Colby Magazine From the Hill Articles

Paradox or Paragon?

web@colby.edu (Colby College) — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 04:00:00 UTC

Boylan memoir about parenting is a new and powerful love story

The Birth of His Nation

web@colby.edu (Colby College) — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 04:00:00 UTC

Former refugee Charles Data returns home to take part in the rise of South Sudan

To the Colby Community, a Marine Says Thank You

web@colby.edu (Colby College) — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 04:00:00 UTC

Related Stories - The Road from Marja - Back On His Feet The whole of my Marine Corps career involves positions of mentorship if not outright instruction. Rewarding as the teaching aspect of leadership is, it can come with a side effect; you can find yourself seeking opportunities to impart knowledge, which may narrow your vision. Such was the case during my last meeting with Colby Managing Editor Gerry Boyle ’78. While interviewing me on camera at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio in December, Mr. Boyle asked, “Is there anything you would like to tell the Colby community?” Immediately my mind went to the current student body and my inner instructor came out. As the cameraman packed his gear, that sinking feeling of a forgotten commitment began to develop. I heard my father’s voice, “Perhaps you’d consider taking a moment to reflect and thank those who have selflessly supported you.” Shame on me; please allow me to adjust course. Mr. Joe Boulos ’68. Mr. Boulos was the first Colby alumnus to reach out to me, within days of my injury. Marines are always inspired by those who went before them, and I can only be humbled by his experiences as a Marine aviator in Vietnam. Early on he provided both an “Emblem Injection” (Marine-speak for a rush of pride despite the trials of Marine life; references the Marine Corps emblem) and a Mayflower Hill injection. He religiously checks in on and provides support to me and my wife, Liz Czernicki Quist ’98. Semper Fidelis, Mr. Boulos. Professor Jim Meehan was the first person I thought of to provide a non-military recommendation when I was applying to the Marine Corps Officer Candidate School. His standards were high and he was appropriately unforgiving to those who did not meet them. There was no Colby professor whose work ethic paralleled the Marine Corps ethos more, and I knew if he felt I was unprepared for the challenge, he would rightfully refuse to write the recommendation. He wrote that recommendation and was bedside in the military hospital at Bethesda, on multiple occasions, nine years later. Annie ’98 and Craig ’97 Lundsten. Annie and Craig were first on the scene at the hospital bearing magazines, food, and support for Liz in particular. They have always been close friends, and even in the midst of a household move to New England, they were there for us. Nancy Nasse was my recovery care coordinator at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda. She spent more than her fair share of time bedside offering guidance and humor. She is married to Dave Nasse ’99, a Marine logistician. It cannot be easy providing care, assistance, and levity to injured Marines while your own husband is serving in Afghanistan. Adam Davis ’99 and Heather Hilton ’99. Both were frequently seen bedside as my recovery progressed; all visits came complete with comfort food. Heather was preparing for a deployment to Iraq at the time. Adam was in the midst of a total home renovation. Thank you guys. Tony Pasquariello ’99. I read his letter in the fall 2012 issue of Colby. Thank you, Tony, for adding awareness of those classmates serving, and as you stated, thank you for your service, John Ginn ’97 and Ben Lester ’99. John Maddox ’99. I ran into John Maddox, a Naval lieutenant and surgeon, at Bethesda just days into my stay there. I remembered John’s involvement with the woodsmen’s team, but that was about it. It didn’t matter; he was in my hospital room multiple times to see how I was doing. Whit Bond ’63 and Marian Leerburger ’84 both heard of my injury through the grapevine. They reached out immediately, offering support and help at any point I needed it. Brent and Jill Stasz Harris, both ’86, met Liz at a lecture Professor Meehan gave in Washington, D.C. They have kept in touch with us, offering any needed support. President William “Bro” Adams took time to visit Liz and me early on after surgery. He offered multiple times to help in any way possible. Liz and I could not be more thankful. To the family of Elizabeth Hanson ’02, the CIA agent who died in Afghanistan. I knew of, but little about, your daughter while at Colby. I can only thank you for creating the hero we have come to know in Elizabeth. She, among others, remains an inspiration and driving force behind recovery and the desire to get back into the fight. God Bless. To my family. To not consider all of you part of the Colby community would be criminal. I do not know how you remained bedside and sane, and I will hold eternal guilt for putting you through all of it. I am truly lucky to have such a family; one that finds and forever holds the additional strength from such adversity. I know I have missed some of the Colby community, but to the whole, thank you. Marines love the camaraderie and “smallness” of the Corps. It builds lifelong relationships and a huge supporting community. I have experienced nothing like it—with the exception of that of the Colby students, staff, and alumni. I should have said thank you on camera. I hope this communicates my gratitude as well, if not better. Capt. Erik Quist ’99, U.S.M.C. Occoquan, Virginia

Recent Releases

web@colby.edu (Colby College) — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 04:00:00 UTC

The Laundry Monster Jeanne Morrison Cook ’87 Minor Storm Press (2011) Cook’s first children’s book (there are more coming in the “I Can Help!” series) was inspired as she waded through real-life laundry generated by four children, a husband, and a dog named Colby. Perhaps not the dog, but the rest of the family dirtied enough clothes to create a monster of a problem. The story unfolds on a day when the laundry really does take on a life of its own, threatening to envelop Mom forever in socks, sheets, and underwear. The kids come up with a way to save her. Not to reveal too much, but Cook’s book also includes a couple of pages of laundry tips, including “It’s Fun To Fold!” (She suggests making a contest out of matching socks.) More at minorstorm.com Nets Through Time: The Technique and Art of Knotted Netting Jacqueline Bendelius Davidson ’59 Maine Authors Publishing (2012) Davidson was introduced to the technique of knotted netting at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Deer Isle, Maine. It was an auspicious meeting, as she went to write an award-winning book (honored by the New England Book Festival) about the history and craft of knotted netting. It’s a technique that produces everything from fishing nets to fine doilies to bed canopies to Native American adornments. And, as with many commonplace items, careful study and consideration reveals that there is more to knotted netting than meets the casual eye. Netting tools made of wood, bone, and ivory have been passed down through generations. Fishermen knotted nets in biblical times, and they are represented in art on the walls of the pyramids. Davidson traces the history and also offers simple instruction so readers, if they are so moved, may join the long and largely unsung lineage of netmakers. A Guide to Groups, Rings, and Fields Fernando Q. Gouvêa (mathematics) Mathematical Association of America (2012) Those looking for a way to review and refresh their basic algebra will benefit from reading this guide, and it will also serve as a ready reference for mathematicians who make use of algebra in their work. In addition to the standard material on groups, rings, modules, fields, and Galois theory, the book includes discussions of important topics often omitted in the standard graduate course, including linear groups, group representations, the structure of Artinian rings, projective, injective and flat modules, Dedekind domains, and central simple algebras. All of the important theorems are discussed, without proofs but often with a discussion of the intuitive ideas behind those proofs. The Roots of a Family: Life in Rural Maine Gail Anne Glidden Rowe ’72 TheBookPatch.com (2012) What better way to learn about life in rural in Maine than from the story of a family that weathered good times and bad, from the Great Depression to the Vietnam War. Rowe recounts experiences of her extended family, three generations of rural Mainers, including hard-working Irish immigrants, an ancestor who left his bed in a Civil War field hospital to take refuge in Canada, and a roster of hunters, fishermen, and farmers. It’s a family story replete with telling details, from the real workday of a dairy farmer to letters home to Maine from the front during World War II. Rowe, retired from the faculty of Southern Maine Community College, writes both a family story and a Maine story, and in the process a compelling and true story of our times.

Lifesaving Lessons: Notes from an Accidental Mother

web@colby.edu (Colby College) — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 04:00:00 UTC

The tag line for Greenlaw’s latest? “Famed swordfish boat captain Linda Greenlaw faces her greatest battle with nature—a newly adopted teenage daughter.” Fans of the bestselling writer launched by the book and movie The Perfect Storm know Greenlaw as one tough customer. She can wrestle an 800-pound swordfish, manage a crew of obstreperous fishermen, and navigate the roughest reaches of the icy North Atlantic. But guardian of and companion to a troubled teenager? That’s a side of the Maine fishing captain that Greenlaw’s legions of readers have not yet seen. The memoir, years in the making, begins when 15-year-old Mariah arrives to live with her uncle on Isle au Haut, the rockbound Maine island that Greenlaw calls home. The uncle, new to the island, is thought to be a regular guy coming to the aid of his niece—until it’s revealed that he’s been abusing Mariah. Islanders come to the teenager’s aid, and the independent Greenlaw is nominated as the best person in the community to provide a safe home—and to serve as a mentor. Greenlaw, who has no children of her own, is thrust into a new and challenging role. This memoir recounts her journey with Mariah as the unlikely pair learn about each other and themselves. Advance blurbs describe the book as “remarkably candid and tenderly funny.” Judging by Greenlaw’s earlier works, it will also be unflinchingly honest.

The Spiritual Life of Colby College: Then, now, next

web@colby.edu (Colby College) — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 04:00:00 UTC

I was 25 years old when I took my first job in college chaplaincy. Tasked with bolstering the programmatic life of Dartmouth College’s Tucker Foundation, I operated under the fairly meaningless and entirely made-up title Multi-Faith Program Advisor. Weeks into the job, I was asked to lead a memorial service for an alumni class celebrating its 70th year. I was terrified. I spent my days talking and planning with 18- to 22- year olds of vague and varied religious expressions. What had I to say to alumni older than my grandparents? Had not the context changed so drastically that there wasn’t a bridge between? After a few deep breaths and some well-timed advice, however, I regained my stride. For all that had changed over the course of 70 years—demographics, buildings, job titles—was not the college experience still made meaningful by deep friendships, hopeful futures, and the pursuit of purpose? Not so many years later and now operating with the almost-as-made-up title Dean of Religious and Spiritual Life, I find myself facing similar questions. Especially as we at Colby enter our 200th year: What meaningful connections can be traced back to the Maine Theological and Literary Institution? How does the spiritual life of Colby College today connect with those who came before? What does our Baptist past mean to us as we look forward? The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life has declared this the year of the “religiously unaffiliated.” For those of us working with college populations, this is not especially surprising. Demographically speaking, the landscape of religious and spiritual life has shifted. Based on an incoming survey of the Class of 2016, the stalwart denominations of Colby’s past—Baptists, Congregationalists, and Episcopalians—make up less than 10 percent of our incoming student body. The population of Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists is growing. The Catholic and Jewish populations remain substantive. Fully a third of Colby students come in identifying as atheist, agnostic, or no religious preference. We are officially a multifaith community. Mixed religious families are as normal as nonreligious families. Students’ parents are as likely to be atheist or evangelical as to belong to a mainline denomination. We have entered an era, according to sociologist Robert Putnam, LL.D. ’12, of “polarization and pluralism.” The staffing for the Colby chaplaincy has evolved from college president to director of religion to college chaplain to faculty chaplain to three part-time chaplains to dean of religious and spiritual life. Perhaps the only constant of religious and spiritual life at Colby is change. There are those who will grieve this shifting landscape. Any shared language of faith and religion has surely gone. Cultural Christianity is gone and, without drastic measures, is not going to return. There is, in a sense, no religious “normal” at a place such as Colby. But one wonders how concrete that shared language or normal ever was. Despite a clear purpose from the beginning to train Baptist clergy, the College never closed its doors on sectarian grounds. And more than half of early graduates went into professions other than the ministry. A 1938 article in the Colby Alumnus by Director of Religious Activities Herbert Newman spoke of a desire to “build closer fellowship between various religious groups” including, “Mohammadean, Jewish, Eastern Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant.” Ernest Marriner, Class of 1913, devotes the last chapter of his excellent History of Colby College to religion at Colby. The central goal? Clearly to assure his readership that the “sudden divorce” from the Baptist church was neither sudden nor a divorce. The staffing for the Colby chaplaincy has evolved from college president to director of religion to college chaplain to faculty chaplain to three part-time chaplains to dean of religious and spiritual life. Perhaps the only constant of religious and spiritual life at Colby is change. Call me an optimist, but such context leaves me hopeful. In the absence of an assumed religious normal, perhaps we can get to the good, hard, and important work of thinking and talking about faith. Recent surveys suggest that while this may be the least religious generation ever, the desired connection to something beyond ourselves is as strong—if not stronger—than ever. And despite the shifting landscape, colleges and universities are beginning to understand that holistic education demands some attention to spiritual pursuit. While meaning, hope, purpose, and community are by no means the exclusive property of religious faith, if we are to take them seriously, religion must be on the discursive landscape. Thus, change is underway. Much as it has been over the past two centuries. If you find yourself on Mayflower Hill on a given evening, you’ll find both familiar and unfamiliar forms: Catholic Mass and college chapel services of the ecumenical Christian variety happen each week. Shabbat candle lighting and dinners come with sunset on Friday evenings, led by a rejuvenated Hillel and Rabbi Rachel Isaacs. A small group gathers for Juma prayer each Friday at 1 p.m. beneath a list of Colby missionaries dating back to the early 19th century. Though it may not be the norm, interest in traditional religious observance and community is consistent among some students. And such groups will always have a place. Holiday observances—from Diwali to Carols and Lights—brighten the dark Maine evenings. And Colby is now home to not one but three meditation groups. Intervarsity and the Global Friends Christian fellowships gather often, and enthusiastically. And budding Quaker, Hindu, and ecumenical Christian student communities are in the process of forming. Some new forms have taken hold this year. A new student multifaith council graces the chapel lounge each Wednesday evening. Together we ponder the ways in which Christians, Jews, Muslims, seekers, atheists, and others are both irreducibly different and undeniably similar. Together, a wide swath of religious communities—and some others—are tackling the question of food and hunger in our local community as part of the White House’s Interfaith and Community Service Challenge. Such groups include members and leaders of the aforementioned religious communities as well as those outside of traditional forms who are yearning for conversation, exploration, and community. Much has changed—names, forms, demographics, buildings, job titles, and programs. While any semblance of shared language may be gone, we are now free to pursue these deep questions together. And as I sit with Colby students and hear about their hopes and plans and fears, I cannot help thinking those conversations would resonate across generations of Colby students. Students connect to spiritual life through community, in one-on-one conversations, in moments of struggle, and—even occasionally—through their studies and quest for a vocation. And we will continue to pursue ways to meet them where they are, in the midst of an always changing “normal.” To ponder life’s biggest questions. To build meaningful relationships. To encounter new ideas and be challenged by them. To find a sense of purpose in life. This is what a place like Colby is for. And this is, at its best, the role of religious and spiritual pursuit. In words penned by Marcia Chaplin as she sailed toward Waterville on the Sloop Hero, “To do good.” This is what we challenge ourselves to do. And I am ever-hopeful that religious and spiritual life will continue to be an important part of the ever-changing landscape. Kurt Nelson is the dean of religious and spiritual life.

Back On His Feet

web@colby.edu (Colby College) — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 04:00:00 UTC

Prosthetic device allows injured Marine Corps Capt. Erik Quist to walk, run, sprint—and maybe lead another day

Discovering Miss Runnals

web@colby.edu (Colby College) — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 05:00:00 UTC

Samantha Eddy ’13 learns that a special Colby woman paved the way.

Three Sports? For Standout Athlete Kate Pistel Play is Nonstop

web@colby.edu (Colby College) — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 05:00:00 UTC

Kate Pistel ’13 played three sports in high school, so playing varsity soccer, squash, and lacrosse throughout her time at Colby is no big deal to her. But not everyone sees it that way.

Silver Tsunami

web@colby.edu (Colby College) — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 05:00:00 UTC

Colby research project examines challenges facing China’s aging population

Old Glories