A L U M N I M A G A Z I N E - Colby-Sawyer College
A L U M N I M A G A Z I N E - Colby-Sawyer College A L U M N I M A G A Z I N E - Colby-Sawyer College
CSC Fund 4K Challenge Seeks to Buck Trend On your mark, get set, go! The Colby-Sawyer Fund 4K Challenge began on July 1 and the college hopes alumni and friends will participate in this year long fundraising “race.” The goal is to reach a total of 4,000 donors, including 3,000 alumni, for the Colby-Sawyer Fund by the close of the fiscal year on June 30, 2012. The College Welcomes Renowned Mexican Artist Internationally renowned engraver and muralist Sergio Sanchez Santamaria spent several weeks on campus this spring, visiting fine arts and history classes and offering workshops on printmaking and engraving techniques. Santamaria, a native of Tlayacapan, Mexico, works in the classical tradition of Mexico’s great engravers Guadalupe Posada and Leopoldo Mendez, creating intricately detailed portraits of important people in Mexican culture. His engraving was featured in an exhibition on campus earlier this year, “Mexican Art from Outsiders to Contemporary,” which featured works from the collection of History Professor Randy Hanson. One of the highlights of Santamaria’s residency was the creation of a large mural in the Wesson Honors Suite on the fourth floor of Colgate Hall, on which he worked closely with many student artists. 12 COLBY-SAWYER ALUMNI MAGAZINE That goal represents a significant increase in participation from previous years, but according to Vice President for Advancement Beth Cahill, it’s one that can be achieved. “Alumni participation is falling at Colby-Sawyer and nationally,” she explains. “We need to reverse this trend to secure funding for the college’s future.” The idea of setting a participation goal rather than a specific dollar amount came from a small group of donors who approached the college with a challenge: If the college could secure 4,000 donors, this group would collectively commit to giving up to $250,000 to the Colby-Sawyer Fund. Vice President Cahill didn’t hesitate to accept the challenge. “It’s a significant increase, and it won’t be easy,” she says, “but we are confident that we have the ability and, most importantly, the dedicated alumni to help us over the finish line.” A series of fundraising events is planned throughout the coming fiscal year which, in keeping with the racing theme, has been dubbed “sprints.” Expect President Galligan, a marathon runner, to be actively involved in the challenge. To learn more about the Colby-Sawyer Fund 4K Challenge, please visit www.colby-sawyer.edu/giving or call the Office of Alumni Relations and Annual Giving at (800) 266-8253. –Mike Gregory Sergio Sanchez Santamaria (inset) guides Kameron Mertz ’12, Melissa Quinn ’12 and Chris Diego ’12 as they contribute their painting skills to the dramatic mural that covers an entire wall in the Wesson Honors Suite. PHOTOS: Ed Germar
A Poet Talks to Herself Assistant Professor of Humanities Ewa Chrusciel, a native of Poland, has published her first book in English, Strata, which she describes as “a hybrid text incorporating letters and poems (that) investigates issues of identity, mediation, protest, Central European politics and the Sublime.” Below are excerpts of an interview in which Chrusciel asked, and answered, questions about her work that she has always wished to be asked. Why do you write in your non-native language? Experience determines the choice of the language. To change your language you must change your life. I changed my life by flying to the U.S.A. Writing in English is the work of smuggling metaphors from one language into another. It is a work of bilingualism and mistranslation, so it is a constant mental shuffling between the languages, between these two conceptualizations of the world. Writing in two languages creates bewilderment for us and for our readers. It changes us. It transports us to new places. And writing poems is a way of being in two places at once? Writing comes from a longing for the presence of another place, for bilocation. My desire for linguistic bilocation is related to my bilingualism, which means inhabiting two cognitive places at once. Bilingualism is for those who are unable to let it go, who nest in two places at once. For those who dwell in impossibility. Poems bilocate to express what is ineffable. To give tribute to Mystery; to the insufficiency of any language. Why so many animals and birds in your poems? I see Beauty in animals. I see Mystery in animals. And, as Flannery O’Connor says, Beauty will save the world. I think Beauty has teeth and it terrifies. Poetry is a tribute to such Beauty. That wildness comes from the fact that poems are tigers that jump out of us. That wildness is my response to Mystery. Do we write poems or do poems write us? If we think we already know what to write, we never encounter the subject of a poem that should “write us.” Likewise, if we already know what we are reading, we never learn anything about literature. Without the sense of surprise, bewilderment and discovery, there is no literature; there is no learning. The opening up of a subject is what Jorie Graham calls the “poem’s occasion,” when we let ourselves meander and encounter the subject which changes us. a poem Children swing on a rope down to a river. Water is shocked by this splutter. We stay on shore, even though we know the water is master of gravitation and will save us from flight. Unlike Mary’s Yes, a swing into hearts ajar. I dream of the day when my syllables will hold rough wood, my letters will be sewn in a stove or fireplace. It’s not the sacrifice we resist, but the beauty. The intensity of the instance burns. For it has to turn into another instance. There is nobility in asking the same thing over and over. Children swing on a rope down to a river. Water is shocked by this splutter. The truth burns us before it falls away. We remain on shore. When did she start to witness evanescence? The animals saw her suffering in light and saw that it was good and took her light in suffering. A dog started to bleed. A cat died after she left. Life was not enough. The occasional splutter of light. The simplicity of smile. There is nobility in asking. Children swing on a rope down to a river. Nico’s Aya speaks of light and evanescence. The blessing of his Grandmother. Woven DNA patterns. Now it has holes and no warmth, but the child holds onto it and repeats: “AYA’s church.” Not knowing that Aya, his grandmother, wove him into Being. There were many blankets. The plants saw and knew it was good. There is nobility in weaving the same blanket over and over. We are impatient to rid ourselves of time. It takes centuries for Arctic plants to spread and form a quaking mat, a circumference of clarities. From Strata by Ewa Chrusciel (published by Emergency Press) The poem above was inspired by “that famous bog area in New London (N.H.), ...covered by a quaking mat of plants,” according to the poet. The self-interview was published on nervousbreakdown.com in May 2011. To read the entire interview and poems from Strata visit www.colby-sawyer.edu/currents/ewa.html. SUMMER 2011 13
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- Page 13: A Life Shaped in Clay “Gerry Will
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- Page 21 and 22: PHOTO: Cindy Benson as her family a
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- Page 25 and 26: Once Lost, Now Found Growing up in
- Page 27 and 28: describes her students as warm, fri
- Page 29 and 30: don’t go unnoticed. “Ms. Neary
- Page 31 and 32: Zebras graze in Lake Manyara Nation
- Page 33 and 34: My study abroad experience was full
- Page 35 and 36: more curious about what was happeni
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- Page 45 and 46: Above, left to right: Graduating me
- Page 47 and 48: PHOTO: John Quackenbos Go Chargers!
- Page 49 and 50: PHOTO: Robert Migliaccio Natalie Wh
- Page 51 and 52: Alumni Fall Festival Thanks to thos
- Page 53 and 54: from Colby! Let’s make it a great
- Page 55 and 56: Take a vacation with your classmate
- Page 57 and 58: 9 years, where a Centennial is plan
- Page 59 and 60: show Dachshunds.” Joan Giglio Ash
- Page 61 and 62: NJ. Last year they completed an add
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CSC Fund 4K Challenge Seeks to Buck Trend<br />
On your mark, get set, go! The <strong>Colby</strong>-<strong>Sawyer</strong> Fund 4K<br />
Challenge began on July 1 and the college hopes alumni and<br />
friends will participate in this year long fundraising “race.” The<br />
goal is to reach a total of 4,000 donors, including 3,000 alumni,<br />
for the <strong>Colby</strong>-<strong>Sawyer</strong> Fund by the close of the fiscal year on<br />
June 30, 2012.<br />
The <strong>College</strong> Welcomes Renowned Mexican Artist<br />
Internationally renowned engraver<br />
and muralist Sergio Sanchez Santamaria<br />
spent several weeks on campus this<br />
spring, visiting fine arts and history<br />
classes and offering workshops on<br />
printmaking and engraving techniques.<br />
Santamaria, a native of Tlayacapan,<br />
Mexico, works in the classical tradition<br />
of Mexico’s great engravers Guadalupe<br />
Posada and Leopoldo Mendez, creating<br />
intricately detailed portraits of important<br />
people in Mexican culture. His<br />
engraving was featured in an exhibition<br />
on campus earlier this year, “Mexican<br />
Art from Outsiders to Contemporary,”<br />
which featured works from the collection<br />
of History Professor Randy Hanson.<br />
One of the highlights of Santamaria’s<br />
residency was the creation of a large<br />
mural in the Wesson Honors Suite on<br />
the fourth floor of Colgate Hall, on<br />
which he worked closely with many<br />
student artists.<br />
12 COLBY-SAWYER ALUMNI MAGAZINE<br />
That goal represents a significant increase in participation from<br />
previous years, but according to Vice President for Advancement<br />
Beth Cahill, it’s one that can be achieved. “Alumni participation<br />
is falling at <strong>Colby</strong>-<strong>Sawyer</strong> and nationally,” she explains. “We need<br />
to reverse this trend to secure funding for the college’s future.”<br />
The idea of setting a participation goal rather than a specific<br />
dollar amount came from a small group of donors who<br />
approached the college with a challenge: If the college could<br />
secure 4,000 donors, this group would collectively commit to giving<br />
up to $250,000 to the <strong>Colby</strong>-<strong>Sawyer</strong> Fund.<br />
Vice President Cahill didn’t hesitate to accept the challenge.<br />
“It’s a significant increase, and it won’t be easy,” she says, “but<br />
we are confident that we have the ability and, most importantly,<br />
the dedicated alumni to help us over the finish line.”<br />
A series of fundraising events is planned throughout the<br />
coming fiscal year which, in keeping with the racing theme, has<br />
been dubbed “sprints.” Expect President Galligan, a marathon<br />
runner, to be actively involved in the challenge.<br />
To learn more about the <strong>Colby</strong>-<strong>Sawyer</strong> Fund 4K Challenge, please<br />
visit www.colby-sawyer.edu/giving or call the Office of Alumni<br />
Relations and Annual Giving at (800) 266-8253.<br />
–Mike Gregory<br />
Sergio Sanchez Santamaria (inset) guides Kameron Mertz ’12, Melissa Quinn ’12 and Chris Diego ’12 as they<br />
contribute their painting skills to the dramatic mural that covers an entire wall in the Wesson Honors Suite.<br />
PHOTOS: Ed Germar
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