kasich.
We talk a lot about hometowns, both in our casual conversations and within the pages of the Orient. Given that this is a column on our home state of Texas, we felt it’d only be fitting to pay our respects to our home cities in the Lone Star State—places that, by virtue of their complexity and size, dazzle and confound us, often at the same time.
Alyce: I watched the fire from across the river, just close enough to see firemen weaving through the filigreed belfries. As I stood in the smoke among the assembled crowd of tearful Parisians, someone started singing the “Hail Mary”—“Je vous Salue Marie” in French.
“Game of Thrones” (GoT) is back, baby! Thank the Old Gods and the New. Heck, I’ll even thank R’hllor (sorry Shireen). There is a hole in my heart that can only be filled by the NFL or by dragons, and for now that hole is filled.
My friend Nathan and I knew we wanted to live in Reed House early in our first year. We loved the romance of the fire escapes, the neighborhood feeling and all our friends who lived there or who had lived there.
Hanging on Associate Professor of History Sarah McMahon’s wall, tucked between letters from family members and images of the Maine landscape, hangs a quote from former President of the College Robert Edwards: “These colleges, this one in particular, grew until 1970.
It’s easy to tell who the locals are at the Machane Yehuda Market. Jerusalemites gesture emphatically and bicker loudly with vendors. They insist on only the freshest. They know what’s in season and which stalls have access to the best produce.
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.
