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The Office of Development and Alumni Relations hosted BowdoinOne Day—the College’s annual day of giving—last Thursday. The College received 2,120 donations for One Day, exceeding its goal of 2,047, which equals the number of students currently enrolled at Bowdoin.
“It was awful—it was crude. But it worked,” Dana Bourgeois ’75 said with a humble chuckle while speaking of the first guitar he built. Today, however, Bourgeois, 69, is a luthier with nearly fifty years of experience.
On September 24 and 25, the Office of Development and Alumni Relations hosted a series of alumnae-organized virtual events to kick off a yearlong celebration entitled “Leaders in All Walks of Life: 50 Years of Women at Bowdoin.” The festivities began on Friday with a session entitled “Using Our Voices: The Bowdoin Experience of Women of Color.” A series of subsequent events, including keynotes and panel discussions, continued through Saturday.
On Thursday evening, the Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum welcomed Andrew Hartsig ’95, director of the Arctic Program at Ocean Conservatory; Susan Kaplan, professor of anthropology and director of the Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum and Arctic Studies Center and Laura Henry, professor of government, to discuss the most prominent difficulties and environmental challenges in the Arctic region today.
Mariah Reading ’16, an eco-artist and professional naturalist who cycles through homes and jobs with the seasons, embodies Bowdoin’s interdisciplinary teaching between work and her art. Preserving parklands in the summer and finding work in the winter, Reading’s seasonal lifestyle is one of the biggest influences on her art.
Katie Semro ’03 has always enjoyed interdisciplinary work, and her creation of a series of audio art projects is an extension of this passion.. Her most recent project, a podcast called “Mother Mine,” is a collection of stories about mothers from all over the world, as told by their children.
In a three-part virtual programming series, Lex Horwitz ’19, a queer, non-binary transmasculine LGBTQ+ educator and activist, and a former member of the Bowdoin men’s squash team, has returned to Bowdoin to share their knowledge and experiences with the Bowdoin athletic community, providing insight into how to cultivate a more inclusive and supportive environment for all.
When the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic separated Isabel Thomas ’20 from her musical engagements at Bowdoin, she had to assess how seriously she wanted to keep pursuing singing. A year later, she has grown her confidence as a solo artist, creating an Instagram account for her songs and gaining recognition from some of her favorite artists.
Last Thursday, 1,369 donors made gifts for BowdoinOne Day, the College’s annual giving campaign, exceeding the College’s target of 1,200 donors for the day. Rather than a multi-week campaign concluding in April, as it has been in past years, this year’s BowdoinOne Day was a single day of giving.
Suzanne Nossel, free speech advocate and Chief Executive Officer of PEN America, a nationwide organization that strives to protect free expression, virtually visited Bowdoin on Monday evening to participate in the College’s “After the Insurrection: Conversations on Democracy” series that explores the current state and future of the country’s democracy.
On Wednesday the College announced that the new building that will house the Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum will be named the John and Lile Gibbons Center for Arctic Studies in honor of trustee emeritus John A Gibbons Jr.
Starting off as a local kid who just wanted to see the world, Dale Arnold ’79, P’07, found his hometown college, Bowdoin, to be his gateway into a fascinating career in sports broadcasting. Arnold’s journey from a neighborhood kid in Brunswick to a top-class sportscaster for the New England Sports Network (NESN) began by doing play-by-play for football games when he was just 15 years old.
In the current near-cessation of live theater due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Sally Rose Zuckert ’19 believes that there is a chance for a reckoning: the invitation to reimagine the institution and question its history. Through her performance in the University of Chicago production of Diana Oh’s “My H8 Letter to the Gr8 American Theater,” Zuckert challenges theater as a cultural reflection and explores inequities that have always existed in the theater industry.
Civil Rights Activist and educator DeRay Mckesson ’07 joined Bowdoin students, alumni and families Tuesday evening via Zoom to speak on his experiences as an activist in the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement and as Director of the Council on Criminal Justice Task Force on Policing.
The Bowdoin alumni fund is doing better than ever despite nation-wide economic hardships due to the coronavirus pandemic. The fund has recorded 5,332 individual donors so far this fiscal year, a 38.5 percent increase from last year when 3,851 donors had contributed by this same date.
Ava Jackson ’20 believes that artists are examiners. Artists are constantly taking in the world around them, watching how it works and determining how it could be reflected in art. During a pandemic, though, options for watching the outside world have been limited.
During her senior year at Bowdoin, Amie Sillah ’20 created Black Lady Art Group: an art class and artist collective where she, Amani Hite ’20 and Destiny Kearney ’21 could focus entirely on creating a safe space for producing and exploring artistic practices as Black women.
From the snowy streets of Brunswick to the sunshine of the Bay Area, Matt Moran ’10 has found his journey to the Golden State, one not traveled by many. Once a key player on Bowdoin’s football team, Moran is the Special Teams coordinator at one of the biggest football programs in the country: Stanford University’s Pacific-12 Conference (Pac-12) powerhouse.
This past March, during the initial spike in COVID-19 cases, Bowdoin alumna Amanda Newman ’19 launched Miss Manda Pet Portraits. Since then, she has listed over 300 products for sale on her website and has painted and drawn countless custom pet portraits.
THRIVE and the Center for Multicultural Life partnered to hold a “Through the Decades” alumni panel on Monday evening. The panel consisted of six alumni of color who discussed their experiences at the College. Present on the panel were Tyree Jones ’82, Elijah Whitehead ’94, Chris Knight ’07, Andrea Navarro ’10, Zully Hatch ’11 and Elly Veloria ’20.
On Tuesday, the Office of Alumni Relations hosted an hour-long talk with Alvin Hall ’74 discussing his new podcast, “Driving the Green Book,” which documents a road trip he took from Detroit to New Orleans. The talk, moderated by President Clayton Rose, delved into the origins and purpose of this project.
After graduating from Bowdoin in 2012, Barrett Takesian ’12 founded Portland Community Squash (PCS) an academic, social and athletic program committed to mentoring children and teenagers in the Portland area—opportunities that are typically hard to find.
Three alumni gathered on Wednesday afternoon to discuss the life and legacy of the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, as well as the role of the Supreme Court following her death. Moderated by Katie Benner ’99, a journalist covering the Justice Department for the New York Times, the panel consisted of Nancy Bellhouse May ’78, a longtime Court observer and editor of The Journal of Appellate Practice and Process, and Dennis Hutchinson ’69, a professor at the University of Chicago Law School, legal scholar and former federal clerk.
Graduating in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic meant many changes to post-grad plans for the Class of 2020. However, for former women’s basketball team captain and Division III (DIII) standout Maddie Hasson ’20, basketball has managed to stay a constant in her transition to life after Bowdoin.
During the initial chaos of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, a month after Bowdoin’s emergency transition to remote instruction, the Theater and Dance Department hired Lily Prentice ’10 as its newest costume shop manager. While the fall semester has been unlike any other for the Theater and Dance Department, Prentice still has her hands full with small- and large-scale sewing projects, educating and advising students about the role of costume in the performing arts and organizing the costume shop—all of which the department lacked the time to do during typical, in-person semesters.
The College is adding a seventh designation to the Alumni Fund called Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI). In conjunction with this expansion, an anonymous alumni donor will donate an additional $100 to the DEI designation for every donation given to the Alumni Fund between October 5 and 11.
In 2006, the midst of the 2000s mainstream pop-punk acts, The Friday Night Boys formed with Bowdoin junior Robert Reider ’07 as its bassist. Fourteen years later—after two albums, three EPs and multiple tours with names such as Boys Like Girls, All Time Low, We The Kings and Cute is What We Aim For—Reider is back at Bowdoin as the assistant director of annual giving at the College.
On Thursday evening, the College launched the public phase of the largest comprehensive fundraising campaign in Bowdoin’s history. The College hopes to raise $500 million by June 2024 and achieve 85 percent participation from its alumni network.
The College received $34.9 million in donations during the 2018-2019 year, a $700,000 decrease from the $35.6 million received in 2017-2018, according to the Annual Giving Report. The report, prepared by the Office of Development and Alumni Relations, also shows alumni and friends, faculty and staff gave less this year than last.
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.
Rather than depicting sweeping hillscapes in ornate frames, Mariah Reading ’16 uses trash as her canvas in the pop-up exhibit “Landscapes, Not Landfills,” which opened on Wednesday in the Edwards Center for Art and Dance. Reading’s art contributes to a growing genre of “eco art” that promotes sustainable art practices and nature preservation.
Hoping to share his own mental health story and help destigmatize these issues in the public eye, Bowdoin alumnus Zach Burton ’14 ventured into the world of theater and debuted his first play, “The Manic Monologues,” in May.
The Bowdoin College Museum of Art (BCMA) welcomed distinguished alumni back to campus for a discussion on Wednesday in conjunction with its exhibit, “Art Purposes: Object Lessons for the Liberal Arts.” The three alumni, all prominent figures in the field of art, shared how their time at Bowdoin shaped their careers and set them on a path of artistic discovery.
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.
James “Jes” Staley ’79 P ’11, a member of the Board of Trustees and the CEO of Barclays, visited sex offender and disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein at his private island in 2015, and during his incarceration in Palm Beach, Florida in 2008, according to Bloomberg.
The beginning of this school year will mark a transition for religious life at Bowdoin. In July, Macauley Lord ’77 finalized a $1 million donation to the Center for Religious and Spiritual Life, renaming it to honor his late mother, Rachel Lord.
Some call it the case of the century, but Philip Gregory ’76 disagrees. He believes that Juliana v. United States, a climate change lawsuit seeking action on behalf of children and future generations, is the case for the future of this century.
Over the summer, the Career Planning Center (CPC) found itself in a new space with new leadership. Since beginning her position in July, the new Director of Career Planning Kristin Brennan has set new targets and reestablished old goals in an effort to make the CPC accessible to more students, alumni and parents.
Olivia Atwood ’17 and Maggie Seymour ’16 learned plenty at Bowdoin, but they never nailed down the details of what happened during the Watergate scandal. That absence of knowledge is exactly the premise of the alums’ original musical, “Dickie in the House,” which premieres at the Peoples Improv Theater (PIT) in New York on Thursday.
Rather than continuing to work in biology laboratories post-graduation, Ian Trask ’05 opted to pick up trash. After winding his way through various jobs, he ended up as a groundskeeper at a hospital in Massachusetts, cleaning parking lots and he ultimately deciding to use trash as a medium for art.
