Commencement Issue

VOLUME CXLVIII COMMENCEMENT EDITION

FRIDAY, MAY 24, 2019

AMHERST, MASSACHUSETTS

COMMENCEMENT CXCVIII

Photo by Matai Curzon ’22

THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF AMHERST COLLEGE SINCE 1868

Schedule Events of

FRIDAY, MAY 24 - SUNDAY, MAY 26

FRIDAY 1 p.m. - 9 p.m.

Check-In Alumni House 5 p.m.

Commencement Rehearsal Main Quadrangle (Johnson Chapel in case of rain)

SATURDAY 8:30 a.m. - 7 p.m.

Check-In Alumni House 9 a.m.

Phi Beta Kappa Meeting Stirn Auditorium 10 a.m.

Baccalaureate Celebration Johnson Chapel

11:15 a.m. - 12:15 p.m.

Conversations with Honored Guests See College Website 12:30 p.m. - 2 p.m.

Luncheon Valentine Quadrangle 1 p.m.

Sigma Xi Meeting Lewis-Sebring Dining Commons 2 p.m. - 3 p.m.

Conversations with Honored Guests See College Website 3:15 p.m. - 4:15 p.m.

Conversations with Honored Guests See College Website 4:30 p.m. - 6 p.m.

President’s Reception Garden of the President’s House 9:15 p.m.

Choral Society Concert Buckley Recital Hall, Arms Music Center

2 | The Amherst Student | May 24, 2019

SUNDAY

STAFF

8 a.m. - 2 p.m.

Welcome Center Open Alumni House

EDITORS-IN-CHIEF Shawna Chen Emma Swislow

10 a.m.

The 198th Commencement Main Quadrangle 12:30 p.m. - 2 p.m.

Luncheon Valentine Quadrangle

HEAD PUBLISHERS Joseph Centeno Emmy Sohn EDITORS Natalie De Rosa, Connor Haugh, Olivia Gieger, Henry Newton, Julia Shea, Camilo Toruno, Ryan Yu CONTRIBUTORS Gaby Bucio, Sophia Harrison, Jae Yun Ham, Seoyeon Kim, Olivia Luntz PHOTOGRAPHER Matai Curzon The Amherst Student is published weekly except during college vacations. The subscription rate is $75 per year or $40 per semester.

Subscription requests and address changes should be sent to: Subscriptions, The Amherst Student; Box 1912, Amherst College: Amherst, MA 01002-5000. The offices of The Student are located on the second floor of the Keefe Campus Center, Amherst College. Phone: (413) 5422304. All contents copyright © 2015 by The Amherst Student, Inc. All rights reserved. The Amherst Student logo is a trademark of The Amherst Student, Inc. Additionally, The Amherst Student does not discriminate on the basis of gender, race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation or age.

Photo by Matai Curzon ’22

Table of Contents SENIOR PROFILES

10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30 32 34 36 38 4 The Year in News

Isabel Tessier The Beating Heart Behind All the Newsprint Yixin Xiao “If You Want to Act, Understand the Stage” ShoYoung Shin Dismantling Inequity, One Step at a Time Alyssa Snyder A Champion for First-Generation Students Jamie Tucker-Foltz A Churchill Scholar with “a Math Mind” Renai Foster A “Busybody” with a Critical Eye Wesley Guimarães dos Santos All the World’s His Stage Emily Park Beneath the Blue Hat, a Devotion to Her Art Empathetic Care from a Versatile Mind Maeve McNamara Fueling Accomplishments with Passion Helena Burgueño A Filmmaker Exploring Identity Arthur Pero A Meandering Path to Higher Education Kate Finnerty Math, With a Minor in Talking Rubii Tamen Taming the Field: A Compassionate Pursuit Nate Quigley Team Player Leads With Drive to Succeed

6

8

40

Fellowships and Scholarships

Honorary Degrees

The Year in Sports

May 24, 2019 | The Amherst Student | 3

The Year in News

→

The new Science Center opened its doors to students this academic year after three years of construction.

Photo courtesy of Matai Curzon ’22

→

Students gathered outside of Johnson Chapel to protest former attorney general Jeff Sessions’ visit to campus on April 24.

AUGUST The Lord Jeffery Inn announced on Aug. 28 that it would change its name to the Inn on Boltwood. The announcement came as the latest in the college’s move away from the unofficial Lord Jefferey Amherst mascot after the Board of Trustees’ vote in 2016.

DECEMBER The group Students for Climate Action hosted the event “Student Voices from the Frontlines of Climate Change” with nearly 200 people in attendance.

The event called on the Board of Trustees to vote for the Climate Action Plan in January 2019.

SEPTEMBER In an exclusive in The Student, the college revealed that renowned author Min Jin Lee would join the faculty as writer-in-residence beginning in the 2019-2020 academic year. Lee, who is best known for her award-winning novel “Pachinko,” would remain at the college for a three-year appointment.

JANUARY The Board of Trustees voted to pass the Climate Action Plan on Jan. 24, a move that commits the college to carbon neutrality by 2030. The plan had been in the works since 2015 when the Office of Sustainability called for a set date towards carbon neutrality.

The Zumbyes admitted its first female member during its fall auditions, breaking away from its 68 years as an all-male a capella group.

Emma Ratshin ’21 was one of two women who auditioned and ultimately made the cut for the group.

OCTOBER Over a month after it first opened its doors to students, the new Science Center celebrated its official opening on Oct. 20 with panel discussions, guided tours and a reception. Chair of the Board of Trustees Andrew Nussbaum ’85 noted that the building represented “a liberal arts education Amherst-style,” which encompasses scientific thinking.

Photo courtesy of Matai Curzon ‘22

4 | The Amherst Student | May 24, 2019

NOVEMBER The college invited two accessibility consultants to hold open forums with students and faculty before releasing a report on the physical campus, a move that came after adopting four accessibility principles the previous year.

Then-president of Hampshire College Miriam Nelson announced to the Five College community that the college’s financial operations were unsustainable and that it would be seeking a strategic partner. Hampshire later revealed that it would be admitting a reduced first-year class for the fall of 2019.

FEBRUARY Former Ohio Gov. John Kasich spoke at the college on Feb.7 about his upbringing and his entrance into politics. Students expressed their disagreement with Kasich’s political views, both at the event’s Q&A session and at a small classroom discussion hosted prior to the event.

Beginning on Monday, Feb. 1, the college experienced a nearly week-long network outage that affected campus Wi-Fi connection, email, Moodle and other services. The outage resulted from three issues: a configuration issue with the router, MAC flap incidents and an unknown issue localized in Chapin Hall.

MARCH The Office of Diversity and Inclusion released the Common Language Document (CLD), which sparked controversy and discussions about freedom of speech on campus. According to the initial community-wide email about the guide, the CLD “emerged out of a need to come to a common and shared understanding of language in order to foster opportunities for community building and effective communication within and across difference.”

News concerning the CLD reached conservative news outlet The Daily Wire after the Amherst College Republicans submitted a tip about the guide.

Later that day, the CLD was removed from the college website and replaced with a statement from President Biddy Martin, which called the guide a “very problematic approach” to fostering belonging on campus.

Students began organizing in Frost Cafe the day after the CLD’s removal to discuss the implications of taking down the document. Several students felt that the college’s denouncement of the CLD denied the identities outlined in the document.

Printed copies of Martin’s statement were defamed with a red X through it and posted throughout campus, though an unknown individual tore them down later.

The Student reported that a swastika was drawn on the face of an unconscious person at a men’s lacrosse party in December 2018. Photos of the swastika were then circulated by members of the men’s lacrosse team.

The college had not taken public action to address the incident when The Student released the article.

Following the publication of the incident, Amherst Hillel

published an op-ed in The Student expressing frustration with the administration’s response.

The group met with the administration afterwards to address steps to be taken.

President Martin later sent an email to the community addressing events on campus, including the swastika incident. She wrote that “when this atrocious symbol becomes visible, we have a responsibility to stop and reflect on what it means and what the symbol has been used to do. We also have a responsibility to work against the hatred that the symbol represents.”

APRIL The

Amherst

College

Republicans (ACR) faced disciplinary action from the Judiciary Council of the Amherst Association of Students following the publication of derogatory GroupMe messages in The Student. The Judiciary Council ruled that in order to remain a registered student organization, ACR’s current and newly-elected executive board must step down and cannot take any other executive board positions for the rest of their time at Amherst. ACR was also required to publish an op-ed in The Student condemning hate speech. At press time, ACR has not taken any of the steps offered by the Judiciary Council.

The GroupMe messages were first published by The Student surrounding the controversy around the Common Language Document. The messages engaged in transphobic rhetoric, criticizing the CLD’s definitions on words like “packing” and commenting on staff members of the Queer Resource Center.

The Association of Amherst Students (AAS) hosted a number of re-done elections following the disqualification of the “Unity Ticket.” Candidates running as a part of the Unity Ticket misinterpreted a section of the AAS Constitution allotting $30 as the maximum amount of money for

Crimes of the Year June 15, 2018 6:18 p.m., Off Campus Locations A caller reported she was scammed out of $800 as a result of a phone call she received.

August 13, 2018 2:05 a.m., Emily Dickinson House Officers responded to an intrusion alarm that was set off by a bat.

Sept. 1, 2018 3:10 a.m., Jenkins Dormitory An officer responded to remove an item from the ground that was discovered to be makeup.

Sept. 15, 2018 1:12 a.m., Appleton Dormitory An officer responded to a report of someone tampering with a fire extinguisher and found it was used to cause damage.

Sept. 21, 2018 5:25 p.m., Greenway Building C An officer responded to a report of annoying behavior.

Sept. 29, 2018 12:30 a.m., Hitchcock Hall Officers discovered a large unregistered party with a large amount of alcohol and vomit left in the hallways.

Oct. 4, 2018 12:58 p.m., The Quadrangle

Officers responded to a report of a loud audiobook playing.

Oct. 6, 2018 12:39 a.m., Seligman House Officers responded to a report of an individual wearing a Halloween costume and being a nuisance in the common area. The individual was gone upon the officers’ arrival.

The college began exploring the possibility of converting the Merrill/McGuire site into a new student center. Administrators hosted discussions with students and faculty on their thoughts and ideas for the design of a potential student center.

The Amherst College Republicans invited former attorney general Jeff Sessions to campus for a talk on April 24. The event was funded by the youth con-

servative organization Young America’s Foundation, with some additional funding from an anonymous donation to ACR. The event prompted widespread opposition from the college community, with several protests occurring during Session’s talk. Five minutes into Session’s talk, approximately 70 students walked out of Johnson Chapel.

The Direct Action Coordinating Committee (DACC) hosted a demonstration outside of the chapel with local community organizations, while a party called “The Session” occurred in the Powerhouse and food trucks parked outside of Keefe for an end-of-the-year celebration.

CONGRATULATIONS INDUCTEES

area.

Jan. 5, 2019 11:31 a.m., Seligman Hall Officers assisted in removing a bat from the building.

Feb. 25, 2019 5:19 p.m., 79 South Pleasant Lot Due to high winds, a tree limb fell on a vehicle and caused damage.

Oct. 27, 2018 1:30 a.m., Hitchcock Hall An officer located broken picture frames that initially contained copies of historical photos. Some of the photos were also missing from the room.

March 8, 2019 8:31 p.m., LeFrak Gymnasium A bag left unattended was stolen from the basketball game. The theft exceeded $1,200 in value.

Nov. 16, 2018 11:48 a.m., Hitchcock Hall A student covered their smoke detector, preventing it from working properly, and smoked marijuana in the room.

March 24, 2019 12:22 a.m., Powerhouse Officers responded to a report of a possible fight occurring but found no disturbance upon arrival.

Dec. 8, 2018 12:47 a.m., Hitchcock Hall Amherst Fire Department and officers responded to a fire alarm and found someone falsely pulled a fire alarm.

They also encountered an individual not leaving the building for the alarm.

March 30, 2019 12:52 a.m., Powerhouse Two individuals violated the school’s honor code by using prohibited devices and being disrespectful to students and employees.

Dec. 18, 2018 6:25 p.m., South Parking Lot A passerby reported an individual wearing a clown mask and hooded sweatshirt. No one was found in the

candidates to use for campaigning. The candidates spent $30 each, but their candidacy as a ticket meant that they could only spend $30 collectively.

April 21, 2019 12:34 a.m., College Street A student was approached by an unknown vehicle offering a ride. The student did not accept the ride and left the area without incident.

The following students of the class of 2019 have been inducted into Phi Beta Kappa for their show of academic excellence, based on their cumulative grade point average. Asterisks indicate nomination at the end of junior year.

Ashwin Balaji Robert Norman Barasch Natalie Saltoun Braun David Michael Brinkley Helena Burgueño Mujin Choi Alexandra Maria Conza James Corbett Nayereh Doosti Alexander R. Einarsson Kai-Isaak Ellers Simon Essig Aberg Katherine Sueyeun Finnerty Hannah Elizabeth Firestone Emily Grace Flaherty David Merton Green Emma Jane Hollenberg Hayes Leslie Honea Laboni Hoque Fengling Hu Jocelyn Victoria Hunyadi Esther Arabella Isaac Jonathan Mark Jackson, Jr. Rebecca Jordan

Harith Khawaja Eric Kim Leah Jungwan Kim Ian Markham McClaugherty Bryan Miller Isabel Marie Miller Kelly Elizabeth Missett Denise Guadalupe Noriega Grace Elizabeth Orr Julia Clemens Pike Nathaniel Vincent Quigley Megan Root Mark Joseph Schoen Alizeh Shuaib Sethi Logan Seymour Sangmin Song Mackenzie Anne Stein Meghan Irene Sullivan Jamie Tucker-Foltz Andrew Ver Steeg Matthew Walsh Brian Zachary Zayatz Chenxi Zhang Eric Zhou

May 24, 2019 | The Amherst Student | 5

Fulbright, Watson & Churchill Scholars Watson PATRICK FRENETT A triple major in computer science, mathematics and statistics, Patrick Frenett plans to take advantage of his Watson Fellowship by traveling to Estonia, Germany, Belgium, Kenya, Uganda, India and Japan.

He hopes to learn more about artificial intelligence by meeting with policymakers, researchers and firms, and eventually plans to pursue a master’s in computer science after completing the Watson.

“The narrative of the future of artificial intelligence will be based on the human implications as much as it will material progress. Without enough emphasis on the former, the fruits of the latter will never be fully realized,” Frenett wrote in his application.

During his time at Amherst, Frenett founded the artificial intelligence club, built a website that allows students to rate courses taught at the college, hosted a radio show on WAMH and played on the rugby team.

Frenett hopes to build machine learning products after attending graduate school.

Churchill JAMIE TUCKER-FOLTZ Jamie Tucker-Foltz is a double major in mathematics and computer science who will be headed to the University of Cambridge this year as a Churchill scholar. The scholarship, which is worth approximately $60,000, will be used towards a master of philosophy degree in advanced computer science.

Tucker-Foltz pursued his interest in computer science as soon as he arrived at Amherst, immediately engaging in research on topics ranging from computational geometry to game theory. “I

6 | The Amherst Student | May 24, 2019

other, more foundational topics in theoretical computer science: the mathematical problems that arise are the most subtly complicated of any I know,” he said in an interview with the college.

Over his time at Amherst, Tucker-Foltz honed in on his passions. “Gradually, I came to see that the mathematical topics I found most exciting — the ones that would keep me up at night — were those most closely related to [computer science],” he retical computer science that “accepts that some kinds of problems cannot be reduced to simpler ones, and instead explores their complexity, attempting to determine exactly what about a problem makes it so ‘hard.’”

Fulbrights ARIELLA GOLDBERG

Once she has completed her program in Denmark, Goldberg hopes to enroll in a Ph.D. program in applied mathematics.

A double major in mathematics and classics, Ariella Goldsurvival traits. Her research will be based at the Technical University of Denmark.

“This project addresses questions directly relevant to climate change since plankton are central to the health of marine ecosystems,” she wrote in her application.

JASON SETO sistant (ETA) award in Malaysia. His past experiences with tutoring and music have helped him “think of ways in which I could contribute to a more fun and engaging classroom environment,” he said in his application.

After his time in Malaysia, Seto hopes to attend medical school and later return to his home state of Hawaii to address health care inequities. Seto would also like to research cultural sensitivity in medical practices, along with improving access to primary care in

SARAH WAGNER Sarah Wagner, an anthropology and environmental studies double major, won a Fulbright ETA position to Spain. Having worked in the education industry while at Amherst and inspired by her semester abroad in Chile, Wagner will arrive in Spain in hopes of growing as an educator.

“The school’s embodiment of this tagline, ‘education for liberation,’ showed me that education could be more

rural communities.

“In my potential future as a physician in Hawaii, I will undoubtedly be interacting with people from an array of cultural backgrounds, many of whom will be Southeast Asian,” Seto wrote in his Fulbright application. “The opportunity to practice communicating across language barriers and cultural boundaries will be an invaluable asset as I pursue a career in medicine, and I hope that my enthusiasm for teaching and experience in education will provide the students with an equally-rewarding experience.”

He added, “I believe that empathy is a habit that can be cultivated, and it has been a salient feature of the activities that I have found most meaningful.”

than the acquisition of facts. The process itself can and should be empowering,” Wagner wrote in her application about her experience at a school in Chile.

With an interest in education reform, Wagner plans to pursue a master’s in education after her Fulbright year and teach at an underresourced school. She hopes to pursue a career in either academia, policy reform or non-profit work after her Fulbright year.

“I hope that my Fulbright year will allow me to explore my personal stretch zone and grow as an educator and citizen,” Wagner wrote in her application.

ERIC ZHOU Eric Zhou is a history and neuroscience double major who was granted a Fulbright ETA position in Taiwan. While completing his year as a Fulbright scholar in Taiwan, Zhou plans to use his skills as an emergency medical technician by “My joy in teaching is matched by my eagerness for learning. I have found that oftentimes, the two are reciprocal,” Zhou wrote in his application. “I realized that learning happens best at [a young] age through more personal, mo-

cess.”

After his Fulbright year in Taiwan, Zhou intends to volunteer at a hospital for a year before applying to medical school. He hopes to work as a physician in family medicine or pediatrics and eventually earn a master’s degree in public health.

“Becoming more empathetic, open and sensitive as a teacher — qualities I would further develop in Taiwan — will no doubt help me become a better doctor in our increasingly-interconnected world,” he wrote in his application.

May 24, 2019 | The Amherst Student | 7

Honorary Degrees David P. Corey ’74 Neuroscientist David P. Corey ’74 is the Bertarelli Professor of Translational Medical Science in the neurobiology department at Harvard Medical School. His laboratory has made strides in understanding gene therapy for hearing proteins that cause hereditary deafness. With over 40 years of research on the subject under his belt, Corey’s laboratory is building new treatments for hearing loss. Corey joined the faculty at Harvard Medical School in 1984 as an assistant professor of neuroscience. Before completing a doctorate in neurobiology from Caltech and postdoctoral training in biophysics at Yale School of Medicine, Corey received a degree in physics from Amherst in 1974.

Annie Leibovitz Photographer Annie Leibovitz is a renowned photographer whose work includes some of the most well-known portraits of our time. She began her career by working for Rolling Stone as after she was promoted to the magazine’s chief photographer position.

She gained national attention for her intimate shots of celebrities, including one of John Lennon on the day mentarian and the foremost rock music photographer. Her work there, as well as her work Lettres and a Library of Congress Living Legend. She holds a bachelor’s degree from the San

Thabo Makgoba Archbishop Thabo Makgoba is the Anglican archbishop of Cape Town and the chancellor of the University of the Western Cape. Elected archbishop in 2007, he is the youngest archbishop of Cape Town ever. In his tenure, he has pioneered the use of indaba — the isiZulu word for “discussion” — in the worldwide Anglican Communion to help address and appreciate in the Anglican Diocese of Johannesburg, which he joined after earning a diploma in theology from St. Paul’s College in Grahamstown, South Africa. He has also published multiple books and received a number of degrees, including two bachelor’s degrees from Wits University in Johannesburg, a doctorate in spirituality from the University of Cape Town and four honorary degrees.

8 | The Amherst Student | May 24, 2019

Images courtesy of Amherst College

Charles C. Mann ’76 Author

Nergis Mavalvala Astrophysicist Nergis Mavalvala is the Curtis and Kathleen Marble Professor of Astrophysics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as well as a 2010 recipient of a MacArthur as a physicist focuses on detecting gravitational waves and quantum measurement science, having been a leading member of the

Charles C. Mann ’76 has published a plethora of books over the years. His most recent is titled “The Wizard and the Prophet: Two Remarkable Scientists Shape Tomorrow’s World.”

Mann is also the author of “1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created” and “1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus,” which have won numerous awards including the U.S. National Academy of Sciences’ Keck award for the best book of the year.

Mann is a regular contributor to The Atlantic and Science and Wired, and has graduated from Amherst in 1976.

black holes in 2016. Prior to her time at MIT, Mavalvala was a postdoctoral fellow and research scientist at the California Institute of Technology. Since becoming a professor at MIT in 2002, Mavalvala has been appointed as the associate head of MIT’s Department of Physics and elected to the National Academy of Sciences. Mavalvala received her bachelor’s degree from Wellesley College and a doctorate in physics from MIT.

Darren Walker Philanthropist The president of the social

Cullen Murphy ’74 Journalist Cullen Murphy ’74 is the editor at large for The Atlantic magazine, where he served as managing editor from 1985 to 2006.

Between 2006 and 2016. he was editor at large at iant from 1980 to 2004.

He served as the chair of Amherst’s board of trustees from 2012 to 2018.

Murphy has released a number of books, including “The Word According to Eve: Women and the Bible in Ancient Times and

philanthropic world. He has worked on a philanthropy committee to address Detroit’s historic bankruptcy and acted as chair of the U.S. Impact Investing Alliance and co-chair of New York City’s Commission on City Art, Monuments and Markers. In addition, he serves on the Commission on Correctional Institution and the United Nations Internaprojects include Carnegie Hall, the High Line, the Committee to Protect Journalists, with a Distinguished Alumnus Award in 2009.

“God’s Jury: The Inquisition and the Making of the Modern World” and most Make-Believe.” He graduated from Amherst with a degree in European studies in 1974.

May 24, 2019 | The Amherst Student | 9

Senior Profile | Isabel Tessier

The Beating Heart Behind All the Newsprint Isabel Tessier has contributed more than 30,000 words and countless hours to this community. It’s simply impossible to add up.

—Shawna Chen ’20 “I’m a little nervous,” Isabel Tessier ’19 says as she sits down across from me. “I’m not used to being interviewed; I’m usually the one on the other side of the table.” tall. But when she stands with her left leg crossed over her right, slouching down into her stance, she is more deep in thought about something serious or distressing, you’ll look at her and only see her large, uncertain puppy eyes. She wears mom jeans driver’s license and dreads editing my 1,000-words-over-the-word-count stories. If you are lucky enough to make her laugh, it feels like your whole world lights up.

I have had the privilege of know-

She attended a prep school in Brooklyn that gave her the opportunity to than if I’d just gone to a neighborhood school.”

She also joined the high school newspaper, an “informal, eight- or 12-page paper that we published.”

During her senior year, she served as editor-in-chief with another student; for half the year, they ran the paper without a newspaper adviser.

“Neither of us had been trained in journalism before, so we had no idea what we were doing,” Tessier said, shaking her head in mirth. “But I really loved it, and we dedicated a lot of our time to it.”

Little did she know she would return to these explorations in greater depth and intensity in college.

in college. I have watched her grow into a steadfast, assertive leader who makes the tough decisions and carefully considers every facet of every issue. But above all, I have witnessed Tessier’s profound dedication to service and social justice, even and especially when she was not always readily recognized. As she said herself, she is not used to being in the spotlight — more often than not, she is behind the scenes, calling the shots, uplifting

Grounding Herself

we peel back the layers to her story.

my head and had no idea what I was doing.” She decided to give herself a year to reset.

In her period of adjustment, she

“Being on the Subway” Tessier grew up in Brooklyn, New York City. A lot of her early memories are of being on the subway.

In high school, mentors and teachers began sparking her curiosity in what would eventually become her primary academic interests in college — history, research and social justice.

“The thing that really attracted me, it contextualized a lot of things about your life … that you don’t think about in your daily life if you don’t have that training,” she said. She was particularly taken with readings on higher education. “Those sorts of articles and books that looked at institutions of higher education critically and sort of examined the culture and how it came out, its history of being a white institution, not being accepting of women and people of color — that was really interesting to have in The class also gave her better language for understanding and talking about her white privilege; she ultimately declared majors in history and sociology.

In later classes, she produced research on migrant Mexican workers

Interestingly, Tessier says she didn’t choose Amherst for the right reasons. In her senior year, she was

of Amherst alums who traveled to Hawaii in the 1800s as missionaries.

She also had the opportunity

wanting high school to end, she went through the application process somewhat panicked. She knew that she wanted to attend a small liberal arts college and stay on the East Coast — and like that, Amherst became her early-decision school.

When she arrived at Amherst for

identity involving her mother’s roots in Ecuador. “I took a class with Professor [Leah] Schmalzbauer about Latinx migration, and that was really cool for me to take, because in history I’d never taken any courses about Latinx history,” she said. “That was not a part of my identity that I’d seen in a classroom before.”

— including “Introduction to Sociology” with Professor Ron Lembo.

The class was “incredible,” she said.

Two weeks into the semester, she decided she needed to be a sociology major.

10 | The Amherst Student | May 24, 2019

Longer, Deeper Roots The year-long break from extracurriculars was good for Tessier, but at the beginning of her sophomore year, she realized she felt bored.

I really loved, I wanted more,” she said. “I wanted something that I felt passionate about in a more direct way, that didn’t have to do with

Photo courtesy of Isabel Tessier ’19

Isabel Tessier ’19 leaves behind a legacy of impact at Amherst. grades or examinations.”

Tessier also wanted to feel more connected to the Amherst community and, having previous experience with a newspaper’s role in community-building and service, decided to join The Amherst Student. met. At the time, Jingwen Zhang ’18 was managing news editor. After a few weeks, Zhang held a meeting

pression of Tessier was that of a tall, long-legged woman. She was quiet and pensive as Zhang and then-executive adviser Sophie Murguia ’17 explained their vision for the team.

At the end of the meeting, a couple of topics were listed, including gender in athletics, and Tessier readily volunteered to take it on.

The investigation ended up spanning six months. With Murguia and another former editor, Tessier dove Title IX reports and governments forms on gender and athletics, interviewing an incredible range of people and digging into Amherst’s practices.

Her report came out the following spring semester and detailed disparities in fundraising, resources and

recruiting money between men’s and women’s teams.

“It really threw me in full force to what the best of reporting can be,” she said. “Also the feeling that you were getting at the story, and you were starting to understand how it works. Understanding how it works at Amherst is not clear at the surface level. Little things like that where I felt like things were clicking — it’s such an amazing feeling.”

Other notable stories with her byline include recognition of the Latinx and Latin American Studies major and analyses of additional athletics reports. The athletics reports were especially noteworthy to Tessier, who picked up on the pervasiveness of the athlete/non-athlete divide as soon as she arrived at the college.

Looking at it from a journalistic angle and broadening the scope to include issues of gender, race and class helped her understand problems at Amherst: “who has been accepted here for their identity historically at Amherst and who has not been and how is that still playing out on campus today.”

Her attentiveness to these sociocultural dynamics is emblematic of her as a person, said Linh Le ’19,

Senior Profile

Isabel Tessier ’19 a friend of Tessier’s. “Isabel is very humble,” she said. “She values public service and what she wants to do in life is public-oriented, and she doesn’t care about honors or the things that don’t matter that much.”

In October of her sophomore year — only two months after she — Tessier and I became managing news editors. Zhang trained us for a few months and helped us navigate the process of Tuesday night productions. “I was a good editor and a good writer, but I didn’t know all the processes and the language and the ideas behind why a news article should look the way it is,” she said, laughing. “I have a very distinct memory of you saying ‘nut graph’ to ‘What the hell is a nut graph?’”

After Zhang became editor-in-chief, it was just the two of us, “doing our thing, managing the news section,” as Tessier said. Tuesday nights became simultaneously the best and worst parts about newspaper. We would edit news articles throughout Monday and Tuesday, week’s stories over Tuesday dinner, spend our Tuesday afternoon and es on InDesign and make edits from our editors-in-chief before uploading

the stories onto the website.

Most Tuesdays, we got out after midnight and made the trek back to our dorms. Many Tuesdays, we took BuzzFeed quizzes as we waited for edits, guessing what kind of fruit we’d be or which Chris we’d fall in love getting newspaper sweatshirts, she and I decided we would inscribe “Big Nooz” (her) and “Little Nooz” (me) on the back.

One Tuesday, her partner texted her at 8 p.m. that he was in her room.

“Are we going to get out in time?” I up here.”

“Probably not, but it’s okay,” she shrugged. “He’ll just stay there.” her partner fallen asleep. It was one of the many moments I witnessed Tessier’s complete dedication to the newspaper and to me, her partner in the newsroom. She never let me take on anything without her; we always worked as a two-woman team, no matter what else happend.

Widening Her World During spring break of her sophomore year, she applied to a program allowing a group of Amherst students to travel to Zion National Park. It was something Tessier never could’ve have imagined possible for

her to do.

The trip, which demanded 10 to 12 miles of hiking per day, ended up being transformative, allowing Tessier to connect with students she never would’ve otherwise met. the second or third day, where you’re in backcountry where you do the big hike and you do 12 miles,” she said.

“Knowing that I had walked that many miles and survived and done it — we were all doing it together at the end of the day.”

She did add that after exiting backcountry, the group “pigged out” trip was so meaningful she became a trip leader the following year.

In the fall of her junior year, she continued her ventures beyond Amherst, studying abroad in Seville, Spain. Life in the beautiful city, “People will just sit out in the streets and chill out with their friends until 2 a.m.,” she said. “Amherst can be very much work work work until you go to the other extreme of the spectrum and binge. There’s not much in between, which Seville had a lot of.”

Leaving Large Shoes to Fill position of editor-in-chief, to begin spring semester of her junior year, I

Photo courtesy of Isabel Tessier ’19

Tessier embarked on a student trip to Zion National Park during her sophomore year spring break. There, they hiked 10 to 12 miles per day carrying gear and equipment.

wasn’t surprised.

Becoming editor-in-chief meant that the newspaper took precedent to all of her academic classes. “It’s insane how it does that to you, but you care about it so much,” she said.

But the position did allow her and co-editor-in-chief Nate Quigley ’19 to plan for and envision the fu-

part of my life since the beginning of sophomore year. It suddenly felt very

they knew they wanted to overhaul the website. The Student’s previous website had been designed by a student who graduated in 2011, and the functionality of the platform was in many ways outdated. Tessier and Quigley discussed reaching out to the computer science department, but before they had the chance to even

nalism” according to the college website — Tessier was called to the stage, recognized at the culmination

from Dylan Momplaisir ’21 to code and help design a new website.

Over the summer after her junior year, she, Quigley and Momplaisir remained in regular communication, brainstorming big-picture ideas, website functionality and brand. In the fall of her senior year, the new website debuted to much acclaim from the college community. It was more modern, more accessible and more user-friendly than ever before, and people noticed. “That was something I’m most proud of from our time as EIC,” she said.

Professor of History Jen Manion, Tessier’s advisor, recalled many moments in which Tessier sought out Manion for advice related to the newspaper. “She worked with me on some of my research, but the interactions that were both fun and made me so proud were [when we discussed] the ethical decisions that come with managing the paper and how committed she was to trying to understand someone else’s point of view,” Manion said.

At the end of fall semester her senior year, Tessier hung up her editing pens after two years on the paper. The following spring, Emma Swislow ’20 and I took on her role.

“It felt good to not be EIC — you’re pretty tired by the end of it,” she said. “But it obviously felt weird because newspaper had been such a big

on Tuesday nights.”

Tessier’s commitment to the paper did not go unnoticed. At Senior Assembly, after the dean of faculty announced the Samuel Bowles Prize — “awarded to a student who has

passion and continual devotion to the small newspaper that could.

Carving Out Her Future After graduation, Tessier will move to D.C. to begin work as a paralegal at a prominent civil rights organization. While she is considering law school and more generally a career in public interest legal work, she wanted some formal exposure to the kinds of work and expectations demanded of legal work.

Is she ready to leave? She isn’t quite sure. It’s more a mix of nostalgic and ready, she said. “The spring at Amherst, when it actually turns warm and beautiful — I always get nostalgic … because you just realize the year is coming to an end,” she said. “Now it’s my college time coming to an end.”

Longtime friend Gaby Doran ’19 called Tessier “someone that others may try to emulate when they want to seem like a good person. But that’s just who Isabel is — she’s amazing.”

As Le said, Tessier will be remembered for her thoughtfulness and her contributions to The Student. But she will be even more so remembered for the attention and care she gave to her friends, intellectual thought and larger community.

Already, I know that I will miss her presence in my life more than I’d like to admit. We started together, and we went through it together. To be editor without my Big Nooz is a daunting thought. But I also know — without a doubt — that the world will be a better place with her out

The Amherst Student | May 24, 2019 | 11

Senior Profile | Yixin Xiao

“If You Want to Act, Understand the Stage” Yixin “Arthur” Xiao embodies a love for the liberal arts, with accomplishments in physics and a fascination with the humanities.

—Olivia Gieger ’21 Yixin “Arthur” Xiao ’19 sees the world through the lens of a cause he came to Amherst as an international student from a home on the southern coast

proach to physics seems distant from the qualitative traits in studclear how hand-in-hand the two at parts within a whole and a vast

sees the world, and all within it,

Electricly Interdisciplinary world for its microparticles and envision how they interact through time and space, yet he is

Seeing the Parts within a Whole

theory, “imagination is the limit,

Xiao entered Amherst without much of an idea of what to

Photo courtesy of Yixin Xiao ’19

-

English classes nearly every semester, he has relinquished the

quantitative and one qualitative

in exchange for exploring a wider -

entire worlds in mathematical -

physics as a pursuit that is trying to model the world, while theoretical physics is trying to retical approach demands that scholars imagine “a new world, a new landscape,” which to Xiao

A drive to better understand the world and its parts led Arthur Xiao ’19 to take physics. Four years later, he will take it to the University of Michigan Ph.D. program.

-

gripped his imagination, as did

launching into it, noting that he So, as he leaves Amherst, Xiao has chosen to use his phys-

When we met, Xiao was wear-

trait that is automatically clear fully explained the nuances of his physics research to me, someone who managed to graduate high school while evading physics requirements, in a way that was neither condescending nor

the method and the process of

-

Bettering the Physical World interdisciplinary topics that gave Xiao the push to pursue physhis comments and in his written Klein gave the DeMott Lecture

the University of Michigan unwho has a doctoral degree in ap-

tosynthesis and solar water splitting, which essentially uses solar energy to split water into oxygen and hydrogen so that the hydro-

According to his thesis and summer research advisor David Hall ’91, professor of physics, it’s this discomfort with uncertainty and drive to automatically grasp the answers that is characteristic ten students start out wanting the

he started out he was faced with

other student that semester too, the role of capitalism in climate from his life into his intellectual pursuits, and you could feel that -

While the quantitative ap-

mental and theoretical sides of -

12 | The Amherst Student | May 24, 2019

-

-

from perfection into the physical

approach it from a purely chem-

Yet, it’s this striving for answers and perfection that Hall -

decision that demands the inter-

-

Senior Profile

Yixin Xiao ’19 that’s messy and neaten it,” he appreciation for the arts and humanities as something that will

sentially what emerges with the cooling of a group of particles

the quantum interactions of the particles are clear and provide a “direct window” to the world of quantum mechanical wave forms,

mundane” and viewing the world and the privilege that surrounded After a childhood on the southern coast of China, Xiao cation when he started school not too far from home in an exper-

-

Coiling Cables and the Connections In and Out of Physics Lab two summers and one year advising on thesis research, Hall is well situated to understand Xiao’s

atmosphere within the physics department, and Hall feels that it was only strengthened through the adversity of having to up and

give a chance to intuitively see how quantum mechanics actual-

here that he saw himself gaining a sense of independence and

that once you do it, you see it as if

After the school’s experiment

A Winding Path, Honing Liberal Arts Studies

he wound up as a ninth-grade international student at a Catholic

An International Love for Learning

program as the Amherst student thing from student enrollment

With a perspective that has chusetts and Southern China, Xiao has a deep understanding of the educational approaches of

Xiao’s curiosity and ques-

understanding our stage, which is professors to China to meet high

densates or the social dynamics of the world around him, Xiao

cultural exchange, so that stu-

it is a course that is incomplete without also understanding and interrogating the social, political and interpersonal dynamics with-

past summer as the department transferred into the new Science

those discussions that occur when

He appreciates Xiao as not plained that often he was learning from Xiao, who would challenge his assertions and math and

what he ultimately wrote his

Photo courtesy of Yixin Xiao’19

not well-versed in the terminology of high-level physics, a -

Xiao organized the Amherst Liberal Arts Initiatve Summer Seminars, bringing Amherst professors and Chinese high school students together to study liberal arts. His love for the program and its liberal arts philosophy is matched by the love the students and professors have for Xiao and his dedication to the program.

The Amherst Student | May 24, 2019 | 13

Senior Profile | ShoYoung Shin

Dismantling Inequity, One Step at a Time ShoYoung Shin has devoted countless hours to advocating for a more inclusive community at Amherst.

—Jae Yun Ham ’22

-

-

Photo courtesy of ShoYoung Shin ’19

ShoYoung Shin ’19 wrote her thesis in the American studies department on the connections between bathrooms and power dynamics.

-

-

-

Understanding Identity

-

Finding Self Through Activism -

-

-

Breaking Through Academically -

-

-

-

-

-

14 | The Amherst Student | May 24, 2019

Senior Profile

ShoYoung Shin ’19 -

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

Life After Amherst

-

-

-

Photo courtesy of ShoYoung Shin ’19

Shin played an active role in a variety of diversity initiatives, including her work as a program coordinator for the Center for Diversity and Student Leadership and her role in the Asian American Studies Working Group.

The Amherst Student | May 24, 2019 | 15

Senior Profile | Alyssa Snyder

A Champion for First-Generation Students As a first-generation, low-income student, Alyssa Snyder ’19 has leveraged her experiences to advocate for a more inclusive campus.

—Natalie De Rosa ’21

Photo courtesy of Alyssa Snyder ’19

Alyssa Snyder’s ’19 first semester proved challenging as she learned about concepts like elitism in her coursework.

Coming Full Circle as Diversity Intern

From Utah to Amherst

16 | The Amherst Student | May 24, 2019

Senior Profile

Alyssa Snyder ’19

Pages of Research on Her Own Experience

Staying in Amherst

Photo courtesy of Alyssa Snyder ’19

Through her thesis exploring first-generation students’ relationships with their family, Snyder began reflecting on her own experiences as a first-generation student.

The Amherst Student | May 24, 2019 | 17

Senior Profile | Jamie Tucker-Foltz

A Churchill Scholar with “a Math Mind” A mathematician with an interest in problem solving and quantitative methods, Jamie Tucker-Foltz will carry this passion into his Churchill Fellowship.

—Ryan Yu ’22 To say that Jamie Tucker-Foltz ’19 is passionate is an understatement. Indeed, solving problems — especially quantitative ones — has always been a profound interest of his, whether it be something rigorously academic or a simple board game.

Now, as he graduates with his double major in math and computer science and years of research behind him, it is clear that Tucker-Foltz has immersed himself in these quantitative studies like no other. As friend Elizabeth Pratt ’22 put it, “[He’s] the product of a math mind.”

Learning Through Play Growing up in Boulder, Colorado, Tucker-Foltz was introduced to math at a very young age, and it quickly became an immediate source of fascination for him. The structure of math problems reminded him of the various puzzles and games that he liked, especially in the analytical and logical way one had to go about solving them.

“I remember my parents explaining what algebra was to me when I was eight, and I was way into it,” he said. “I would say things like, ‘If dog equals three and teacup equals two, then what is dog minus teacup’ — things like that, like understanding the concept of a variable.”

On that front, he quickly got ahead of the curve academically, learning mathematical concepts years ahead of what was offered to his peers. With his

parents’ support, he was often able to take classes online or at more senior schools — going to the local university while in high school, for example — to satisfy his voracious appetite for new knowledge.

Tucker-Foltz also actively engaged with this type of quantitative problem-solving outside of class. He learned the basics of computer programming over the course of his adolescence, using those skills to apply his creativity and design basic video games.

“I really liked hacking computer games in the sense of finding little program bugs that allow you to do different things,” he said. “One of my favorite things to do was computer games where you could design your own levels. There were several times where I’d find a programming bug and design a level where you have to exploit that bug to win.”

Particularly significant was an internship at a video game development company, Serenity Forge, in the summer between the junior and senior years of high school. According to Tucker-Foltz, that was his first formal introduction to computer science as another math-based field.

The emphasis on games isn’t surprising, considering his family’s fondness for games and his partiality to strategic board games. When discussing one of his favourite board games, RoboRally, he noted how his affec-

18 | The Amherst Student | May 24, 2019

tion for it upon discovering the game in eighth grade portended his future interest in computers — the game requires players to simulate computers through simple programming.

Transitioning to Amherst Like many high school seniors, Tucker-Foltz applied to several schools when deciding where to go for college. He ultimately chose Amherst, citing the school’s quality of teaching, open curriculum and small class sizes as the key reasons for his choice, as well as additional funding that was offered to him for academic excellence.

“In the end, it wasn’t even a hard choice. It was just looking for another school that would be a second school that I would also visit, and I couldn’t think of any,” he said. “They gave me this Schupf scholarship, which gave me $25,000 of research funding to use over my four years … so that was just the added bonus that made the decision really easy.”

However, his transition to college didn’t go quite as planned. It was the first time that he’d lived away from home, and settling in a new environment was initially jarring for him. “There was a lot to learn,” he said. “A lot of things were different. Every night, I was like, ‘Wow, I guess I’m going to be here for a while. I better get used to this.’”

Nevertheless, Tucker-Foltz

Photo courtesy of Jamie Tucker-Foltz ’19

Jamie Tucker-Foltz ’19 first discovered his interest in math as a child, in between school work and his favorite computer games. eventually found grounding in his classes and his clubs. He quickly set out to explore the diverse set of activities available at Amherst, including those with which he wasn’t intimately familiar — according to him, the most “exotic” thing he tried was archery — as well as his lifelong hobbies of volleyball, juggling and, of course, board games.

Over time, he came to serve as president of the juggling and traditional games clubs.

The World of Academic Games His first year here also saw Tucker-Foltz build the first real connections between his hobbies and his academics. Perhaps most pivotal to this endeavour was a pair of economics courses that he took — “Game Theory and Applications” and “Insti-

tutions and Governance,” both 400-level courses — which directly studied the strategic interactions that grounded the games with which he so loved to engage.

His interest piqued by these classes, he started looking for other avenues to explore game theory. Luckily, the funding from his Schupf scholarship proved useful.

“I was talking to my parents about how much I like game theory, and they were like, ‘Oh, you should go to a game theory conference!’ and I thought that sounded like such a silly idea,” he recalled. “But it turned out there was a huge game theory conference that was held only once every four years that was going to be that summer, so I asked [the school] … and they paid for me to go to Maastricht,

Senior Profile

Jamie Tucker-Foltz ’19 Netherlands, for a week.”

If there was a pivotal moment in Tucker-Foltz’s college career, this conference was it.

It was what he described as “a turning point” — something that propelled him to start exploring the academic side of his mathematical interests in a more concerted manner.

“It was the first time that I realized, ‘Whoa, there’s so much I don’t know out there.’ I remember, every night, I couldn’t go to

sleep because I was just thinking about all the things I had seen that day in the conference,” he described. “It made me consider going to graduate school and go down an academic route, which I am going down now.”

Searching for Answers Over the three years following the conference, Tucker-Foltz expanded his research, using his Schupf funding to continue attending conferences, participate

in summer research — from which he helped develop and present two papers in theoretical computer science, one of which was professionally published — and further his personal research projects as well.

Professor of Economics Brian Baisa, a mentor to Tucker-Foltz, pointed to a paper that Tucker-Foltz wrote for his “Advanced Microeconomics” class.

The paper proposed a mathematical mechanism that incen-

tivizes the prevention of gerrymandering.

“The essay was a fantastic and really original piece of research, substantially better than work I would peer-review for top economics journals — and it was for an assignment that counted for 5 percent of the course grade,” Baisa said. “The proposed game was simple and intuitive and nifty in the way that would make any math geek smirk, and Jamie pursued the

Photo courtesy of Jamie Tucker-Foltz ’19

Apart from his extensive work in quantitative fields, Tucker-Foltz also partakes in non-academic interests like volleyball, board games and juggling.

solution to this problem incredibly rapidly … I expect this paper to land in a top journal in economics, math or computer science.”

A Bright Future The paper was ultimately accepted to and presented at the 29th International Conference on Game Theory, the third time Tucker-Foltz shared his research in a public setting. Motivated to try and publish his research in a journal, Tucker-Foltz then put his preprint of his paper in a public online repository.

The paper, as it turned out, was unknowingly critical for reasons beyond the contribution it represented to game theory, since Ariel Procaccia, professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), happened upon it when it was published online. According to Tucker-Foltz, Procaccia liked the paper and encouraged him to apply to a computer science doctorate program at CMU. Tucker-Foltz will join that program in the fall of 2020.

Before attending CMU, however, he’ll be taking a brief detour to Cambridge University, where he’ll pursue a master’s degree in advanced computer science. He’ll be going across the waters as a recipient of the highly competitive Churchill Scholarship, which funds the year he’ll be spending in England and provides additional support in seminars and other amenities.

Even though Tucker-Foltz is leaving himself open to a numresearch and academic career, one thing is clear: he had and will have a monumental impact wherever he goes. In the words of Professor of Mathematics Harris Daniels, another of Tucker-Foltz’s mentors, “We can’t wait to see the amazing things that he accomplishes in his time after Amherst.”

The Amherst Student | May 24, 2019 | 19

Senior Profile | Renai Foster

A “Busybody” With a Critical Eye Renai Foster wears many hats on campus, but her keen and observant nature continues to impress.

—Connor Haugh ’21 You know exactly where you stand with Renai Foster — her eyes betray her. Her side-eye glare can freeze you to the core, but despite her deadpan expression, they betray her humor. Foster’s eyes serve as a way to understand her earnest relationship to the community. It’s clear to everyone who interacts with her that she is a crucial member of any group because of her earnest sensibility. But the most crucial component to understanding Foster is her dedication to Amherst.

I took “Qualitative Research Methods” in black studies last fall with Renai. We worked in a group for the semester — everything from quizzes to projects was done in collaboration.

You can learn a lot about someone by sitting next to them. Foster, for example, values the aesthetics stripes the page in a pastel rainbow of mints, lavenders and rusts. Our group name was “purple rain.” Foster embossed the cover of our group folder with lilac drops. She slowly pushes away from her desk when she speaks in class discussions, not in retreat, but rather in a gesture of opening herself up. When reading, she purses her lips and her eyebrows raise every once in a while.

Foster was the elder statesman of our group. When we needed organization, she was there. She provided blunt, but constructive feedback. She waded through murky concepts of theory with ease.

Despite the million and one things going on in her life, she appeared singularly focused in the classroom on the tasks at hand. That’s what

initially impressed me about her.

As we worked closely together, doing participant observations and interviews, I was stunned by her eye for detail. We would sit in UMass’ Hampshire Dining Hall, watch the room for 20 minutes and write what we saw. While I spent a lot of time looking at the people coming and going, Foster almost exclusively studied the people sitting alone, of which there were several. Her descriptions were jottings — just a word or phrase here and there. But

“

To begin to understand Foster, you must first see her in one of her many elements: the classroom, Frost Cafe or the Association of Amherst Students (AAS) senate room.

” the words she chose to pick out of the room — fuschia caftan, downcast eyebrows, chewed pencil-end — betrayed not only her keen eye, but also her ability to pluck the words out of the live scene before us.

To begin to understand Foster,

20 | The Amherst Student | May 24, 2019

many elements: the classroom, Frost Cafe or the Association of Amherst Students (AAS) senate room. There, you’ll see immediately the thoughtful way in which she goes about interacting with the world. She engages fully in the moment, and her biting wit brings wry smiles. She riences, but is unafraid to challenge the world around her.

Making Her Mark Black Studies

in

scholar. She came to Amherst from Queens, New York City wanting to be a criminal psychologist. She liked the concept of getting inside people’s heads and grappling with her own. took a class with Professor of Black Studies John Drabinski. It opened her up to an academic perspective with which she had not previously engaged. The subsequent unfolding of her career path led her in a direction she did not expect, but nevertheless thoroughly enjoys.

Although it was not in her plans upon her arrival at Amherst, Foster combined her interest in psychology and her discovered passion in black studies to write a thesis in black studies exploring “black women’s conceptions of self-care and mental health.” She said her work “shows that it’s a complicated experience. Mental health complicates ent worlds. It’s a push to have both psych and black studies treat the factor of mental health as an import-

Photo courtesy of Renai Foster ’19

Combining her interests in psychology and black studies, Renai Foster ’19 wrote her thesis on black women and mental health. ant complicating factor.”

Her thesis advisor, Professor of Black Studies Dominque Hill explained Foster’s approach succinctly. “She wanted to expand how academic scholarship saw black women and their relationship to healthcare.

She traced the contributions black women put forth by actually talking to them as opposed to looking at them,” said Hill. “She was building a sense of community around the topic. While she tried to garner information to then showcase insights, what she was doing was creating a space that people really needed.”

“There will be an iterative unfolding of what she did with those women [she worked with] even after her project is submitted,” Hill added.

Hill also praised Foster’s expert synthesis of theory. “She was, at the same time, creating a story about

the relationship that could reside between black feminist thought and black studies. She really narrated how we can see black women’s contribution to black studies as an intergenerational contribution by weavblack feminist theory to then speak back to issues of blackness and health,” Hill said. “I don’t know if she saw herself doing that, but I saw her making that contribution.”

Foster’s work will echo not only studies, but also in the focus group of black women she she conducted to explore her ideas. Foster, however, remains nonchalant about such well-executed and highly-regarded work. “I feel weird that it’s over” is all she could muster when I asked

Always Doing Something

Senior Profile

Renai Foster ’19 Her work over the last four years, it seems, has driven Foster to new depths. Doing the work seems encoded in who she is.

“I’m a busybody. I always am doing something,” she said. And she isn’t wrong.

Foster is heavily involved in academics, even outside her class and thesis work. She works as a research assistant — for Professor of Psychology Julia McQuade’s lab and for Drabinski — and is a teaching assistant for Hill.

She’s also a familiar face to many students compelled to eat when Valentine Dining Hall is closed, working behind the counter at both Frost Cafe and at Schwemm’s. She, at least for me, is a serene presence

behind the counter. Upon your arrival, desperate for the late-night reading and smile.

She pointed out that “people are mean when they’re hungry,” but Schwemm’s has “too many stories,” from thwarting thieves to hilarious, inebriated customers in search of nachos or a West Coast sandwich.

Working behind these counters was gratifying nonetheless. She loves coworkers underline her dedication and camaraderie she brings to her work.

On top of all these responsibilities, Foster runs the show in student government. As AAS secretary, she takes votes, keeps minutes and mar-

shalls senators in line with the AAS Constitution. She also holds the ordinating student requests, police and liability.

“People know me as the gatekeeper of the vans,” she said.

Despite dealing with a constant organizing the entire institution of student government, Foster remains unfazed. “It’s just something I do,” she claims. Her statement only demonstrates the dedication and organization she takes for granted about herself.

A Blossoming Educator After graduation, Foster will return home to New York. There,

working with master teachers in a neighborhood charter school in Brooklyn, Foster will teach high school English as a teaching fellow within the Ascend Charter School Network.

At the same time, she will be working towards her master’s degree in education, a continuation of the long line of degrees she hopes to accumulate on her way to becoming a professor.

Working with Ascend, she will not only invigorate her students with her tenacity, psychological motivation, wit and commitment to the work she does, but she will also enter approaching them like the complex individuals she researched in

her own work. Geographically, she will be teaching in Brownsville, the epicenter of the community control schools movement of 1968.

In some way, she will be merely “grilling ninth graders on their trash writing,” but one can also place her in the genealogy of those committed to their education and the growth of their own communities.

The fellowship will span two years, after which she intends to keep learning, teaching and growing.

Understanding Foster’s impact on Amherst will reverberate even after her departure. From her thesis work to her impact on Frost Cafe, Foster’s drive pushed many forward, and will continue to do so long after she leaves.

Photo courtesy of Renai Foster ’19

Taking on a plethora of roles outside of her coursework, Foster works at both Schwemm’s and Frost Cafe, along with serving as the Association of Amherst Students secretary, where she has taken on the coveted title of “gatekeeper of the vans.”

The Amherst Student | May 24, 2019 | 21

Senior Profile | Wesley Guimarães dos Santos

All the World’s His Stage Wesley Guimarães dos Santos is not only an impeccable performer on stage, but also a thoughtful person once the costumes come off.

—Olivia Luntz ’21 “How do you condense Wes?” pondered Associate Director of the Center for Community Engagement Zoë Jacobs, with whom Wesley P. Guimarãres dos Santos mer projects.

“Wes is one of those people, no matter what it seems that life throws at him, he is so thoughtful and he is so committed to sticking with his values but also Jacobs said. “Regardless of what happens, I have no doubt that he will do something really amazing and special.” Jacobs is not the only person at Amherst excited about where life will take Guimarães.

Coming of Age in a Big City and Tiny Village 16 years of his life in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Guimarães was encouraged to perform from an early age. In his childhood years, he and his friends would set up a stage outside their classroom during their lunch break, inviting people to come up and perform improv and spoken word. “That was what introduced me to the art of performing … and what really gave me a sense that this would be something I’d be interested in doing,” he said.

One of the aspects of Guimarães that most impressed me was how throughout our interview, he consistently stressed that his journey was not one he could have taken alone. He always gave credit to those that helped him along the way, especially all of his dedicated

and inspiring educators and teachers. “They [his teachers] have really transformed my life; they’ve inspired me … As of a young age in Brazil, in a public school, I had very good drama professors, language teachers, people who saw in language a possibility to create art and be creative,” he said.

Along with mentioning all of cators he has had, Guimarães dos Santos also made sure to express gratitude for all that his mother has done to inspire him and encourage him to grow. Raised as the only child of a single mother who never had the opportunity to go to high school, Guimarães dos Santos describes her as “the I’ve talked about in this conversation — resilience, dedication, big dreams, ambition, humbleness.”

At the age of 16, Guimarães took a leap of faith that would alter the course of his life. In search of change, he decided to apply to attend his last two years of high school at one of the United World Colleges (UWC). UWC has 17 schools across the globe, and Guimarães dos Santos was selected to attend UWC Adriatic, located in the northern Italian village of Duino in the state of Trieste.

Spending two years immersed in a foreign country with other students from all over the world was, according to Guimarães, “what broadened my horizons and transformed me as a person and living with so many people

22 | The Amherst Student | May 24, 2019

cultures and having an opportunity to go through an education that was international and global.” He enjoyed his time in the tiny village with fewer than 400 people and now considers it his second home.

Upon completing high school, to what he could do next. He debated returning to Brazil, staying in Italy or pursuing further education. At this point, Guimarães experienced what he described as a “funny intersection” in his life, a point at which his path could’ve changed drastic direction if not for coincidence or an act of chance.

During his senior year, many American colleges advertised themselves to the students at his school, but Amherst was the last school to come, and by the time they arrived Guimarães had already decided that he wanted to attend another school in the Midwest. However, the presentation given by Amherst “changed my perspective in terms of education. The open curriculum did it for me; I was very excited about the idea of being able to craft my higher education in whatever way I wanted.”

Although he had never set foot in the United States at that point, it did not deter him from attending Amherst. Rather he saw the opportunity as a “good challenge.”

Arrival at Amherst and Growth as Performer “When I came to Amherst, I came very determined to do the obvious,” Guimarães said, “which

Photo courtesy of Wesley Guimarães dos Santos ’19

Between living in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and a small village in Italy, Wesley Guimarães dos Santos ’19 least expected arriving at Amherst. for an international, low-income, would be to study economics or

show he performed in, recalling that “all of a sudden I was acting, my face was all over campus and I hated it.”

Laughing, he elaborated, “I

change your family’s life.” Howexperienced what he described as another “fortunate intersection” in his life when he was placed formance,” taught by theater and dance Professors Ron Bashford and Suzanne P. Dougan.

Bashford, who would later become Guimarães’ advisor for his acting thesis performance of “Doctor Faustus,” recalled remester to act in shows because the department did not have enough actors. “That started a journey for him within the department and with acting,” Bashford said. Gui-

But no matter how much he may have disliked the publicity, it did not keep him from continuing to explore his passion. “Then one performance led to another, one project to another,” he said. “As I started to really go in deep into theater and movement and acting, I began having these realizations that I might be able to do this at a professional level.”

During the fall semester of his junior year, Guimarães took a big leap in his acting career by studying abroad at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. His program was based solely on classical works, mainly Shakespeare but also some of his

Senior Profile

Wesley Guimarães dos Santos ’19 contemporaries. He especially enjoyed “playing with iambic pentameter and with the Elizabethan language,” adding that “I’m from Brazil; English is not my language, and to be able engage with something that’s not my mother tongue at the level that I was — it was incredible.”

He relished the chance to spend an entire semester fully ded-

to him his desire to pursue acting professionally. It also gave him inspiration for what would become his senior thesis.

Upon returning to Amherst in the spring, Guimarães began preparing for his acting thesis. In early discussions with Bashford, he decided that he wanted a play that could explore his newly-developed interest in Elizabethan language, ensure a large role for him and

allow many other people to be involved in the creative process.

“That was something that I cared about. The idea of ensembles and communities has always been in my life,” he said. big enough for a lot of people to shine and grow and develop their work.”

“Doctor Faustus” ended up being the perfect storm for Guimarães, who fell in love with Christopher Marlowe’s “muscular” style of writing, enjoyed the complexity of Faustus’ motivations as a character and saw in the show the potential to create something that would take a village.

Becoming Doctor Faustus “I remember watching ‘Doctor Faustus’ and being blown away — it was like a complete transforma-

tion; he was Doctor Faustus,” said Suzie Rivers, who is the academic coordinator for the theater and dance department and has worked with Guimarães for three years.

However, Bashford noted that Guimarães’ transformation into the crazed academic who ends up selling his soul to the devil was not something that could happen through a simple costume change. “[Wesley] knew he wasn’t yet able to play the role when he started … so he really dedicated himself on a daily basis to the practical work needed to get himself from where he was to where needed to be,” Bashford said. “He really dedicated himself to growing [and was so successful due to] his personal determination and the insight he has into himself.”

“He’s such a sweet guy, and obviously [Faustus] is not,” Bashford added. “When you’re as caring a

person as Wes is, you don’t always have access to the kind of asserthat Doctor Faustus has.”

Although Guimarães played the titular role in “Doctor Faustus” and dedicated an extensive production, he stressed that the spectacular and immersive show was only successful because of the strong team behind it. Set designers transformed Holden Theater into a 1980s East Berlin subway station. Costume designers dressed the cast members in drag for their portrayal of the seven deadly sins. Professors Eliot Shrimpton and Carine Montbertrand from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London were even brought in to give all of the actors a workshop on mask technique and physical acting. “I felt that [the collaboration] was

Photo courtesy of Wesley Guimarães dos Santos ’19

Guimarães dos Santos has participated in a number of performances since his first semester, but his thesis performance of “Doctor Faustus” remains especially memorable.

the most important thing that I learned from Faustus: how to be present with other people and being completely focused and engaged in paying attention to others, playing with others,” Guimarães said.

In creating “Faustus,” he added, his goal was not only to form connections between those within the production but also to reach out and connect with those in the audience. He strongly argued against having the production performed in Kirby Theater because he wanted viewers to feel fully immersed in the spectacle. His choice led to a seating arrangement that placed audience members in a stadium view surrounding an open stage, with several entrances and exits from which actors emerged.

“What makes the theater stand out is that people pay money to go into dark spaces to watch other people be with one another,” he said. Theater can still coexist with the trend of “escaping as a society from vulnerability,” he added.

Watching a play, he said, is “going into spaces to watch people tell a story that we know is not true, but we go in for the illusion that it might be, because those people on stage, they’re vulnerable and they’re open. And they’re paying attention to one another. And that’s all they do for three hours.

And that’s lovely. That’s incredible.”

“Theater is the art of being vulnerable in front of others, and that’s why it never dies,” he added.

This upcoming fall he will join the American Conservatory Theater, one of the top acting MFA programs in the country. Guimarães is excited to take the plunge into pursuing acting professionally, noting that “I think that if you’re touching people, if you’re reaching out to them, if you’re true to what you want to do, you’d be happy. Wherever acting takes me, I’ll be happy to do it.”

The Amherst Student | May 24, 2019 | 23

Senior Profile | Emily Park

Beneath the Blue Hat, a Devotion to Her Art Emily Park is known around campus for her blue baseball cap and love for hamsters. But her dedication to her work, peers and professors fuels her drive.

—Gaby Bucio ’21 “If the mammoth ever goes out of style, her blue baseball cap should be the new Amherst mascot.” In one sentence, longtime friend Hannah Firestone ’19 encapsulated what makes Emily Park ’19 so special: she is what every student coming to Amherst envisions they will be. Park, a native of Columbia, Maryland, is not only incredibly successful in the academic setting, but she is also, according to Firestone, someone cherished and respected by all of her friends.

Taking Full Advantage of the Open Curriculum Coming to Amherst, Park knew that she wanted to study biochemistry and biophysics (BCBP), but she also knew she did not want lab work to consume her Amherst experience. Throughout her time at Amherst, she made use of the open curriculum and took classes in various departments, including history, English, art, music, anthropology, physics, psychology In fact, she credits Professor of History Jun Hee Cho, with whom she took “Medieval History,” with opening her up to the humanities side of things. Since then, Park has realized that when “STEM [science, technology, engineering and mathematics] people appreciate the value of humanities — it makes them better people.” And Park believes she has become a better person for it.

The hardest part of her initial arrival was making friends; she did

came, but as she began to connect with people, she found her place among the other students and her general outlook improved.

At Amherst, Park found countless opportunities to take advan-

“ When“STEM [science, technology, engineering and mathematics] people appreciate the value of humanities — it makes them better people,” Park said.

” tage of. “There are so many things happening on campus, you just have to pay attention to what is going on around you,” she said. “No single person, academic department or group of friends exists in a vacuum, and the sooner people realize it, the more they are able to engage with the community,” she said.

These various connections enabled Park to become better at empathizing, she said. At Amherst, she has learned “the importance

24 | The Amherst Student | May 24, 2019

of getting to know people — they are much more multifaceted than they appear, and that forms who they are and how we relate to them. We can’t take anything for granted.”

However, it is not just her exposure to humanities that she credits with teaching her such a valuable lesson; the closeness of the Amherst community plays a big role, too.

Park is a member of the Amherst Christian Fellowship (ACF), through which she has been able to connect with a community of similar-aged people who share her faith. Her involvement in ACF, wants to do in the future.

Beyond ACF, Park also found a sense of belonging in her upper-level biology classes, where she could collaborate with other people and develop a feeling of comradery.

Those interactions became so integral to her experience at Amherst that if she could give any advice to students starting out at Amherst, it would be to get to know their classmates earlier rather than later because for her, “after getting to know people, things got a lot easier.”

Park also developed invaluable relationships with professors during her time here, she said.

Professors, she has come to realize, are always there as a resource, and “making connections with professors that you can’t have at larger research institutions” is one of the most rewarding aspects about Amherst.

Photo courtesy of Emily Park ’19

Emily Park’s ’19 four years at Amherst culminated in a prize-winning thesis and the publication of her first author paper.

Persistence in the Lab When it comes to working with what she is talking about. For the last three years, she has worked in Professor of Biology Jeeyon Jeong’s lab, served as a teaching assistant in two of her classes and taken three courses with her.

Speaking about Park, Jeong described her “grit” — “not the la Duckworth, i.e. a person with perseverance and passion for longterm goals. She is a highly-determined person who works hard to she said. “It’s been a privilege and a blessing for me to get to know Emily, and I have tremendously enjoyed working closely with her.”

Working with Jeong not only enhanced Park’s overall sense of rience, but it also gave her the tools

she needed to work on her thesis, fortify plants and crops to better in iron. At the end of the year, it won the BCBP prize for best thesis. out of her thesis research, was also recently accepted for publication.

Park described thesis-writing work as rewarding because “throughout the process you’re learning about [the research] and how to put ideas together, and about time management. You also learn about yourself and the people you work with, and the future.

It makes you more resilient.”

Still, as much as she enjoyed the work, writing her thesis consumed a large part of Park’s life for the last year, and she is glad it is over.

Finding an In-Between What is not over is Park’s time at Amherst. Though she feels like

Senior Profile

Emily Park ’19 she has been ready to graduate days as an Amherst student do not feel like the end. That is mainly because she is staying on campus next year as a National Science Foundation post-baccalaureate fellow to continue working with Jeong.

Nonetheless, Park is excited for the next chapter of her life, in which she no longer has to attend class and may actually be able to better invest in the community on Amherst’s campus.

Though she will not miss the school work, what Park will miss about her time at Amherst is the sense of comradery. With most of her friends dispersing after graduation, Park recognizes that working in the lab next year will feel totally

will stay relatively constant, but her place within them will change.

During her four years at Amherst, Park has seen it transform in a variety of ways, from the social scene to the academic setting and even to the improvement of Valentine Dining Hall.

Though the removal of the social dorms and the building of the Greenway dorms were a big deal during her early Amherst career, Park considers the college’s shifting focus to STEM the biggest change she has witnessed at the school.

“It will be interesting to see how that turns out in the future years and what kind of people Amherst will draw,” she said.

Park, however, is not as concerned with how Amherst alters

the way it is perceived by people, as long as its essence remains: ent paths people can take. It’s nice being able to interact with people who aren’t super humanities or super STEM.” This interdisciplinary focus is one of the most important things for Park; she does not want Amherst to become like the science narrowly focused, she explained.

Yes, it is beautiful and something great to brag about, but is it actually so practical and functional for the students? Students, after all, are the heart of the school.

In the end, students are crucial when it comes to shaping the environment of the school. She is a

at Amherst is what you make of it.

It’s important not to neglect any other people who are not the same as you.”

The way people choose to interact with the people and resources around them, Park added, is what dictates their experience of Amherst.

“Emily is one of my closest friends on campus — she can ing, but she does care and provides

As she prepares to embark on a new journey, Park said the greatest

problems,” Kim wrote in an email interview. “She’s the person who I can depend on constantly as a listener. Her dry humor is the best and so is her blue baseball and rolling eyes (if I say anything stupid).”

But Park is also “very driven and goal-oriented,” Kim added,

that “you are more free to explore and change what you like.”

With her impressive Amherst career, it is not surprising that two of her friends, Firestone and Angie Kim ’19, both described Park’s distinguished blue baseball cap as a true emblem of Amherst College.

to achieve her goals.

If that is not enough of the true Mammoth spirit, perhaps the fact that Park deliberately chose Amherst over Williams is. There is no question about it: if the mammoth really does ever go out of style, we should become the blue caps.

A Legacy of Diligence

Photo courtesy of Emily Park ‘19

Park’s blue baseball cap is ever-present in her Amherst endeavors, from the biology lab she works in to the Amherst Christian Fellowship prayer room.

The Amherst Student | May 24, 2019 | 25

Senior Profile | Sarah Wishloff

Empathetic Care from a Versatile Mind Sarah Wishloff’s empathy and warmth are truly inspiring. Combined with her interdisciplinary mind and passion for health, she’s sure to do great things.

—Seoyeon Kim ’21

keep track of. Her older broth-

-

-

-

world at it.”

Photo courtesy of Sarah Wishloff ’19

-

-

Driven by a desire to better the world, Sarah Wishloff ’19 aims to apply her knowledge to both understand and treat patients as a future physician.

-

-

-

A Boundless Curiosity -

-

An Adventurous Thinker

-

thesis advisor, describes her as

-

-

-

26 | The Amherst Student | May 24, 2019

-

An Endless Variety of Interests

Senior Profile

-

health.”

-

-

Compassion for Community

-

-

photographs of those who had -

-

-

Wishloff expressed her love for

-

-

-

others.

After Amherst

-

Photo courtesy of Sarah Wishloff ’19

As a varsity swimmer, an executive board member for the WAMH radio station and president of mental health awareness club Active Minds, Wishloff has been a particularly-involved member of Amherst’s community.

-

-

-

The Amherst Student | May 24, 2019 | 27

Senior Profile | Maeve McNamara

Fueling Accomplishments with Passion Maeve McNamara is accomplished, and that’s an understatement. Her natural charisma as a leader is nearly unparalleled at the college.

—Sophia Harrison ’22 Maeve McNamara ’19 is anything but ordinary. As a twosport varsity captain, double (FAMS) and biology and proud director/producer/writer of a accomplishments are lengthy.

Behind the curtain of achieve-

worked hard to get to where she is today.

Early Love for Sports It is no surprise to see McNamara’s natural athleticism, as it runs in her blood. McNamara was born into a family where you simply “cannot dislike sports.”

She is the oldest of three, with two younger brothers whom she credits with having pushed her to be better in everything she does.

Family is a core value to McNamara: her mom, one of nine children, and her dad, one of Namara with opportunities to grow closer to her many cousins throughout her childhood.

It was also as a child that McNamara discovered her passion for both the humanities and the sciences. She “likes to think that she got something from [each of her parents] in terms of interest,” as her mother is an artist and her father is a businessman with a strong interest in science.

She remembers often exploring various museums with her family during her childhood in her hometown of Arlington, Massachusetts.

Leading up to her time at Amherst, McNamara attended a private preparatory high school.

“Coming from a small prep school, I didn’t really think I wanted a NESCAC school … because I thought it was going to be the same, homogeneous group of people,” she said. “But Amherst was really the best of both worlds. It’s far enough away from home, but close enough from home that my parents could come to my games. I liked how it -

“

It is no surprise to see McNamara’s natural athleticism, as it runs in her blood.

McNamara was born into a family where you simply “cannot dislike sports.”

”

ban environment I grew up in.”

Playing both soccer and basketball, which she has done since her childhood, was an additional deciding factor in where to go to school. Amherst’s open curriculum, she said, was particularly enticing in that it allowed her to fully and rigorously pursue her

28 | The Amherst Student | May 24, 2019

passions in the humanities and sciences while being a high-level student-athlete.

However, once at Amherst, her extroverted and excited personality led to meeting new people of diverse backgrounds, which pushed her past the immaturities of high school and ultimately helped her make the transition to college that so many struggle with.

An Athletic Community Namara isn’t the height of the average collegiate-level soccer and basketball player. However, she compensates with her drive, work ethic, positivity and perseverance.

Soccer has been a part of McNamara’s life since she was in kindergarten. Some of her best friends were made at town travel soccer games, and she shares the experience with her younger brothers, who also played soccer when they were little.

Her love for sports led her to even dabble in baseball: “I was that tomboy that played baseball until I was 12 and absolutely refused to play softball. I remember pitching an All-Star game and being the only girl in the league!”

Her introduction to basketball was slightly less conventional.

“My parents and brothers tried to introduce me to [basketball] when I was little, but I showed up to Bitty Basketball League, and I was the only girl there and cried and went home,” she said.

Three years later, she re-

Photo courtesy of Maeve McNamara ’19

After growing up in Arlington, Massachusetts, Maeve McNamara ’19 joined the college’s soccer and basketball teams. turned to it and grew serious about the sport. She played on an Amateur Athletic Union basketball team and absolutely loved it.

Her natural leadership skills translated well when she became a double-captain for both soccer and basketball in her senior year at Amherst.

Amherst’s varsity soccer coach Jen Hughes says, “When there was a lull of energy in practice, Maeve recognized when she needed to be a spark and she excited that. She single-handedly could and did change the complexion of practice at times.”

“Similarly, in a game or in practice, if the team needed to be motivated in some way, Maeve always said just the right thing at the right time to get people going,” Hughes added. “Every time she spoke it was just so poignant and articulated in a good way.”

Finding Her Language

Namara shows initiative in everything she does, which has helped her take advantage of the at Amherst. Her love of problem story led her to the biology and FAMS double major, whether that be “in a language of nummatically captivating sounds and images.” ence is vast, McNamara says that “learning more that there are millions and billions of cells controlling our actions” fascinated her. She spent her summers before college working at a home for elderly people and doing research in ALS, which also sparked her passion.

“There is a certain creativity in science that is not always enunciated that I’ve always been drawn to,” she said. This creativity, in essence, overlaps with her

Senior Profile

Maeve McNamara ’19 She has even done research with Professor of Biology Michael Hood to look at a host pathogen system that is endemic to the Italian Alps. She rememtrip, which she and her friends still laugh about to this day.

Even with these unique accomplishments and perspectives, McNamara was also like any typical child growing up: she loved movies. She says that one could even make a timeline of her childhood based on what watching. Film gives her a sense of community, and she’s thankful she has found a community at Amherst with which to share her

something from beginning to end. I’ve always been drawn to narratives. There’s something orative nature.”

Sparked in her interest, McNamara pursued extensive re-

ject. Her 127-page thesis studies directed by and written by women.

If that was not enough work, McNamara also wrote, directed

produc-

she creates an intergenerational practice of feminism by interviewing elderly women at a local senior citizen home.

Professor of English and FAMS Amelie Hastie, who

life-changer: “There’s something really empowering about actualizing your own idea … seeing

in “Film and Writing,” became her mentor throughout her four years and advised her thesis. She

She

credits

her

describes McNamara as “driven, organized and enthusiastic.”

“She really raises the bar; she thrives on the level of activity she pursues,” Hastie said. “I do think she’s been increasingly conscious of her own position on campus, identity, her interest in working beyond her own identity … That to me is what makes her a model, … being able to be conscious of her role [in society] and being able to push herself beyond it.”

“Over four years, I’ve seen her grow tremendously into such a committed intellectual and feminist, and that’s been glorious,” Hastie added.

Strength of Character McNamara’s attention to detail made her a student who went above and beyond. McNamara executed the intricate balance of a being an extraordinary and diligent student-researcher and a high-level athlete. And she still

made time to show care for others.

However, the demands of balancing class, homework, extra practice every day has not been without struggle for McNamara.

“There are really hard moments where I’m exhausted and calling my mom crying,” she said. “The resume doesn’t come without its

you are passionate about.”

McNamara noted the importance of surrounding herself with people who make her excited to do what she does — it’s what fueled her drive over her years at Amherst. And that’s her advice for students: surround yourself with the people who are positive and bring out the best of you, and take time to develop the relationships with people that are waiting to happen.

One of her favorite Amherst

memories is competing and winning her second national championships with her basketball team.

Although she didn’t play every important minute of the game, she remembers her parents being there and her mom even cutting a piece of the basketball net after the team won.

It’s clear that Maeve McNamara has left no small impact on Amherst’s campus, and it will remain so after she leaves. After Amherst, she’ll begin working 35 hours a week at the Sinclair Lab at Harvard Medical School, how to reverse them.

However, she hopes to continher free time and is considering a possible career in medicine or neurology. While her future may be uncertain for now, one thing that is certain is that McNamara will continue to inspire far beyond her college years.

Photos courtesy of Maeve McNamara ’19

On top of serving as a two-sport captain, McNamara conducted research in biology, produced a 127-page thesis and wrote, directed and shot her own short film. Next year, she will take her skills to the Sinclair Lab at Harvard Medical School to study the effects of aging.

The Amherst Student | May 24, 2019 | 29

Senior Profile | Helena Burgueño

A Filmmaker Exploring Identity Helena Burgueño excelled at filmmaking, music and forging connections during her time at Amherst.

—Emma Swislow ’20 Walking around campus, it’s easy to spot Helena Burgueño ’19.

She is, after all, almost always impeccably dressed. When I asked her friend Rojas Olivia ’19 to describe Burgueño he said, “Majestic, in all ways.” And indeed she is.

During our interview, Burgeuño recounted a time when a drunk woman in a bathroom told her she was “power clashing.”

“This woman probably has no memory of telling me I was power clashing, but I feel like she gave me this great gift with this term,” Burgueño said. “I don’t think of myself as following fashion as an industry, but clothing has become something that I really love as just another way of bringing some sort of color to my world.”

The day we talked in Frost Cafe, she was wearing a maroon skirt and a yellow corduroy shirt sealed at the base of her neck with a chicken brooch.

when I joined the Amherst Symphony Orchestra. Burgueño has been playing the French horn since she was in fourth grade and has played an active role in the music community at Amherst throughout her time here.

“I don’t think anyone expected me to play [the horn] for more than a week and now I’ve been playing it for 12 years, which is crazy,” she said.

Burgueño’s dedication, whether it’s to her instrument, her academics, her friends or her community, shines through whenever you talk to her.

Exploring Music Burgueño grew up in Hamden, Connecticut, just an hour and a half away from Amherst. While she knew that she wanted to go to college, she said that she was nervous to actually begin the college process.

“My mom is this person who plans years in advance for things, so she was playing it cool, but I think it was stressing her out,” Burgueño said. “I didn’t go on any college tours, and then I remember one day, we were driving through western Massachusetts, I’m not sure why, but she sort of just ambushed me with an Amherst tour and was like ‘Oh look, this school is touring right now, we should stop by.’”

After touring Amherst, Burgueño knew that she wanted to apply and sent in her early decision application. She was deferred and sent out applications to some other schools. It wasn’t until after she was accepted to Amherst in the spring that she found out why she was deferred.

“When I got here for Admitted Students’ Weekend, I was informed that the reason I had gotten deferred was because my high school never sent my transcript, so they just didn’t have my grades,” Burgueño said. “I’m really glad that I was able to come here because if I wasn’t here, I would be at this engineering school on the border of Canada and I don’t think that for me.”

Once Burgueño arrived at Amherst in the fall of 2015, she began to get involved with a variety of ex-

30 | The Amherst Student | May 24, 2019

tracurricular activities.

“When I got here, I felt like I had to recreate what I was doing in high school and be the same person, so I started working in the theater, I did badminton club, I did orchestra,” Burgueño said. “I did rugby my sophomore year, which was so much fun, but I found that I was doing all these extracurriculars, but I was really only invested in some of them.”

“It was hard for me to allow myself to quit or stop doing them because in high school we were living in this four-year increment and in college you’re also living in this four-year increment,” she continued. “In high school I was like, ‘I’ll see it to the end of high school,’ but here, going into my junior year, I decided to leave a lot of things behind. So, I focused on orchestra, and giving myself that time was really helpful.”

Although she’s not a major, Burgueño has deeply ingrained herself in the music and arts community at Amherst.

As we talked about the music community’s eclectic people, she emphasized the way music brings together people from a variety of backgrounds and areas of campus.

“One of the things about Amherst that I think is so amazing is when you see someone that you have pegged in your mind as being in a certain group, whether it’s ‘This person is an athlete’ [or] ‘This person is in STEM [science, technology, engineering and mathematics],’ and then you see them in “You see them in a student recital

Photo courtesy of Helena Burgueño ’19

Helena Burgueño ’19 will move to Los Angesles post-graduation to work in the film industry and waitress at a diner on the side, like the one pictured above. being amazing at the piano or you see them singing in an a capella group — you add nuance to your department is a place where I see that happen a lot because there are so many people involved in things besides music.”

Filming Her Life While Burgueño will be grad(FAMS) major with a Five-College made use of Amherst’s open cur-

ment and I love that,” she said.

Although she dabbled in a variety of departments, Burgueño production.

“I came into Amherst thinking I might want to do FAMS because I really love working with my hands

and making things, but I have very little talent as a studio artist, so the tion and be making things in that way was really exciting for me.”

With her desired focus clear, Burgueño began taking produc-

the art and the history of art and FAMS departments, who ended up advising her thesis this year.

“Going into that class from the which was somebody slipping out of a shower — it was 30 seconds long, we didn’t even have to edit it,

though it was my art and engaged with it critically,” she said. “That was really important to me as somebody who wouldn’t have con-

production experiences that have helped her shape her identity both

Senior Profile

Helena Burgueño ’19 within and outside of Amherst.

“Some of those classes have been super informative, and it sounds very dramatic, but have actually changed my life in a lot of ways,” Burgueño said. “I think it’s because I started thinking about ly and engaging with my various

woman and her relationship with her father. When she began the

to Amherst. Film production has been something that’s become very intertwined with that, and I use a lot

through the lens of my dad, who I really view as not conforming to a lot of the views of Mexican masculinity, and his friend who worked in Mexico City as a drag queen. It was mostly going to be like drag queens, Mexico City, masculinity.”

She travelled to Mexico City

these questions of identity.”

Her interest in these questions culminated in her thesis, a short documentary that explores her identity as a Mexican-American

ideas in mind.

“I started building towards this thesis and originally was going to do a project focusing on conversations about masculinity and expectations of masculinity in Mexican

went through the process, she realized that the focus of her thesis was shifting more towards her father.

“Fortunately, my advisors saw that and said, ‘This project wants to be something else. You should let it be something else.’ It became this really long and confusing process,” Burgueño said. “Even now when I watch it, I have these very mixed emotions about it. My dad and I have always been really close, but it’s given us a new language for engaging with each other and it’s been really transformative.” and her thesis for exemplifying the way that being a “creative maker and critical thinker” can go hand

in hand. “[Making and thinking] kind of integrate and merge and become ena has really achieved that with

thinking. Rather than there be a behaves as thoughts behave, making connections, working through me and it’s the kind of thing we’re hoping our students do.”

Burgueño explained that she found it helpful to view the thesis

change as it goes along.

“There’s this idea of a thesis being something that’s supposed to be it’s your last thing, the culmination of your entire academic experience,” she said. “For me, it took a real shifting in my thinking about it as a thesis project, and something that was handed in, to thinking of it more as a thesis process … Once I started shifting my mind in that direction, it was really helpful.”

Olivia had the chance to see Burgueño’s thesis before it was complete.

“Her thesis is just one of the best things I’ve seen in a long time.

She invited me to a rough early cut of it and I sent her this ridiculously things it made me feel. That was a moment when I realized that underneath our friendship, we each had a lot in common in terms of life experiences and where we come from in the world.”

In the City of Angels

Photo courtesy of Helena Burgueño ’19

Burgueño, pictured here with her dog Buster, created a short documentary for her senior thesis that explores identity and her relationship with her father.

On Commencement Day, Burgueño will give the student speech after being chosen by her peers in the class of 2019. Her speech will focus on both the good and the bad at Amherst. Burgueño acknowledged that while her time at Amherst has shaped her, it has also caused lots of stress.

“One of the things I’m inter-

ested in discussing in that is that just because we’re graduating here doesn’t mean you have to pretend that this whole experience has been wonderful or this ray of sunshine and rainbows,” she said. “The sunshine and rainbows parts and the horrible parts, both of those imagine being here without being challenged in that way.”

After graduation (and her speech), Burgueño will head to Paris for three weeks as part of a Hampshire study abroad program She’ll spend the rest of her summer in Madrid, working as a nanny before heading back to Connecticut to begin on a road trip across

“I will hopefully try to get more experience working on sets as a production assistant, which is a total grunt job,” Burgueño said. “You and things like that, but I also learn so much more watching people and being on sets. I also really want to work as a diner waitress because that’s been my life-long dream and I’m going to need a steady paycheck. Might as well kill two birds with one stone.”

Several years down the line, her life, especially in increasing representation in media, but still live it in the grounded, dedicated and kind way she always has.

“When I think about the type of life I want to be living in the future, I think something that I’ve realized since coming to Amherst is that I have no aspirations for fame,” Burgueño said. “I want to be able to do my grocery shopping by myself in the future, but whatever community that I’m inhabiting, I want to be known as being good at what I do, dependable and just a kind person … I don’t mind having a quiet existence, but I just want to be present in whatever small bubble that I

The Amherst Student | May 24, 2019 | 31

Senior Profile | Arthur Pero

A Meandering Path to Higher Education Arthur Pero ’19 took time to decide that pursuing a degree in English was the right thing for him. His thoughtfulness and clear desire appreciation for learning have made his pursuit of higher education all the more enriching.

—Camilo Toruño ’21 At the beginning of this past semester, I was not the biggest fan of the English class Arthur Pero ’19 and I shared.

There seemed to be an underlying competition of who had the brightest idea, and this led to disjointed conversations about the texts we read.

Nevertheless, as the semester moved along and I got to know my classmates a little better, my opinion changed, and Pero’s inclass contributions played a significant role in that change.

There was a certain humility or a self-deprecating humor that softened a tense class environment. I noticed that Pero liked to begin his remarks by saying, “This is half-baked but…” And while his insights were anything but halfbaked, this small preface was a gift because it invited others — myself included — to participate without hesitation.

As I think back, this invitation of vulnerability and acknowledgement of uncertainty was incredibly valuable in the classroom and something I am grateful for.

Pero has had a wide array of experiences both in the world of academia and out, which is something I think is oftentimes missing from Amherst classrooms. He took an unconventional path to our small liberal arts college and his approaching graduation. Very simply, he’s lived a lot longer than the rest of us; he has experienced

advantageous for everyone in the classroom.

Searching for a Direction Pero describes his early relationship with education, saying

“

Pero has had a wide array of experiences both in the world of academia and out, which is something I think is oftentimes missing from Amherst classrooms.

He took an unconventional path to our small liberal arts college and his approaching graduation.

”

“I did very poorly in high school [and] dropped out for a little while. [I] ended up going back

32 | The Amherst Student | May 24, 2019

and graduating but spent the next handful of years not doing much. I just worked a lot of minimum-wage jobs for a long time and moved out when I was pretty young and lived with friends and hung out.”

There are moments on the Amherst campus where one can feel deceptive pressure to get on the fast-track towards a career and money-making. Certainly, that’s what a lot of students at our school do.

They work in consulting right after they graduate and work nine be there’s nothing wrong with that, but I see enormous value in really love. Doing so allows the rest of your life to be all the more enjoyable and rewarding. in Pero — he took his time.

Before going back to school, Pero said, “I spent a lot of time doing the things I wanted to do, which was watch movies, hang out with my friends and play music and play in bands.”

Over time Pero’s taste changed — naturally, because it’s unreasonable to know what you want to do for the rest of your life as a young adult. Pero said that the time he spent before deciding to go back to school was “fun but it got monotonous … for me. [I] was feeling very stagnant and feeling like my only options were to work

Photo courtesy of Arthur Pero ’19

Arthur Pero ‘19 brings more life experience and commitment to than most Amherst students. in food service for the rest of my life or retail. And the future didn’t look very appealing in that line of work.”

His curiosity for more sparked his decision to go to college. “I just wasn’t on the same wavelength with [my friends],” he said.

“Everybody was just very content found myself more interested in — I don’t want to sound pretentious — reading and things that I couldn’t really talk to anybody about.”

So, he chose to go back to school and enrolled at Holyoke Community College.

Learning for the Sake of Learning It was a big step. Originally, Pero “didn’t really concern myself so much with going to college or anything like that because it never really seemed like an option,” he

said. “Nobody in my immediate family had and at that time none of my friends were. It seemed like a very separate world from me.”

Nevertheless, after spending time away from academia, it seems that the decision to go back to school occurred very organically.

It was a decision he, and he alone, made without outside pressure, which adds a certain degree of vigor to his commitment to education.

I have always admired an intrinsic dedication to and love of learning. Learning for the sake of learning is invaluable, and Pero began his experience in higher education with this mindset.

“I decided to go without anything like a career in mind,” he said. “I decided to go to learn a little bit, and I kind of had a chip on my shoulder too because I thought that I was kind of smart

Senior Profile

Arthur Pero ’19 even though I had never applied myself. So, I wanted to see if I could push myself to do well in school while learning about the things that I wanted to learn about.”

After a successful and rewarding time at Holyoke Community College, Pero was encouraged to apply to four-year schools to obtain his bachelor’s degree.

“I got in [to Amherst], and I didn’t think I would, and now I’m graduating,” he said.

Tracing A Path in the Written Word At Amherst, Pero majored in English and worked on a creative

writing thesis this past year. Just like learning, writing is something Pero discovered he deeply enjoys doing.

“I wouldn’t consider myself a writer by trade or anything like that, but I do like to write and am

thesis process went really well and I’m really happy with how it turned out.”

The independence of the thesis process was particularly appealing to him.

“It was just great to work mostly independently, check in and get free rein to be as creative and strange as I wanted to be,” he

said.

Professor of English Judith

toring him.

“He went from wondering

characters and thematically. So it’s about a working-class family and their struggles with monotony, alienation, loss, grief and uncertainty about the future.”

going to be able to succeed at

tainty about the future — is what stood out the most from my conversation with Pero.

and powerful collection of linked short stories that expressed his full range of intelligence, imagination

Time Well-Taken

email interview.

“It was a privilege to witness,” Pero describes his senior thesis as “a collection of short stories that’s interlinked through the

When I asked him about the future, he said, “That’s the problem, I have no plans as of right now.” I don’t think that’s a problem in the slightest.

All too often on this campus we’re told to have a plan; we’re encouraged to map out our fu-

tures and our careers.

I look to Pero’s trajectory to and through higher education as an incredible story of success and accomplishment.

A story of passion that didn’t necessarily have a plan or structure from the beginning. It was his genuine love of learning and later writing that brought him to Amherst.

Hopefully, Pero’s story can serve as a lesson in taking time for ourselves and in using it to discover our genuine interests. There is no rush. Pero, after all, took his time — and his college degree is all the more rewarding because of it.

Photo courtesy of Arthur Pero’19

After entering Amherst unsure of whether he would even graduate, Pero now graduates with a degree in English and has completed a creative writing thesis encompassing a series of thematically linked short stories.

The Amherst Student | May 24, 2019 | 33

Senior Profile | Kate Finnerty

Math, With a Minor in Talking Kate Finnerty has dedicated their time at Amherst to exploring subjects from math to Mandarin, all while being an active member of crew and mock trial.

—Henry Newton ’21 Coming from a small public school in Brookline, a modest town on the outskirts of Boston, Kate Finnerty ’19 has emerged as a quiet and humble leader at Amherst, who, despite their own humility, has managed to leave a mark on campus and on the school’s community.

Before arriving at Amherst, Finnerty said that they wanted to go to a small, liberal arts school, applying to “anywhere but Williams.”

“My dad and my aunt went here, and I wasn’t completely set on coming to Amherst, but when I got in and visited again, it felt like a place that I wanted to spend four years.”

Finnerty demurred, “When they do the class of 20-whatever statistics, there’s always that person who has done something absolutely crazy; I was never like that.”

Finnerty moved into the fourth ry and settled into their courses, year would be incomplete without talking about how I came out as non-binary. I think, personally, that has been a huge thing for me to think about.” time I came out to a big group of year. Having a more honest understanding of myself has helped me be more patient and kind to myself.”

A Transforming Relationship With Math Finnerty knew coming into Amherst that math was one of

their long-term interests. “I had made a point of exhausting all the math classes in high school,” Finnerty laughed, and continued, “Not to mislead, I know some people come in having done multi[variable calculus], but I had just taken calculus by the time I got here!”

“But coming into Amherst and math, I instantly felt welcomed, despite the 9 a.m. class that was not particularly fun,” they added.

As Finnerty continued through the major, they felt themself becoming more and more interested in pursuing math. However, Finnerty’s “reason for pursuing math has changed over my time at Amdone before made sense to me and was really appealing because it together, advancing you further from what you had done before.

Now, though, after having taken more of the upper-level courses, the more creative aspect of it has begun to be more important and more interesting to me.”

This was a function, according to Finnerty, of studying math at a liberal arts college, where professors, rather than teaching to a solution, are willing to sit down and discuss math. “It becomes more of a collaboration,” they said.

Finnerty said that this radical transition occurred when they took discrete mathematics, a class where math became “less about ‘solve this,’ and more about ‘prove this.’ This is more satisfying to me,

34 | The Amherst Student | May 24, 2019

because it feels like you’re doing something, solving something, Colin Murphy ’21 commented on Finnerty’s love for math and passion for the process, saying “Kate was my TA [teaching assistant] for a math course I took, and they were willing to spend as much time as it took to explain any concept to me and anyone else who would go. It was clear that they had a passion for the subject.”

It was this passion for higher-level math and individual problem-solving that moved Finnerty toward writing a thesis titled “Rep-

Field Theory.”

Writing a math thesis starts during the fall of the student’s junior year when they register for the honors-qualifying exam, the equivalent of comprehensive exand more subjects included.

“In January, I spent half the time applying for jobs and the other half studying for this exam,” and I had the opportunity to talk about the thesis-writing process and what I could potentially work on.”

For their thesis, Finnerty expanded on a previous project, attempting to generalize a phenomenon they had observed in a previous course.

“As a weird coincidence, my -

Photo courtesy of Kate Finnerty ’19

Kate Finnerty ’19 earned summa cum laude honors for their thesis in the math department. answered a question similar to the one I was asking,” they said.

“My major advisor went on sabbatical, and I showed up in the domly assigned as my advisor for the year. I showed up in the fall, and he asked what I was doing my had to turn right around and say, ‘Your book!’”

Finnerty recently defended their thesis, and was recommended for summa cum laude honors by the math department.

Moving Beyond Mathematics Math was not the only academic focus that Finnerty explored during their time at Amherst. In addition to being a math major and writing a math thesis, they were an Asian languages and civilizations major.

On their decision to double

major, Finnerty said, “I kind of just wanted to mix up the type of work that I was doing, largely because the thought of having four week was extremely unappealing.”

They continued, “I had also taken Mandarin in high school, and it felt like a shame to waste all that knowledge. Also, I realized that after taking Mandarin here at Amherst, I was halfway done with

“I feel like if you’re at Amherst, you might as well do some mally wouldn’t do in your major or majors, so Asian languages and that,” they added. “I also made a point of taking one completely random class per semester, which has been great.”

An Extracurricular in

Senior Profile

Kate Finnerty ’19

Photo courtesy of Kate Finnerty ’19

In addition to their role as a lawyer on the mock trial team, Kate Finnerty is a coxswain for the first varsity boat on the crew team. Here, they are pictured with four of their teammates after the 2019 New England Championships.

Talking Finnerty supplemented their impressive work in the classroom with a bevy of extracurricular activities, including serving as a coxswain on the crew team and as a lawyer on the competitive mock trial team.

“I often like to joke that my main extracurricular activity is talking. Between being a coxswain on the crew team and being a lawyer, all I do is talk!” Finnerty exclaimed.

Rowing before high school gave Finnerty the background requisite for their immediate success on Amherst’s crew team. school’s second and third varsity boats, Finnerty became a coxswain on Amherst’s team, leading the second varsity boat for the Mammoths. They eventually came to coxswain for the team’s

Remarking on their experience with the crew team, Finnerty said, “Once you’re in the team, you notice that it’s such an intense investment, not just of time, but of mental and physical energy. You’re practicing in all sorts of condiif you’re rowing and, honestly, at least recently, we haven’t won a lot.”

“You ask yourself, ‘Why am that there was something more in it than just the result,” they said.

“That this is something worth investing in and buying into is something that I believe in.”

Crew forced them to “do things and have experiences that I never would voluntarily do otherwise,” they said.

“I can remember one practice this year where it was pouring

rain, and I was sitting in two inches of water in the coxswain’s seat, and you start to wonder about the Finnerty said. “Maybe I’m a little crazy or irrational, but there is the feeling of knowing that, once it’s over, you and your teammates have now done that together.” on Finnerty’s contribution to the team, stating, “Kate brought a level of professionalism, enthusiasm been unique in both its intensity and consistency over their time on the team.”

“Be it mentoring other coxswains or just bringing focus to every practice and race, Kate has been an invaluable member of the team from the moment they Amalia Cruz ’19, one of Finnerty’s friends and fellow cox-

swains, said, “Kate taught me everything that I know about being a coxswain. I have so much respect for their work and ability, and it really has been fun getting to be teammates alongside them for these last four years.” member of the rowing team, Finnerty took the reins for the mock trial team. “Mock trial increased of being a leader, interacting with people in a more formal way, and the fact that this group of people is really dedicated, driven and special,” Finnerty said.

Deciding on a Future After college, Finnerty will be working for a consumer packaged

held a summer internship.

Finnerty was drawn to the work

because it “seemed like something very concrete, the things that you’re working with are really evgo for it, and I was shocked that I got it, but I loved my experience as an intern and the work because it sits right in that sweet spot between mathematics and creativity.”

Their long-term plan is as course, what is guaranteed is that Finnerty will bring their unique perspectives and intellectual curiosity to bear on future work.

“I think one of the things that I learned at Amherst is that the thing that you do right out of college is usually not the thing that you do forever,” they said. “I’m ex-

that I feel like I’m doing something meaningful with my life.”

The Amherst Student | May 24, 2019 | 35

Senior Profile | Rubii Tamen

Taming the Field: A Compassionate Pursuit Rubii Tamen represents the best of Amherst, from the soccer field to the track and in the commuity beyond.

—Arielle Kirven ’21 Rubii Tamen ’19 did not originally want to attend Amherst. omore year.

A True All-American

knew it was maybe my last game

Tamen said. the beginning of the season and

she has made an indelible mark

ors at the end of it. The honor is end.

Photo courtesy of Rubii Tamen ’19

of the team. sists and goals from the season.

Rubii Tamen ’19 has a string of accolades to her name, but it is her heart for service that defines her character.

other women in my year on the

Launching Community for Athletes of Color

in a way that most students don’t teams.

2008. That same year the team went to the NCAA tournament

with fondness.

“That was the best feeling in

A Heart for Giving Back learn more about the CamerE-board met with President Bidwere ahead of me for my time at

36 | The Amherst Student | May 24, 2019

Senior Profile

Rubii Tamen ’19 and future students. harmful treatments and drugs on

from Amherst are also working at

miss the most about Amherst is

seriously.

for yourself and share your own

the long term.

Framing the Future self — and on others’ behalf —

similar to mine go into medi-

for it.

Photo courtesy of Rubii Tamen ’19

Tamen competed on the women’s soccer team throughout her time at Amherst. After Amherst Uprising, she joined other student-athletes of color to found the Council of Amherst College Student Athletes of Color.

The Amherst Student | May 24, 2019 | 37

Senior Profile | Nate Quigley

Team Player Leads With Drive to Succeed A persistent competitor, Nate Quigley’s tenacious attitude and appetite for more is awe-inspiring.

—Zach Jonas ’22 “Nate? After I joined club soccer, Nate became something of an older brother to me,” said Phil Corbo ’22, one of his teammates.

“I couldn’t imagine a better role model for our class,” said another, Luis de Pablo ’22.

Nate Quigley ’19 is a double math and history major known on campus as a convivial student who spends his time writing papers, playing soccer and being with his friends, and for serving as the editor-in-chief of The Amherst Student. As the captain of the club soccer team, Amherst Football Club (AFC), he is described by his teammates as a reliable defensemtory thesis about Allan Octavian Hume, the founder of the Indian National Congress.

Before Amherst Quigley grew up just outside of Boston in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In high school, he discovered his love for both math and history, which some may say is an “odd combination” of interests.

Though he does admit that history and math do not seem to have much in common, Quigley sees parallels between these disciplines, which he says may be responsible for his profound interest. In general, he loves the logical reasoning behind solving a math problem, while in his history essays, he enjoys examining the causal relationships between different events. terest in history when he realized

he was the only one of his peers to “enjoy” his Advanced Placement U.S. History class. The class was interesting to him because it

friends. Similarly, when he joined herst, he found friends that would “last a lifetime.”

think about forming arguments rather than just learning facts.

What unites these disparate disciplines for Quigley, is the critical thinking involved with the processes behind obtaining a solution, whether that be an unknown variable or a new narrative about a previously unwritten story. Quigley’s love of math, he says, stems from the math classes he took in high school and at the Harvard Extension School, classes taught at Harvard for non-Harvard students, where he learned to “seriously think about problem solving.”

Editor-in-Chief of the Newspaper

Transition to Amherst Quigley stayed close to his roots and decided to attend Amherst, just an hour and a half from his home in Cambridge and the alma mater of both his parents.

His parents met when his father was a sophomore majoring in American studies and his mother a senior earning her degree in political science.

Nothing, however, helped him in his transition more than the Amherst club soccer team, Quig-

Quigley began his career at The Student in the spring of his herst, he had no plans to write for the paper. It was only once he was reeled in by a friend and presented with the challenge of covering a sports team, that he became engaged with The Student.

His passion for sports and creating narratives led him to become a valued member of the sports section of the newspaper and he started covering the women’s tennis beat. While some may say it must have been less than thrilling to cover the sport for his -

attended a practice at the bottom

rarely makes top headlines in a thoughtful and engaging way. His talent for writing and his passion for sports clearly captured the attention of his editors, as he became the managing sports editor his sophomore year.

His leadership skills and his commitment to the paper framed him as the ideal candidate for the editor-in-chief position his junior year. His sophomore spring, the editors-in-chief pulled him out of

Quigley became captain of his beloved team.

Throughout high school, Quigley played on a travel soccer team as well as his high school team. There, he made his closest

him the position.

As any member of the newspaper will attest, being an editor, let alone an editor-in-chief, is a heavy time commitment. As a history major, Quigley planned to

38 | The Amherst Student | May 24, 2019

Photo courtesy of Nate Quigley ’19

Nate Quigley ’19 engaged in a variety of activities on campus, from editing for The Student to leading AFC. study abroad in Rome his junior ed with running the paper; new editors-in-chief take over in the spring of their junior year and continue through the fall of their senior year.

In addition to his growing restlessness in having a similar routine on campus for the past two years, Quigley looked forward to escaping the Amherst bubble and participating in what he called the “classic Amherst tradition” of leaving campus to study abroad.

As such, the decision to become editor was not so clear.

After deliberating with his advisor, Dwaipayan Sen, a professor in the history department, Quigley decided that he would never be granted the opportunity to “frame the narrative of a prestigious academic institution like Amherst ever again, more than [he] could by becoming [Editor in Chief].”

Upon becoming edi-

tor-in-chief alongside Isabel Tessier ’19, Quigley was immediately faced with what seemed like an insurmountable challenge facing the paper.

After years of decreasing revenue from advertisements, the newspaper had racked up almost $10,000 worth of debt to its printers. Recognizing the importance of print, Quigley and Tessier navigated the Association of Amherst Students to obtain discretionary funding for the paper’s weekly operations.

Quigley and Tessier also dealt with the question: how do we make The Student a 21st century newspaper? It is a question future editors-in-chief will have to anQuigley said.

“We incorporated new ways of getting our stories out and bringing in new revenue,” he said.

One of his longer lasting legacies of being editor-in-chief, Quigley said, is updating the website, and

Senior Profile

Nate Quigley ’19 thinking about The Student in a new way.

“It was very challenging, but also rewarding,” Quigley remarked. “My job at the newspaper was to, basically, set it up so it could be successful in the future”

Club Soccer Outside of his love for history, math and writing, Quigley has an obvious inclination for soccer. campus wearing his favorite Manchester United jersey, but you may the Greenway dorms captaining his beloved club soccer team AFC. Soccer, to Quigley, has never just been about winning a game — though he does concede he is extremely competitive after grow-

ing up with two younger brothers.

Instead, Quigley sees soccer as a way to grow closer with his peers.

His best friends in high school came from his club soccer travel team, and he has formed his closest bonds at Amherst with friends he plays with on the pitch.

For Quigley, serving the team as a captain has been a privilege, but it was also an opportunity to showcase his leadership qualities by organizing practices and commanding the team during games.

Writing a Thesis on an Untold Story While his two majors, athletic involvement and duties as editor-in-chief were gratifying, Quigley said his history thesis has been his most rewarding experience at

Amherst. He says that he enjoys writing about Hume for two reasons. First, the stories and history about Hume have rarely been told.

Quigley enjoys the experience of writing about people, and he adds that because of a lack of public information about Hume, he “has the most knowledge of Hume” of any modern historian, which in his words, is “remarkable.” Writing his thesis has also honed his thinking and synthesizing abilities more than any other experience at Amherst. The sheer amount of writing, he says, has surely enhanced his writing abilities.

Adam Sitze, professor of law, jurisprudence and social thought and previous professor of Quigley,

describes Quigley’s writing as one

lenge, but also enlightening.

Quigley has the unique ability to read with “laser beam” attention, and he does not miss a detail.

At the same time, Quigley is able to “back up and write a synoptic narrative” of a person or event as a whole, Sitze says. Quigley’s unique ability to incorporate a larger narrative interlaced with crucial details allows his writing to quite accurately paint an unseen version of events.

One thing that Quigley has learned from writing his thesis is that what is more important to his story is not the writing, per-se, but rather the ideas on the page. After being editor-in-chief of the newspaper, giving up his perfectionist tendencies has been quite a chal-

After Amherst Following graduation, Quigley looks forward to going home for the summer in Cambridge and then working as a paralegal at a larger company in the sports industry. He says he would like to combine his interests of sports, analytical thinking and writing in the position.

In the future, he would like to attend law school.

Whatever he pursues, he’ll do who helped transform The Student and leave its mark on campus. And he’ll be remembered as a friend, teammate and scholar who was committed to the community.

Photo courtesy of Nate Quigley ’19

For his history thesis, Quigley wrote about Allan Octavian Hume, the founder of the Indian National Congress. According to him, it was the most rewarding experience he had at Amherst, due to both the originality of his research and the experience of telling an untold tale.

The Amherst Student | May 24, 2019 | 39

40 | The Amherst Student | May 24, 2019

May 24, 2019 | The Amherst Student | 43 41

42 | The Amherst Student | May 24, 2019

May 24, 2019 | The Amherst Student | 43

-T. Roosevelt and Vanessa

Congratulations JP! Continue conquering the future with your humble heart and brilliant mind. We love you and you make us all proud.

-Dad, mom and sisters

44 | The Amherst Student | May 24, 2019

CONGRATS TO THE CLASS OF 2019!

May 24, 2019 | The Amherst Student | 45

Deliver Papers on Campus!

Contact astudent@amherst.edu if interested

Interested in getting the scoop on the latest developments on campus?

E H T JOIN

!

R E P A NEWSP

If you want to write for us, email astudent@amherst.edu 46 | The Amherst Student | May 24, 2019

May 24, 2019 | The Amherst Student | 47

48 | The Amherst Student | May 24, 2019

May 24, 2019 | The Amherst Student | 49

50 | The Amherst Student | May 24, 2019

Follow us on Facebook @AmherstStudent for context surrounding the week’s most important news. Our Facebook page also serves as a public forum for discussion on current events.

Follow us on Instagram @AmherstStudent for features content and updates on sports teams in season. Our Instagram stories regularly publicize articles and cover ongoing events.

Follow us on Twitter @AmherstStudent for breaking news and live tweets. Recent viral tweets include footage of the student walkout at former attorney general Jeff Sessions’ talk.

The Amherst Student | May 24, 2019 | 51

sUBSCRIBE TO THE STUDENT! The Amherst Student is published weekly except during college vacations.

The subscription rate is $75 per year or $40 per semester.

Please send a check to The Amherst Student, AC#2291, Amherst College, Amherst, MA 01002, P.O. Box 5000, or email us at astudent@amherst.edu to inquire about subscriptions.

52 | The Amherst Student | May 24, 2019

CONGRATULATIONS

CLASS OF 2019!

The Amherst Student | May 24, 2019 | 53

The Year in Sports FALL SEASON

Men’s Soccer Head coach Justin Serpone led his team to another successful season, as the Mammoths finished with a 14-51 record and reached the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament. Despite an unseemly loss to Colby in the NESCAC Quarterfinals, Amherst put together many quality wins over top NESCAC talents like Bates, Bowdoin and Wesleyan and No. 8 ranked Saint Joseph’s College. Seniors Luke Nguyen and Fikayo Ajayi led the way for the Mammoths from midfield. Both scored five goals, and were prototypical Serpone players – physical, intense and imposing presences on the pitch and quick to make the decisive pass in favor of the safe one. Sean Fitzgerald ’19 and Will Cohen ’19 led the team in defense in front of the anchoring defensive midfielder Andres Pascal-Leone ’19.

Plenty of young talent returns for the Mammoths in the fall, and hopefully Serpone’s tried-and-true system produces more excellent results for the Mammoths.

Women’s Soccer It was a standout year for the women’s soccer team, which reached the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament and fell to NESCAC Champs Middlebury in an overtime semi-final penalty shootout. Their strongest wins of the year were a 1-0 win over a gritty MIT side, a hard-fought tie against defending national champions Williams and a 3-0 victory over Tufts away. The Mammoths played exciting, possession-oriented soccer.

Their unique 3-5-2 formation

allowed them to swarm the opposition in defense and work the ball to ace Rubii Tamen ’19 up top. Tamen potted 16 goals in 19 appearances for the Mammoths and received second-team All-American accolades.

In midfield, Caleigh Plaut ’19 provided structure, roaming box-to-box and dictating play. Bella Palma ’20 anchored the center of the back three, stifling attacks before they even began. A cohort of young players and experienced juniors return in the fall to make Amherst just as large a threat as they were last season, and take the mantle from the class of 2019.

Football As has become the case in a highly-stratified league, the Mammoths’ shot at a title came down to the matchup against heavyweight Trinity.

The Mammoths put up a spectacular season prior to that penultimate game. In defense, Andrew Yamin ’19 led the Mammoths from the front, earning NESCAC Defensive Player of the Year accolades for the second year in a row. Yamin, along with All-Region lineman Jack Griffiths ’19, tore offensive lines to shreds – Yamin took 10 sacks over the nine-game season.

On offense, All-NESCAC running back and force of nature Jack Hickey ’19 took the reins from speedster Biafra Okoronkwo ’20 after returning from injury, and rushed in six touchdowns in six games. Wideout Bo Berluti ’19 also had an excellent season, hauling in 44 receptions for 610 yards and four touchdowns.

Head coach E.J. Mill’s men put up a valiant show throughout the sea-

54 | The Amherst Student | May 24, 2019

son, but a nail-biting loss to Trinity ended up being the deciding headto-head tiebreaker, as both Trinity and Amherst ended the season 8-1. A Homecoming win over Williams 4514 made the title loss a little sweeter, however. “The Biggest Little Game in America” win allowed the Mammoths to pick up their 34th Little Three Title since 1910.

Field Hockey The fall campaign started well for the Mammoths. Despite losing to nationally top-ranked Middlebury, the Mammoths put together a promising resume of wins in September, including wins over ranked opponents Williams and MIT. Losses to No. 17 Hamilton and No. 15 Trinity were the only blemishes on the second month of their regular season however, in which they racked up wins of Wesleyan, Bates and Colby, to name a few. The season would came to a close when head coach Carol Knerr’s squad fell to Tufts for a second time in the NESCAC Tournament Quarterfinal.

In defense, the Mammoths were anchored by Kendall Codey ’19 and netminder Katie Savage ’19. Savage saved a stingy 72 percent of the shots she faced. Codey scored the second highest number of goals for the team with 10. Midfielder Shannon Tierney ’19 dictated play from midfield and tallied a team-high three assists. The team looks to build upon this success in the coming fall season.

Men’s Cross Country It was a terrific season under newly-minted head coach Cassie Fun-

ke-Harris. The team won a NESCAC Championship and the DIII New England Regional Championship, and placed sixth at the DIII National Championship meet at the end of the season. In addition, the Mammoths were crowned Little Three champions.

The team, led by senior harriers Tucker Meijer and Cosmo Brossy, truly got into stride in time for championship events. Clark Ricciardelli ’20E also ran impressively for the Mammoths, improving dramatically on his first season with Amherst two falls ago. Amherst got off to a hot start with a win at the Little Threes and didn’t look back. They took fourth at the Purple Valley Invitational, 22nd at the Paul Short Invitational – where they competed against mostly DI teams – and gold at the Connecticut College Invitational, all before going on their stampede through tournament season. Their work proved fruitful in preparing them for the coming spring track season, as Amherst was excellent in the distance events from the outset.

Women’s Cross Country

Women’s cross country, despite being plagued by injury throughout the grueling season, performed well. High points included an eighth-place finish at the NESCAC Championships. Lela Walters ’19 was consistently Amherst’s second-best runner, finishing every race in the second scoring position for the Mammoths. The squad also relied on first years and particularly sophomores to make big contributions to the team. Oliva Polishek ’21 placed a

team-best sixth at the Purple Valley Invitational, while Sarah Gayer ’21 shone in multiple personal best performances. Despite these woes in the fall, the team’s determination proved advantageous when they took their talents to the track in the winter and spring.

Volleyball The Firedogs started the season on a scorching hot streak, demonstrating their tenacity, ruthlessness and cohesion under head coach Sue Everden. Amherst only lost four sets in their first 10 matches, including sweeps of Trinity and Connecticut College. The second half of the season saw more ups and downs, including a loss to top-ranked Bowdoin, a 3-1 win over Williams, a win which came down to the wire against Tufts and a first-place finish at the Hall of Fame Invitational. The team was led by seniors Hayes Honea and Lauren Reppert. Honea, a defensive specialist, recorded 245 digs during the fall season, while Reppert counted 77 kills as an outside hitter.

Come tournament time, the Firedogs were ready for action. A redemptive night for Amherst took place in Brunswick Maine against Wesleyan in the first round, where they not only swept the first team to beat them, but also secured their first NESCAC Finals appearance in a decade.

The final, however, was not so joyous, as the Mammoths fell behind early and lost 3-1. The team, which only graduates two seniors, will look to build upon their success in the coming season.

WINTER SEASON

Men’s Hockey Men’s hockey finished a stellar season in heartbreaking fashion, concluding the season as NESCAC runners-up after an overtime loss in the championship to Trinity. Amherst had stormed through the tournament, beginning in the quarterfinals with a domineering 5-0 victory over Colby. Proceeding to the second round, Amherst came up against the second-seeded Wesleyan Cardinals, who they had tied and lost to in the campaign’s earlier contests. Despite this unconvincing record, the Mammoths hung tight to the Cardinals, and the score reflected the hardfought battle, as the three regular periods ended with the score knotted at two goals apiece. However, in double overtime, Nick Bondra ’21 slapped home a saucer pass from PJ Conlon ’20, sending the Mammoths into the championship against Trinity.

The final game was a similarly close affair, with both goalies producing phenomenal performances, as the game remained goalless after regular time. The Bantams and Mammoths traded shots, and again, each goalie stood tall in between the pipes. Finally, however, Trinity broke through, ending the Mammoths’ season and sending them home disappointed. Despite the loss, the Mammoths will return a strong offensive and defensive core and look to challenge for the conference title that slipped through their fingers.

Women’s Hockey Women’s hockey contended with the loss of the program’s alltime leading scorer Alex Toupal ’18 this season, but they adjusted to the new status quo with a strong season that saw new faces step up and produce on the offensive end of the ice.

The Mammoths were led in scoring

by Jocelyn Hunyadi ’19 and soph-

omores Emma Flynn and Kaitlin Hoang, taking the Mammoths to a 13-11-2 record and a berth in the NESCAC tournament. In the tournament, the team had an exciting first game that saw the team face the fourth-seeded Bantams from Trinity College.

In yet another overtime contest for Amherst hockey, the Mammoths prevailed thanks to a goal from Jamie McNamara ’19, sending the Mammoths to face their archrivals Williams, the seventh-ranked team in the nation. The team’s luck, however, was not to continue, as the Ephs dominated the game, securing the 3-1 victory. However, there is much to look forward to for the Mammoths, as the youthfulness of the offensive and defensive core means that further seasoning can only lead to greater success in the years to come.

Men’s Swim and Dive The men’s swim and dive team had an excellent season from both an individual and team perspective. The team started its dual meet series with six straight victories, five of these six coming against conference rivals.

However, the team lost its final dual meet of the season against the Massassachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and headed into the NESCAC Championships without the momentum from earlier in the season.

However, the Mammoths turned in an excellent performance, finishing third in the field of 11. This was good enough for the team to advance to the NCAA Championships, and the team was able to finish in the top 10, notching a ninth-place finish.

Individually, the team was similarly successful, with three Mammoths advancing to NCAA Championship finals. Craig Smith ’20 opened the meet with a seventh-place finish

in the 200-yard backstroke. Sean Mebust ’20 placed fifth in the nation in the 200-yard backstroke event and received All-American honors as a result. Mebust shaved a full second off of his time from his preliminary swim. Finally, Bennett Fagan ’20 also finished in fifth place in the one-meter diving competition. Given the strong junior core of swimmers and divers, the Mammoths seem poised to make yet another run next season, and will perhaps look to improve on their finishes in both the NESCAC and NCAA Championships.

Women’s Swim and Dive The women’s swim and dive squad finished an incredible individual and team season with two individual NCAA Championships and a top-10 team finish at the NCAA Championship meet. The team lost only one dual meet the entire season, against MIT. During the NESCAC Championship meet, held at Wesleyan, the team finished third overall. However, the most notable successes from this season came at the National Championship meet. The team finished eighth in the country in a field of 50 teams. Individually, the Mammoths achieved success in the 200-yard breaststroke, where Nina Fitzgerald ’21 finished seventh overall.

Additionally, Lindsey Ruderman ’21 turned in perhaps the most impressive athletic performance of the year for the Mammoths, sweeping the NCAA Division III women’s diving awards and events. Ruderman began the meet by capturing the three-meter diving championship and followed it up by claiming the one-meter title. Given these performances, it should come as no surprise that Ruderman was named Division III’s diver of the year. It was the first time since 2016 that an Am-

herst athlete won multiple national championships in a single season.

Ruderman is the 79th Amherst athlete to win a national championship.

Men’s Squash The men’s squash squad finished an up and down season with an 8-10 record and a victory at the collegiate squash nationals. However, the team’s season ended prematurely with a loss to Bates, the very same squad that knocked the Mammoths out of the NESCAC Championships.

One of the highs of the season came at the Little Three Championships when the Mammoths dominated Wesleyan, winning 9-0 to secure second place at the event. Individually, the team performed well, with the Mammoths’ first-ranked player Terrence Wang ’21 registering nine wins during the season, and securing his second All-NESCAC honors in two years. Senior Harith Khawaja also earned a place on the All-NESCAC team, finishing on nine wins as well.

Women’s Squash With an 8-11 record on the season, the women’s squash team finished its season with middling results and early exits at the NESCAC Championships and the CSA Team National Championships. Furthermore, the Mammoths were unable to move any of their competitors past the opening stages of the CSA Individual National Championships.

Despite these late-season missteps, the team was able to lodge notable victories over nationally-ranked Mount Holyoke College, along with numerous triumphs over NESCAC foes. Individually, there were numerous successes, but of particular note were junior Pierson Klein’s 11 victories on the season. Lilly Soroko ’22, in her first collegiate campaign, finished close behind Klein, notching

10 victories on the year.

Men’s Basketball The men’s basketball team made a deep run into the NCAA playoffs this year, ending its season in the Sweet 16 with a loss to Nicholls State University. This should not overshadow the team’s achievements, which include defeating thirdranked archrival Williams 63-62, winning the program’s eighth NESCAC championship and earning national rankings for most of the year.

Dave Hixon ’75 garnered his fifth NESCAC Coach of the Year award, while guard Grant Robinson ’21 and forward Eric Sellew ’20 were named to the NESCAC first and second teams, respectively. The Mammoths finished the year with a record of 255.

Women’s Basketball The streak of consecutive national championships ended in a heartbreaking overtime loss to the University of St. Thomas in the Sweet Sixteen for the Mammoths, but the Amherst women’s basketball team by no means had a failure of a season.

The team, ranked inside the top 10 for the duration of the season, finished with a stellar record of 25-3 and had numerous standout performances on both ends of the court.

Madeline Eck ’20 was named an All-American by numerous publications, while Hannah Fox ’20 nabbed honorable mentions. Eck enters next season needing only 472 points to sit atop the all-time standings in points for the Mammoths; she had 474 this season. Fox, likewise, only has 34 points until she reaches her 1,000th point. Despite this year’s setbacks, the new seniors on the squad find themselves well positioned to capture a third national championship in their four years on campus.

The Amherst Student | May 24, 2019 | 55

SPRING SEASON

Baseball Under new head coach J.P. Pyne, the baseball team put together a solid season but missed out on the playoffs. Chase Henly ’19, Joe Palmo ’21, Stephen Burke ’21, Kai Terada-Herzer ’21 and Daniel Qin ’22 all hit over .300. Defense, however, was the team’s main hurdle. The Mammoths committed 22 more errors than their opposition this season. Andrew Ferraro ’19 led the Mammoths from the mound, claiming a 2.5 ERA and 40 strikeouts in 40 innings.

A highlight of the season, other than the series win over rival Williams was the walk-off win on Senior Day, even after failing to make the playoffs in the first two games of the series against Middlebury.

Men’s Lacrosse Amherst got off to a solid start – spending the first several weeks on top of national rankings. Coach Jon Thompson’s team was perfect over the first 10 games, even beating defending national champions Wesleyan 14-9. The next game, however, went poorly, as Amherst dropped a game to unranked archrivals Williams. After only one loss over the rest of the season, Amherst were unseated in the NESCAC semifinals by Williams again. The team, however received an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament.

The postseason has been a difficult journey thus far, as Amherst has had to unseat arguably some of the top teams in Division III. Wesleyan fell in the third round to Amherst as the Mammoths beat them for the second time this season. Junior Matt Solberg scored four goals, including the go-ahead goal that helped the

Mammoths win 16-13. In the next round, Amherst redeemed themselves against Tufts 13-11 in Medford.

They then, in an ultimate redemptive moment, trounced Williams 12-8 in the national semifinal. They play in the final on Sunday, May 26 against Cabrini College.

grow, as they return an attack unit of Isabel Sennett ’21, Claire Dunbar ’21 and Becky Kendall ’22, which combined for 103 of the team’s 241 goals this season. Coach Christine Paradis hopes to return the same consistency and talent to her squad next season.

Women’s Lacrosse

The softball team had a solid season this spring, opening with five wins in their spring preseason trip to Florida, and only dropped two out of the 10 they played in that week.

The only blemishes on the season as a whole were the two times Amherst was swept, first by Hamilton and then by Williams. Amherst would end the season, however, with a sweep of Middlebury before exiting the tournament in the second round to Bowdoin.

Leading off for the Mammoths, Sammi Salustri ’19 made 40 hits, all singles. Kyra Naftel ’19 tallied nine doubles and drove in 15 runs for the Mammoths. Ace Lauren Ukanwa ’19 provided excellent pitching, keeping 1.82 ERA and 108 strikeouts in 21 appearances for the Mammoths.

The Mammoths hope to improve in the coming season and make a deep playoff run.

The women’s lacrosse team’s season started on a poor note with a 6-5 loss to Colby in a brutally cold home opener on Pratt Field, but six straight wins perked their spirits as spring began in earnest. These wins included wins over the No. 18 ranked William Smith, No. 14 Bowdoin, and No. 11 ranked College of New Jersey.

Wins over Williams and Bates down the stretch put them in the race for a NESCAC playoff spot and they breezed past their first round opponent, Bowdoin. A tough loss to Middlebury away in the semifinals made the Mammoths wait until the NCAA tournament to demonstrate their strength. A clutch save in the dying seconds of the game by goalie Katie Savage ’19 saw Amherst through to the regional final with a win over Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, where they squared off against Catholic University of America. The Cardinals were dispatched with ease on a two-goal game for senior midfielder Lindsey Call. A matchup against traditional powerhouse Salisbury in the quarterfinals, however, proved to be too much for the Mammoths. They lost, 8-7, despite a late comeback.

The shining spot of the season was the defense, which only allowed 8.2 goals per game, led by seniors Annie Cohen and Sabrina Solow. The Amherst offense has only upwards to

56 | The Amherst Student | May 24, 2019

Softball

Men’s Tennis The men’s tennis team had an excellent season this fall, winning both of their matchups. Their spring season began with three wins, including victories over No. 13 Kenyon College and No. 15 Carnagie Mellon on their Florida preseason trip. Sean Wei ’21 was the marquee player for Amherst this year, playing at the top of the singles ladder and in the top doubles pair.

He brought home two points in their

loss against Washington University in Saint Louis, then the team’s only two points in the loss to Case Western Reserve University. The team rebounded, however with a win over No. 6 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, 5-4, at home on the Stags East Coast tour.

The Mammoths won their next nine games, including a win over No. 4 Bowdoin and No. 10 Williams, finishing with a 16-4 regular season record.

The postseason brought on a matchup against Wilkes University in the second year, which Amherst handled with relative ease. Mary Washington University also suffered a similar fate, falling to Amherst in the next round. The second-ranked University of Chicago, however, would trounce Amherst in the proceeding quarterfinal matchup. The Mammoths look to build on this season as they prepare for the coming fall matches.

weekend.

Women’s Tennis

Women’s Track & Field

Women’s tennis had an excellent spring season, finishing in the NCAA DIII quarterfinals. Jackie Buzkin ’22 led the team from the top of the ladder, and she earned ITA Northeast Rookie of the Year for her work. Amherst notched wins over a 14-6 record, including wins over No. 12 ranked Washington University in Saint Louis and No. 21 Kenyon College. Amherst also reached the NESCAC semifinals before falling to Middlebury, 5-2. Wins in the first round over the College of New Jersey and Johns Hopkins University in the second round brought the team to face off against Middlebury once again. The squad, however, fell to the Panthers for the third time this past

The winter indoor and spring track team’s work all led to the end of season meets. Anna Madden ’22, Juanita Jaramillo ’22, Sophia Friedman ’21 and Rubii Tamen ’19 won the 4x400 meter relay at the NESCAC Championships and broke the school record by nearly two seconds. Senior Christina Scartelli led the way for the Mammoths with an All-NESCAC performance in the 5,000-meter run as well. Ella Rossa ’21 set a school record in the 400-meter hurdles at DIII New Englands as well, besting her own record in the event. The Mammoths travel to Geneva, Ohio this weekend to take part in the DIII National Championship event at the SPIRE Institute.

Men’s Track & Field The winter indoor and spring track events all culminated in DIII New Englands, the NESCAC Championship and the DIII National Championship Meet this coming Saturday and Sunday. At the NESCAC meet, Clark Ricardelli ’20E took the individual title in the 10,000-meter run, Estevan Velez ’20, Jacob Silverman ’19, Ermias Kebede ’19 and Kristian Sogaard ’19 took the 4x400 meter relay title. With a massive jump of 13.93 meters, Yaseen Zarroug ’22 claimed the NESCAC individual title in the long jump. At the DIII New England Championships, Spencer Ferguson-Dryden ’20 won the 1500-meter race in the last 150 meters. The team will bring all that success to the final meet this weekend at the SPIRE Institute in Geneva, Ohio.