A cartoon illustrator while at Colby, Weinberg focused on images, while his girlfriend, Casey Scieszka, focused on words. “I love picture books,” Weinberg said at a Colby alumni reunion talk this summer. “We have this form we love as kids, but then we lose it as we grow up.” With snapshots of places and cultures, To Timbuktu describes the couple's experiences teaching in Beijing and traveling through Vietnam, Thailand, Laos, and Mali.

Weinberg, an art and government double major, grew up outside Washington, D.C., and traveled internationally with his parents. While studying abroad in Morocco as a junior, he met Scieszka. The two shared interest in living abroad, engaging in a creative pursuit, and being together after college.

After Beijing they traveled to Timbuktu, in West Africa. Their experiences there, including cultural challenges, led them to create the book. “Timbuktu's really out there,” Weinberg said. “You can't get there by car half the year and you only get there by boat. It was a really fun place and we made friends.”

Upon leaving Timbuktu, Weinberg moved to Brooklyn, New York, where he helps run a nonprofit called Local Language Literacy.

As director of the Colby Volunteer Center, Dana Roberts '12 has three goals for November: improve student appreciation of the dormitories Colby students call home, increase awareness about local homelessness, and raise $10,000.

The money will be the Colby Volunteer Center's (CVC) contribution to Mid-Maine Homeless Shelter's (MMHS) $2.8-million campaign to build a new shelter and homelessness prevention center in downtown Waterville.

While fundraising for MMHS will take up most of the CVC's time and effort this month, creating awareness on campus about the issue of homelessness is a central goal. “That's what we want this month to be-a learning experience,” said Roberts. “There's no pity involved, it's nothing like that. It's about awareness.”

The CVC's effort to educate students will consist of an art display in the student center, a special edition of the student newspaper, the Echo, featuring stories of shelter guests, a panel discussion of local experts on youth homelessness, and a collaborative campaign with hall staff to address a recent increase in dorm damage. In exchange for decreased dorm damage in October and November, the College will donate up to $7,000 to the cause.

“We're really going to focus on ending vandalism for the month of November to make people realize that this is our home and many people don't have that,” said Roberts, who has spearheaded the campaign and gotten multiple campus groups involved-including Hillel, Colby Waterville Alliance, Student Government Association, and the Cultural Affairs Committee. “If we're at Colby, we've been blessed,” she said. “And I feel like it's our job as a community to support all of our community members.”

To scrape together the $10,000 that will buy Colby students an opportunity to name a dormitory of the new shelter, the CVC has been selling T-shirts that were donated by local businesses, holding fundraising competitions between classes and dorms, donating profits from weekly senior bar nights, and accepting online donations. The facility will sleep 40 guests at a time-complete with separate male, female, and family wings-to replace the existing shelter that sleeps 18 and housed 564 guests last year. Ground will be broken in January, and the new shelter will open its doors to the Waterville community in November 2012.

At a youth homelessness discussion Nov. 17, panelists spoke about their experience working with local youth, often not much younger than the students that filled the audience, who struggle with homelessness. Director of MMHS Betty Palmer said that often when these teenagers are between homes, it's less about finding “a place to hang their hat” than it is “finding someone to help hold it”-encouragement and support through difficult times can be just as beneficial as providing physical shelter. She encouraged students to lend a hand: “You can make a difference,” Palmer said. “Be the person who helps to hold someone's hat.”

Students flock to Selah Tea Café on Main Street, Waterville, to study-and socialize.

With decor that fuses Asian teahouse and American coffeehouse and a menu that includes local coffee, a global tea selection, and specials like roasted Mediterranean vegetables and pesto on ciabatta, Selah Tea Café is Colby students' new go-to spot in downtown Waterville. When it opened last spring, it promptly advertised “Up Late Studying for Finals?-free wireless, open until 10 p.m.” Lots of students go for a quiet place to work, and perhaps just as many go for a comfortable place to hang out with friends

Colby's first cinema studies professor, but you started your undergraduate career in engineering? What's that all about?
I was the first male in my extended family to attend college, so I didn't really know what I was getting into. A guidance counselor in high school told us that engineers had really good starting salaries, so I started out as an engineer. And I absolutely hated it. I could handle the math and the science, that was fine, but I just didn't like my fellow students and the classes were really boring. … I took a cinema class as an elective, and it was like as if I had found a kind of personal and intellectual calling. So I dropped that engineering major as fast as I could [laugh]. Studying cinema, I was studying literature, I was studying painting, art history, history-all the things I wanted to be doing and studying were coming out of cinema studies. And suddenly I was happy.

You mark the beginning of cinema studies at Colby. For students, what is there to gain from studying film?
Well, “mark the beginning” only sort of, because there were all these people here teaching film-related classes, particularly Sarah Keller in the English Department. You know Sarah-yeah, she's amazing. … There were all these courses already in place, so I think bringing me in was like labeling someone as specifically cinema studies and asking me to bring all of these pieces together. … And what can cinema studies offer a Colby student? I think intellectually rigorous and focused engagement with questions that are central to the liberal arts, all the while exploring something that most students love: cinema.

In an alternate universe, where would you be and what would you be doing if not teaching?
Wow. If I wasn't teaching? I can't imagine not teaching. I contemplate retirement and it's like, why would I retire? I watch movies, I read books, I talk to students, I listen to their ideas, I write-and they pay me and I get health insurance. I mean I can't imagine anything better. 

I think if I wasn't teaching, the best other job I've had-and I've had a lot of jobs-was tending bar. Which in some ways (I'm sure for some of my colleagues this would just make them shudder with disgust), there's a way in which tending bar and teaching aren't all that different. You're perpetually meeting new people, you're having conversations, you're engaging them, and if you're good at the shtick  behind the bar then you're creating a kind of atmosphere where everyone feels comfortable expressing themselves … much like a classroom.

Waterville is quite a change from D.C.
Yeah, yeah it is.

How are you enjoying (or not) living in Maine? Do you have favorite spots on campus or downtown? Anything you really miss about the city?
I love Maine. I taught at Bowdoin for a year ages ago, and when I left that job I wanted to find a way to come back to Maine. So there's ways in which I've been waiting and waiting and waiting for a job to open teaching cinema in Maine. But moving here has been an adjustment. Living in D.C. I didn't have a car for the past eight years. So switching to automobility and not being able to walk everywhere or take a subway has been kind of a change. I thought I was going to miss movies and the National Gallery and the Hirshhorn, my two favorite museums in D.C. And I do miss some of my movie opportunities in D.C and those two galleries. But Railroad Square certainly goes a long way for compensating for that, and one of the selling points of Colby when I came here for my on-campus visit was walking through the museum. So those are two of my favorite things about Waterville. … Once I purchase a small boat I think I'll be a lot happier in Maine and in Waterville. … Just a small rowboat that I can toss in the back of my truck and at the end of the day drive to a body of water, toss it in, and unwind.

Favorite movie and favorite place to watch it?
When students ask me what my favorite movie is, I can't answer with one. But I'll tell them about this Stan Brakhage film [Text of Light] where he filmed light reflecting off a glass ashtray. And it's like a sixty-minute long film-no shot is longer than two or three seconds. But at the same time I love the French narrative film 400 Blows. A story film about a little kid coming into adulthood and just screwing up. So yeah, I love avant garde film, but I also love story films, and I like documentary films. … If it's got sprocket holes, I like it. …

Right now, my favorite place to watch films is my living room. I have a large collection of sixteen millimeter films and a projector set up in my living room so I project onto my dining room wall. A few weeks ago there was a handful of faculty in my house and we spent a Saturday evening eating Chinese food and watching movies projected on the wall of my living room.

I always wondered if professors are friends.
Well at a place like Colby you kind of have to be. I mean, if you're a real sort of self-centered ass you don't last at a place like Colby. That's one of the things I really like about being here-my colleagues. There are really, really amazing people here.

World Wildlife Fund scientist Eric Dinerstein addressed Colby students on Sept. 27 about the future of environmental conservation.

Those of us in the midst of a liberal arts education are no strangers to the story. A Jan Plan pottery course or a summer internship at the Bigelow Laboratory opens a whole new world, possibly inspires a change of course. 

For World Wildlife Fund scientist Eric Dinerstein, a summer living with friends in a farmhouse on 250 acres of trees and swamps during college inspired him to drop his film major for a career in environmental science.

Dinerstein volunteered with the Peace Corps, and since then has studied, among other things, bats in Costa Rica and the population of tigers in Nepal- which is how he met Philip Nyhus, assistant professor of Environmental Studies at Colby.

Dinerstein's passion for his work came through in his talk, which focused on the need to protect animal habitats. “We are in the sixth great extinction crisis in the history of our planet,” he said, “species are going extinct at the rate of a hundred to a thousand times faster than it normally should be.” Dinerstein talked to students about the biggest challenges of protecting the diversity of this world and the future of environmental conservation. 

The world's species are not equally distributed but concentrated in several areas, Dinerstein said. He initiated the Global 200, a program that identified roughly 200 places on earth where more than 90 percent of the world's species are concentrated. The next step is to fight and protect these lands, which are mostly rainforests. “If you lose this site, you lose the species forever,” said Dinerstein.

Some of the animals require a large area in order to survive. Small, sparse national parks do not provide ample area for mating, Dinerstein said. Crucial habitats are slowly disappearing due to human activities like logging. Species like the wild Sumatran Tigers are on the brink of extinction; the extinction of any species could cause a gap in the food chain. 

Saving rainforests would also help manage the carbon level that is causing the rapid climate change, he said.

Despite some grim news, there is still hope. Technologies like Google Earth and Nokia cell phones allow us to view the conditions of rainforest and even track elephants. “With a little bit of luck and a lot of ambition, I think that there is a future for tropical conservation and for life on earth. But we have to act very quickly.”

Photo: Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson speaks with students about her work as a foreign correspondent.

I had just come from a yoga class in the nearby community center-a dilapidated building with a cracked concrete floor and drums and old tires stacked in the corner. I followed my friend Patrick, an energetic Kenyan employed by Africa Yoga Project (AYP)-a nonprofit that trains people ages 18 to 25 to be yoga teachers in their communities. I had come to observe Patrick teach his class as part of my independent study with AYP during my semester abroad. Patrick's girlfriend, Catherine, also an AYP teacher, had just given birth to a baby girl, and he wanted me to meet her.

I wanted to meet her, too, but I had no idea at the time that an infant would teach me-a yoga teacher-in-training-so much about how to find balance in life.

Baby Tully, shown here with her father, Patrick, will grow up with a life very different from most American babies-but different doesn't mean worse, the author discovered.

Patrick led the way along a dirt path to their apartment building, past young men hawking used batteries, plastic flip-flops, and candy. We made our way up four (it seemed like more) steep flights of stairs, pausing to look out windows on the small landings at tin roofs as far as the eye could see. We navigated through the pitch-black hallway (there is electrical service only a few hours each day), tripping over shoes and water basins. 

Patrick proudly opened the door to his apartment, a 12x12-foot room that he pays for with the money he earns teaching yoga. It's a private space-a luxury in Kariobangi. A bed took up most of the room. A giant poster of Bob Marley was the only decoration. Their “kitchen” consisted of a small charcoal camping stove in the corner, surrounded by jugs of margarine, rice, and potatoes. Baby Tully lay in her mother's arms, swaddled in blankets though the room was sweltering.

They served me chai, though hot tea was the last thing I wanted. The smell of smoke filled the unventilated room as the tea water boiled. Communal bathrooms reeked of feces, and the small lock on the wooden door hardly seemed enough protection from the very real likelihood of an armed robbery.

 We sat on the bed taking turns holding Tully. I couldn't help feeling some horror that she would grow up in that tiny space. Tully would probably never have a grassy yard or a room of her own-things many Americans take for granted.

I returned home and resumed my comfortable life, but, with a feeling that I still had work to do there, I returned to Kenya this summer to work with AYP. We built a community center in Kibera, another of Nairobi's slums. And I reconnected with seven-month-old Tully at a packed yoga class. I volunteered to hold Tully while Patrick and Catherine assisted the teacher. Tully rested peacefully in my arms, observing the class and playing with my necklace-a silver pendant with the continent of Africa on one side, and the words, “Unity, Possibility, Peace” on the other.

A few days later the AYP group, including Patrick, Catherine, and Tully, took a six-hour trip to Amboseli National Park to spend a night with the Maasai, a pastoral tribe. Dust filtered into our packed safari van through closed windows, and we sang along to '90s songs from iPod speakers. Tully, bundled in a pink camouflage snowsuit, slept soundly. When she wasn't asleep, she sat on Catherine's lap, watching as we passed young Maasai men herding cows. I waited for the meltdown, the whining and the tantrums familiar on road trips with my baby sister. They never came. I wondered if it might be the snowsuit.

That night, after a yoga class taught by one of AYP's Maasai teachers, we ate dinner under the stars. We shared songs, dances, and conversations and eventually made our way through the cold air to our tents. We spent the night in the center of the village, in a circular area where the Maasai keep their cows at night to protect them from predators. I didn't hear a peep from Tully all night, and she was still sleeping when we woke at six.

Recently, I was working on this essay, e-mailing friends, and checking Facebook. The blinking red light of my Blackberry indicated a new text message. I realized I was a mzungu in every sense of the word, running in circles.

I thought of Tully: calm, resilient, able to navigate the flow of life, the center of a loving, cohesive community. Recalling that sense of horror at her circumstances when we first met, I now realized Tully may be more prepared to face the challenges of her imperiled youth than those of us who spend our childhood distracted from life's simplicities. That's why I felt so close to Tully-because I wanted to stop running in circles and find my own center.

It could be a lifelong pursuit, but I have a good role model.

Nils Carlson '15 (left), Jumana Hashim '15, and Nathan Roberts '15

What's the best thing about not having your parents around?
Nils: “My mom [not being here] makes me motivate myself more so I can prove to her that…I would do work on my own.”
Jumana: “Definitely the freedom and not having to answer to everything you're doing and not telling them where you are going every single time you are going somewhere…you kind of really grow.”

What do you like most about college classes that you did not have in high school?
Nils: “It's not an obligation for you to be there, it's all up to you…that's my favorite part of college…Professors also lay everything out for the whole semester... they really care about you learning the material.”
Nathan: “The informality of the professor-student relationship…it feels a lot easier to communicate with the teachers.”

What was the biggest personal adjustment you needed to make after arriving at Colby?
Nils: “I thought I could be more independent and do things on my own…you have to do things with people or else you miss out on a lot of stuff, you can't just sit all day by yourself and not do anything.”
Jumana: “I'm the kind of person who kind of will do whatever, the spur of the moment kind of thing.  But then you suddenly realize that no matter what you hear about college being all fun and everything…you actually have to plan out your time.”

Co-presidents Joseph Whitfield '15 and Justin Deckert '15.

Alexandra Ojerholm '14 recently sat down with roommates Justin Deckert '15 and Joseph Whitfield '15 to discuss their election as class presidents, their early impressions of Colby, and what it's like to live and work together.

How did you guys run your campaign?

Joseph: “Even before we started running, we tried to get to know our classmates. We knew a decent amount of people.”

Justin: “Probably the best tool we used to market ourselves was we ran kind of a green campaign. We did not put up a lot of posters or pieces of paper. We tried to send an email to each person in the class individually. We got almost everyone-it took a while.”

What do you like most about Colby so far?

Justin: “I like how friendly it is. I mean for the most part everyone is really so nice to each other. … When you see someone, you say hi. And no one ever keeps to themselves. There are always smiles.”

Joseph: “I have to say the same thing. … It's not the smallest campus in the world. …. It's big enough where you see new faces every day.”

What do you look forward to most about being class presidents?

Justin: “Having the ability to work with other members of our class through the class council and being able to plan events and hopefully bring together our class and develop some sort of identity. Because we're really the facilitators in creating that identity.”

Joseph: “I would feel kind of bad if we got halfway through the year, maybe even a little more than that, and everything was the same. I really want to be able to use the position to serve our class.”

What's the best part about being co-presidents?

Justin: “It's reassuring to know that there is someone who can help you out if you are swamped with work and stuff-there is someone there that you can rely on to help you and vice versa. You've got that other person. Especially when you live together, it makes it a lot easier. We are in constant contact.”

Living and working together. Are you guys going to get sick of each other?

Joseph: “Not yet. … I can kick him out of the room. Just kidding!”
   

Leaning forward on a bench in Central Park, Reader described the goal of FringeNYC: to bring quality indie theater to the city, at a reasonable price (tickets range from $15 to $18), for two and half weeks in August every year. “You're not going to see just another production of The Sound of Music,” said Reader, who was one of 10 interns helping the festival run smoothly this past summer. “We're looking for original art work that doesn't normally get to be seen and making it accessible to huge amounts of people.” She approximates the festival draws 75,000 audience members every summer. “In seventeen days we get so much of New York to see theater that they would never get to see otherwise.”

Audiences aren't the only ones seeing something new and different: interning with FringeNYC provided real experience in the theater world for Reader, who, as a liberal arts student, is taking a somewhat nontraditional approach to studying the performing arts. “If you were to go to a conservatory-which is what I'd wanted to do before I realized liberal arts is more for me-you come out and you are an actor,” said Reader. “The jobs that I've had, the classes I've taken-I can do a lot of different things,” such as publicity, box office management, or production. “The liberal arts education has given me the ability to look at the job listings in the theater world and know that I can do anything. I haven't been pigeonholed.” The world is Reader's stage, so to speak, whether she is on it or behind it.

She's on stage a lot at Colby. The summer internship gave her the behind-the-scenes experience-and a chance to witness a theater phenomenon. Through a competitive application process, about 200 live performances from all over the world are selected for the festival. The theater companies provide everything related to production (writers, directors, actors, and publicists), while FringeNYC provides the venues (there are 20 strewn across downtown Manhattan) and schedules showtimes (nearly 1,200). The festival also gives the writers, actors, and directors, who are often relatively new to theater production, a chance to break into the New York theater scene. Participants in past years have gained enough critical acclaim to go on to other better-known festivals and even to Broadway. “These performances are very much a stepping stone,” said Reader.

Because three or four performances are scheduled in each theater daily, a crew has only about 15 minutes to assemble the set before the audience files in, and another 15 minutes to get everything out after the performance before the next company goes through the same process. “We want it to be really scrappy, really fringe-y,” said Reader, echoing the sentiment of the festival's director, Elena Holy. Scrappy is nearly guaranteed, when each company only has one chance to rehearse before go time. “There's a lot of improvisation and a large chance things won't go according to plan, and that's part of it,” said Reader. “In the Lower East Village we regularly have pipes burst and then suddenly everything's wet and all of your programs are gone. Like, what do you do?”

Sweet Smell of Spring

After the snow and rain of winter and early spring, practically everyone on campus rushes to the quad on the first warm, dry day of the year. Whether they are studying, playing Frisbee, or taking a nap, everyone is just happy to be outside. This is a day that I look forward to all winter, because when I see all the students sprawled out on the grass it makes me smile and reminds me that Colby is more than just a school-it is a place we all have a little ownership in and can call home for four years.

-Kendyl Sullivan '11

1. Viva Italia
From flatbread to whole-wheat-crust and traditional fresh-crust, the pizza in Dana is renowned. Around the corner to the left: pasta bar.

2. Greens Galore
In autumn months the salad bar uses vegetables harvested from Colby's student-run organic garden. Opposite wall:
dessert bar.

3. Global Grub
The international station includes Mexican (like spicy beef olé burrito) and Asian (like red curry pork stir-fry). Veggie options, too.

4. You Build It
Like Subway, only better. The deli has tons of sandwich
options with whatever veggies, meats, and cheeses you like. 

5. Drink Up
The drink station features fill-your-own soda, juice, milk, and water. Coffee and tea? Behind the pillar on the right.

6. Home Cookin'
Who doesn't love comfort food, like creamy mac 'n' cheese? Burgers and fries around the corner.

7. Cereal for Dinner?
It does happen, so it's available all the time-plus bagels and toast and other good stuff.

Hochman decided to take action. He wanted to intimidate rivals, inspire the home teams, and give the Colby community something to get excited about. His vision: a Mule Mob.

The blue-shirted Mule Mob debuted at home games Sept. 24.

After coming up with the Mule Mob name, Hochman contacted various representatives in student organizations over the summer. As one of the three presidents of the Student Athletic Advisory Committee (SAAC), Caitlin Burchill '12 saw promise. “His idea is absolutely fantastic.” She and SAAC also wanted to increase fan attendance. Four student organizations including SGA threw their support behind the Mule Mob, and it gained status as an independent club.

Hochman got right to work when he returned to school this fall. With the first Code Blue weekend Sept. 15, Hochman said, “Getting tank tops was my number one priority.” At first he ordered 200 Colby blue shirts, planning to sell them before the first Code Blue weekend, sponsored by student organizations when teams play rivals at home. Recognizing the potential of the Mule Mob to unify the campus, Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students Jim Terhune jumped in. Declaring Sept. 15 “Colby Community Day,” Terhune purchased Mule Mob T-shirts for all Colby students, prompting Hochman to up his order to 1,800.

Leading up to the game, Hochman and his cohorts built up hype by flooding the General Announcements with e-mails, creating Facebook pages and events, and generally spreading the word. After handing out more than 150 tank tops in 20 minutes on the Friday before game day, Hochman said, “It's safe to say, people are excited.”

More than 200 Mules showed up to cheer on their teams. Despite rain and home team losses, the campus was abuzz with activity. From the Mule Mob dance party in Dana to fans screaming at the football game, students sporting their Mule Mob tank tops dotted the entire campus. Hochman was thrilled. “From this point forward the word is out and people know what the Mule Mob is,” he said. “Even though it took a lot of time to get it going, it is going to take off on its own.”

“Since when do people go to games? Since now. And they had a great time doing it.”

“The Mule Mob was such a great idea. I have never seen such enthusiasm and school spirit,” said Caitlin Vorlicek '14. “I'll be wearing my tank top to every game this year in hopes that others do as well.” Vorlicek didn't have to wait long, as the Mule Mob was scheduled to appear for a Code Blue Saturday Oct. 15. 

As for the man behind it all, Hochman said, “I haven't done that much. We were on the cliff. I just pushed us off the edge.”

Whether Hochman takes credit or not, the Colby community seemed to transform over the weekend of Sept. 15. One need only look at the pictures in the Student Lens or on the front page of the Echo.

...that Colby now has a cinema studies minor? The program, created last year, focuses on the history, theory, and culture of film and related media-and it is quickly gaining popularity. A Q&A with Professor of Cinema Studies Steve Wurtzler is at www.insidecolby.com.

Note: Ten Lots Road goes through the neighboring towns of Oakland and Fairfield, Maine.

Visiting speaker Jasbir Puar wants to know three things: Who does life get better for? How exactly does life get better? And what does better mean?

When Rutgers student Tyler Clementi committed suicide in the fall of 2010, radio host Dan Savage responded with the Internet campaign titled “It Gets Better,” targeted at gay youth who have considered suicide as an escape from peer bullying.

The campaign uses Savage's own experience transitioning from a bullied teen to happy adult as an example of how it does get better, and his initial video has sparked viral action. President Obama, Lady Gaga, and the Philadelphia Phillies all want gay teenagers to know life gets better-and their messages are just a few of the hundreds of thousands of videos on the website-which now includes messages from the staff at Google and Ke$ha.

However, the immensity and celebrity involvement of the It Gets Better movement clouds the fact that it doesn't really get better for everyone. On Sept. 21 queer theorist Puar spoke to Colby students about why she believes it is important to complicate the uplifting message of the It Gets Better campaign by asking questions about who participates in Internet activism and who benefits.

Professor of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Lisa Arellano introduced Puar, a professor at Rutgers where Clementi was a student, and Arellano noted that the overflowing classroom was an example of “the intellectual interest and energy in gender and sexuality issues on this campus.”

Puar started her talk with her experience being part of the community response to Clementi's suicide on the Rutgers campus. Students, she said, seemed to “cling to the It Gets Better campaign” while simultaneously participating in a “racialized panic” due to the fact that the student who “outed” Clementi on the Internet was Asian.

Labeling a suicide as gay is problematic, Puar says, because it reinforces a familiar story where a gay male is bullied by a heterosexual male. This narrative leaves out other factors in young suicides such as race, gender, and the role of technology. When Savage then talks about how good life can be for a gay man, the better life he presents is white, upper-middle class, and family oriented. “Getting better,” said Puar, “really means get more normal.”

At a dinner with Puar before her lecture, Colby students were eager to know how this kind of questioning can translate into critical activism. Although Puar didn't give students a plan for direct action, she pointed out that Savage's message has a passive connotation that says, later life will, eventually, get better. This, Puar said, “lets the politics of the now off the hook.”

International students from all four classes pose in the coffeehouse, where there's an International Coffee Hour every Friday, open to all-complete with desserts baked by students.

The new school year kicked off with many foreign faces on campus. It's not just that first-years look unfamiliar-it's that they are from so many different countries. The Class of 2015 includes more international students than any previous class.

Forty-two countries are represented in the first-year class alone, including Iran, Estonia, the Philippines, Rwanda, and Peru. Seventy-three students are international citizens, which is nine more than the previous year.

Why so many? Sandra Sohne-Johnston, associate director of admissions and financial aid, said that, while other colleges cut down on their acceptance of international students for financial reasons this year, Colby did not. Therefore, more of these students picked Colby. “The college has a priority of recruiting international students.”

Because internationalization is an institutional priority, financial aid is administered differently than at many other schools. “A lot of our aid money for non-UWC [Davis United World College] international students is endowed, and it's restricted,” said Steve Thomas, director of admissions. “It has to be spent on international students. So we couldn't pull back on that if we wanted to.”

The nonresident international students began trickling in during the weekend of August 26 for a special orientation. It was not easy getting that many students to campus, as Hurricane Irene was battering the East Coast, causing flights to be canceled.

“It was tough. It was a lot of recalculating, a lot more trips to the airports or arranging to get them here when they first arrive,” said Susan McDougal, associate dean of students and the advising dean for international students.

Despite the shaky arrival, students were eager to get started. “UWC has prepared me for this kind of experience,” said Papa Mode Loum '15, a Davis UWC scholar from Senegal. Colby's size appealed to Loum. “It is better than going to a huge university where you will be just a number,” he said.

And it is not just returning international students who are excited to see the new faces. “It enriches the educational process, and you get to see the world from different angles,” said Mariah Smith '13 of Belfast, Maine. “You get to experience what different cultures are like.”

“I… I just… It just never came up,” I said with a shrug. Here I was, talking to an award-winning radio and television journalist, and I had little to say for myself. As I focused on this lapse in my childhood education, the sound of New York traffic seemed louder than ever. In my hometown of New Orleans, the swamp-like humidity discouraged me from having an all-American childhood, and I typically kept quiet when it came to talk of two-wheeled transportation.

“All right. This Friday you're coming out to Jersey, and I'm teaching you how to ride a bike,” David said.

“I… OK,” I said with a slight air of disbelief. Me? Ride a bike? At the end of the week, he showed up at the office with an extra train ticket. My fate was sealed.

Riding a bike is a life skill, of course, but not the one I thought I'd acquire during this summer internship. I was one of three Elijah Parish Lovejoy Journalism Interns-students given grants through Colby's Goldfarb Center to pursue summer internships. A writer and editor for the Colby Echo, I became interested in radio journalism when I took a creative writing course in documentary radio taught by Professor Debra Spark. I started listening to something that had been, until then, simply pleasant white noise on family vacations and daily car rides. There were stories all around me, and I suddenly realized that the basic unit of the human experience is storytelling. I listened, and I wanted in.

I applied to 11 radio internships, and by far the most appealing was the chance to work with Brancaccio and his team at Marketplace. I thought this seemed like a twist of fate; David Brancaccio grew up in Waterville, and his father, Patrick Brancaccio, taught English at Colby for many years and still teaches a Jan Plan in Italy. The show itself is a nationally syndicated audio program that looks at the world through the lenses of economics, business, and finance. With an internship letter in my hand, I listened to the familiar theme music on NPR and couldn't wait to see what the summer might hold.

When I walked through the doors of Marketplace's New York bureau, I imagined myself recording conversations with interesting people. My timing was a little off. Instead, I plunged right into stories already in progress, listening and helping radio gurus hard at work to meet their encroaching deadlines.

Brancaccio, the show's former host and current special correspondent, had just returned from a trip to Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, where he was covering several stories for his Economy 4.0 project-a beat that explains “the economy of the future and how it may better serve more people.” From hours of raw recording, David and his Economy 4.0 team (Amanda Aronczyk, a veteran producer, and Stan Alcorn, a media-savvy researcher/production assistant) would begin writing scripts and drafting the stories.

I had moved from Mayflower Hill to the real world. I spent long hours in our Manhattan skyscraper wearing oversized headphones while logging tape, a skill I would improve upon as the summer progressed. In doing so, I was listening to stories from people halfway across the world, hearing compelling voices involved with current events, and learning about economic policy along the way.

As an English major, I never got around to taking an economics class, but I certainly got a crash course this summer. Over 12 weeks I became familiar with an alphabet soup of government agencies (CFPB, FTC, and CBO, to name a few), with the workings of Wall Street and its key players (panicked-looking floor traders and “too-big-to-fail” banks among others), and with large economic issues (such as financial regulation and income inequality). The debt ceiling debate, market panics, and credit downgrades unfolded before me, with experts nearby to explain it all. That's the task of Marketplace-David, Amanda, and Stan, along with all the people working with them, make the complicated world of economics accessible to everyone.

Along the way there were the surprising and memorable experiences that came with working in a news outlet. There was the day the CIA called my cell phone to answer questions about their World Factbook data we were using for a story. Another morning, Icelandic singer Björk did an interview in our office, causing considerable distraction and fanfare. One afternoon I went to Wall Street to gather interviews at the Museum of American Finance only to learn the difficult lesson of “always pack an extra set of batteries” for the digital recorder.

Then came the unbearably hot August day when I took the train to New Jersey to learn how to ride a bike-the last skill I expected to acquire from a summer internship. I looked somewhat skeptically at the silver contraption before me, the heat reminiscent of my hometown and my incomplete childhood.

“So we're gonna learn how to brake before we even start,” David said, pushing the bike towards me. After 20 minutes of wobbling and heaving, I was on the cusp of making the bike an extension of myself. When he thought I was ready, David let go of the bike, and I heard a whisper in my ear: “Dude. You're riding a bike.”

Since the summer has ended, a lot of people have asked me how my internship went. Like that hot August day, it began with a shaky start. But, with a little guidance along the way, I journeyed to unexpected places, learned new ways of looking at the world, and, now, I feel like I'm ready to take off on my own.

My answer in a few words: “Well, it was kind of like learning to ride a bike.”

Sarah Kay and Phil Kaye brought their slam poetry to Pulver Pavilion Sept. 17.

They went on to form Project V.O.I.C.E. (Vocal Outreach Into Creative Expression)-a project that has won critical acclaim and awards at the National Poetry Slam. Kay and Kaye gave an hour-long slam poetry performance in Pulver Pavilion to 100-plus students Sept. 17.

Through Project V.O.I.C.E. Kay and Kaye bring poetry and spoken word to public events, workshops, high schools, and colleges. They encourage young school kids who have had little experience with poetry or who might be curious to develop their artistic skills.

Their performances include solo work and duets that they co-write. They explore themes such as personality and discovery of the self through formative experiences, as well as meanings of political events for individuals.

Kay and Kaye said that sharing their personal lives can be challenging at times, but they try to own this fear and get more comfortable.
Saturday's set included a GEICO gecko impersonation by Kaye, in which he expressed qualms about the superficial life he leads as a frontman for an insurance company.

“I know what you're thinking,” the gecko said in British accent to a roar from the audience. “It's the GEICO gecko! Snap snap, Facebook Facebook. People ask me all the time what's it like to be the world's first animal superstar.” He went on to lament how fleeting his interactions with human beings are and how he never has time to learn more about people as soon as he leaves the stage.

Kay's solo performances included a letter written to her imaginary daughter, intended to provide moral support and to let the daughter know she could always count on her mother as a role model.

They shared memories of traveling as far as India and South Africa to perform. While Colby students didn't have to travel to see them, one audience member, a high school student, got her mom to drive her five hours from Vermont just to hear them jam.

Dialogue Housing at Colby was designed for students with a shared intellectual interest in living together in an environment where dialogue, civic engagement, and informal activities revolve around that interest. The Oasis house is the brainchild of Jonathan Kalin '14 and Ginger Brooker '14, who both lived in substance-free buildings their first year. That spring they began building the proposal for a dialogue house that would support a substance-free lifestyle. “The huge thing about Oasis is that it creates a conversation,” said Kalin.

So what are the rules for living in this dialogue house? None. That is one major difference between Oasis and substance-free housing. Residents who have decided to live in Oasis are committed to exploring the possibilities of a substance-free college experience. “Substance-free is a decision you make for yourself-you don't want alcohol in your space,” said Kalin. “Oasis is a decision you make for your community”-you help define the kind of community you want to be a part of.

The goal is a community in which everyone is confident in her or his lifestyle decision and still able to respect and socialize with those not living in Oasis.

The one-on-one connections residents are able to make because of their living environment and shared choices can ultimately influence the rest of the campus. The hope, organizers say, is that Oasis will have an effect on the culture at Colby. Oasis provides a safe and comfortable space to debate this lifestyle choice. It also provides residents with dorm events like T-shirt tie-dyeing, apple picking, cooking, and more.
The organizers are expected to start a campus club in the spring that will carry these dialogues to the larger community. In increasing the dialogue about drinking on campus, Oasis may influence students as they think about their social decisions and the implications of those decisions.