|
Table of
Contents
|
Hello Alumni!
This is the official launch of the NEW alumni e-newsletter
format. Please let us know what you think! In this edition you will find an advertising link in the table of contents.
The linked document advertises products, businesses and organizations that are COA alumni owned, created or that represent organizations
that alumni are currently actively involved in and wholeheartedly support.
Please check it out and see what your fellow alumni are doing
out there in the world.
I welcome your feedback and participation,
as always: milja@coa.edu.
You can expect the next edition of the alumni e-newsletter to come a-knockin' at your e-mailbox door in
about three months. I welcome submissions of creative writing, OpEd pieces, photography,and really anything else that you and your fellow
alumni are interested in sharing and reading.
Haven't made it back to COA in a long time and wish that you
could have been a part of some of the recent amazing events?? For example: the David Hales inaguration ceremony, The 2006 Society of Human
Ecology Conference, Earth Day - Alumni Weekend, etc...
well, now you can evesdrop on lectures and presentations via podcasts.
Click here to check out what's available.
Thanks for keeping in touch!
Cheers, Milja Brecher-DeMuro
Alumni Relations-Development
Coordinator
Earth Day – Alumni Weekend 2007
by Milja Brecher-DeMuro
This year’s Earth Day – Alumni Weekend
couldn’t have been more perfect. The week leading up to the event threatened rain and cold temperatures, but somehow,
miraculously, April 21 was 75 degrees and sunny. The main tent was filled with booths boasting eco-friendly products, businesses,
organizations and information. From live music by local talent and alumni to book sales, food booths, alumni art and photography,
an alumni film festival and the keynote address by COA grad, Cathy Johnson (1974), there was no lack of activities.
Children spent hours in the kids' area making musical instruments and costumes from recycled cardboard, milk containers and egg
cartons. Face painting, Eddie Monat’s (1988) touch tank, fresh organic lettuce wraps from Beech Hill Farm, Doula Services
information by Sarah Keeley (2005) and a presentation on midwifery by Anna Durand (1986), Socially Responsible Investment Planning by Fielder Mattox
(2002), and Waldorf Education by Stuart Dickey Summer (1982) were just a few of the other activities that left no participant
bored.
Click here to read more and to find out who else was
there...
|
|
35th Commencement at COA
Chellie Pingree '79 Joins '07 Graduates in
Talks
by Donna Gold
Dressed in silks from China and Bhutan, sporting fishing hats, suspenders,
a vintage mink jacket and all of one mortarboard, 68 students received diplomas in Human Ecology from College of the Atlantic Saturday. The students
hailed from 15 nations and 20 states, a fact that was repeated in the greetings given in 18 languages, to welcome both current students and
graduating seniors.
Sitting beneath a tent draped with flags from the many countries and states represented by the students, the
thousand guests listened to Chellie Pingree, a 1979 graduate of COA, and a member of the college's second class. Pingree served as president and CEO
of Common Cause until this February, when she left to launch a bid to be Maine's first district candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives.
Prior to leading Common Cause, Pingree served for eight years in the Maine Senate, with the last four years as majority leader, leaving due to the
term limit law. She spoke of how COA helped her to think broadly about issues, and how it taught her to understand how even simple changes have wide
ramifications.
Click here to read more...
|
To Know The Birds
The Legacy of William Holland Drury, Jr.
by Tammis Coffin COA class of ’87
Over twenty years ago, Bill Drury uttered a quote so memorable in class one day that I never
forgot it. Indeed, in some way, his comment helped guide the course of my life. Professor William Holland Drury, Jr. was one of a handful
of distinguished professors of natural history who left Harvard University in the late 1970s to teach at the newly forming College of the Atlantic, in
Maine. Located in Bar Harbor, this college is dedicated to interdisciplinary studies, the environment, and what we call human
ecology.
The class was Landforms and Vegetation and a student asked our professor
how he had designed a career that made him a master botanist, ornithologist and geologist all in one. Bill’s answer was delivered slowly and
deliberately. He said, “I wanted to know the birds. In order to know the birds, I had to know the plants. In order to know the plants, I had
to know the rocks."
Click here to read more...
|
|
A COA Snap
Shot
by Frank Twohill
'80
Friday, September 14,
1973
I shifted my position on the bicycle, which was loaded with camping gear, and rode
slowly up the COA driveway. Up ahead I could see Bob Baker, my riding partner, on his bike. He had come to rest, after
pedaling 507 miles, at the rear COA entrance; the long low building that connected the "cottage" to the two story "carriage house." A
group of COA students had circled him and I let my bike begin to slow.
I thought back to our conversation the night before at the Camden Hills State Park in
Camden, ME. This was our last night on the bicycle trip; we were arriving at COA the following day. Sitting around the
campfire, our tent was already up for the night, Bob told me what it was like to attend COA the previous year,
1972-73.
This was the first class; the first year of the college, thirty-two students including Bob
had arrived one year earlier to begin the life of a small private liberal arts college. Many were from the suburban Boston area. Several
were transfer students that grew disillusioned with their own colleges as they were too big, too impersonal, had boring subjects, huge classes and
rigid requirements - all good reasons to transfer to COA.
Click here to read more...
|
OpEd
It is Time For COA To Seat the
COA Alumni at the Head Table
by Frank Twohill
‘80
I graduated from COA in January, 1980; I
was a member of the second class entering COA in the Fall of 1973. I am proud of the progress I have seen that COA has made over
the years. I am also astounded to see that the same great spirit exists amongst the members of the COA on-campus
Community.
I have been on the COAAA Governing Board
since June, 2005. In my opinion, it is now time for COA to seat the alumni at the head table. Let me
explain. If you do not consider my request to be p.c. (politically correct,) please read on and at least hear me
out.
When I returned to the COA campus in June, 2005, to attend the Black Fly reunion and graduation, this was my 25th "reunion" year.
I looked forward to "reconnect" with my classmates and assumed that many would return to MDI. Instead, no one came
back from my class at all. In fact, of the 1200 COA graduates to date and the additional 800 students that have attended COA but
did not graduate, only a handful returned for "Black Fly" in 2005.
In 2006, again I
returned to campus for the June "Black Fly" reunion and graduation weekend. Again, virtually no one attended the annual "reunion"
outside of the COAAA Governing Board members. It clearly dawned on me that the COA alumni program was not working for us at
all.
Click here to read
more... |
|
|
|
|
