MiddNews
Foul weather in the early hours of May 25 portended an indoor ceremony for Commencement 2003, which would have ended a 10-year streak of outdoor commencements at Middlebury. A careful examination of weather charts, however, indicated an end to the early showers, so the call was made to risk an outdoor venue. When the procession stepped off onto slightly soggy turf at 10 a.m., the overcast skies were punctured by occasional bursts of sunshine, and the boldness of those who made the chancy call was once again vindicated.
New Mexico governor, former UN ambassador, and Clinton Cabinet official Bill Richardson spoke to the grads and families about world affairs. To read his address, see this website. Richardson's engaging sense of humor, not to mention his brevity, endeared him to his audience. Student speaker Brian McCurdy offered well considered advice to his classmates through the perspective of fly-fishing. Some 537 degrees were handed out to graduates, as well as replicas of Gamiliel Painter's cane. Painter, a founder of the College, bequeathed both his cash and his cane to Middlebury.
Faculty, staff, and students wore white ribbons in honor of four classmates—Anisa Gamble, Tiffany Holmes, Iniko Johnson, and Maika Prewitt—who were killed in an automobile accident in their first year. A moment of silence was observed in their honor.
Commencement 2003 was also the occasion of the graduation of Middlebury's first "posse." The posse program identifies promising students from the inner city who are selected by top-ranked colleges on the basis of leadership qualities. Posse Foundation founder Deborah Bial received an honorary doctorate at the morning ceremony. The nine graduating Posse scholars were also honored at a reception held later that day.
The heroes of the day, as always, were the unsung College staff members who made it all look so easy by working so hard.
Graduating members of the men's lacrosse team, six in number, who missed the ceremony because they were competing for a national championship in Baltimore on Sunday, attended a mini version of commencement held specifically for them on Tuesday, May 27. The proceedings were similar to the main event, but took place on a reduced scale.
Poignantly, the outcome of Sunday's championship contest was a 13-12 loss to Maryland's Salisbury State in overtime, following a fierce rally back from a 10-4 disadvantage at the half.
Four Middlebury juniors will get a view of the life of top managers this summer when they intern with leaders in the fields of medicine, media, law, and finance. The career planning office's Leadership Peaks internship program gives students selected through a highly competitive process a brief exposure to life at the pinnacle of a given career field. Bernadette Gunn will spend a week with Ann Jackson '74, group publisher, AOL Time Warner. Kevin Dougherty will have a two-week stint with Middlebury parent Delos Cosgrove, chairman, Department of Thoracic and Cardiac Surgery, Cleveland Clinic Heart Center. Middlebury parents Sally Green, executive vice president, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston and Hon. Nancy G. Edmunds, United States District Court Judge, Detroit, Mich., will host students Kaiming Chiang and John McKinley, respectively.
Middlebury College's Bread Loaf Writers' Conference has announced the winners of the 2003 eighth annual Bakeless Literary Publication Prizes. The prizes are awarded to aid and encourage writers seeking publication of their first books. Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Louise Glück chose Spencer Reece's "The Clerk's Tale" for the poetry prize. Jay Parini, whose writings include several novels, selected Peter Duval's "Rear View" for the fiction prize. Author Ted Conover, recipient of the National Book Critics Circle Award, chose Amy Charlotte Benson's "Legends of the Sparkling-Eyed Boy" for the creative nonfiction prize.
Houghton Mifflin will publish the winning authors' work in its Mariner Original Paperback line. The winners will also receive fellowships to attend the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference in August 2004. For more information, see www.middlebury.edu/blwc/bakeless.
The theatre program has announced that Andrew Boyce '03 was awarded the National Barbizon Award for Excellence in Scenic Design at the Kennedy Center's American College Theatre Festival on Friday, April 18, 2003. The award was given for the design of "Anna Karenina," Boyce's senior work, produced at the College in Oct. 2002, and subsequently at the New England Regional Festival in January 2003, where it was named a national alternate.
Of the eight regional finalists, Boyce was one of only three undergraduate students. The award was given for the imagination and execution of the design itself, and for Boyce's ability to present and discuss his work to the national adjudication team.
"The Movie Hero," written and directed by Brad Gottfred '97, won Best Feature at the Tambay Film and Video Festival. The film was also fourth in audience voting at the Nashville Independent Film Festival, and runner-up in several categories at the Phoenix Film Festival.
Aint't It Cool News, an online service, said, "First time director/screenwriter Brad Gottfred has crafted an original, entertaining, quirky movie. I can't wait to see what he's doing next." To see what audience members think of it, check this site.
Pascale LaFountain '04 was recently awarded the Beinecke Brothers Memorial Scholarship, a highly esteemed and competitive national award. The scholarship provides substantial financial awards to be used toward the graduate education of students who display exceptional promise in subjects related to the arts, humanities, or social sciences. LaFountain will receive an initial payment of $2,000 at the end of her senior year, with an additional $30,000 to follow once she begins graduate school.
The Beinecke Scholarship Program was established in 1971 by the board of directors of the Sperry and Hutchinson Company, in memory of the father and two uncles of company president William Sperry Beinecke. Each year, only about 100 prestigious colleges and universities from around the country are invited to nominate one candidate.
LaFountain, a German/French major, was one of 23 applicants—along with students from such schools as Williams, Yale, and Vassar—selected from a group of 87 nominees. She is only the fourth Middlebury student to win a Beinecke award in the last 15 years.
Thirteen students have brought considerable attention to Middlebury this spring as they set out across the country in the Bio Bus. The Bio Bus is a converted school bus that runs on used cooking oil. The students hope to draw attention to the environmental advantages of biodiesel fuels as an alternative to regular diesel fuel as they travel.
An Associated Press story about the project was picked up by newspapers all over the country. The bus and its crew are being sought out for news interviews and public appearances at many of the locations they will pass through as they travel west for arrival in the state of Washington on June 11. For additional information see http://www.projectbiobus.com/.