From the President
Vol. 118 No. 3
Editor Annie Zaleski Art Director Nicole Slatinsky Graphic Designer Nick Giammarco
when first lady michelle obama spoke to the graduating class of oberlin College and Conservatory in 2015, she encouraged students to embrace Oberlin’s history and run to the “noise”—those challenging, contentious situations that threaten to divide us. Why? As she put it, “Because so often, throughout our history, those have been the places where progress really happens—the places where minds are changed, lives transformed, where our great American story unfolds.” This advice—and the college’s long legacy of service and social justice—has inspired a new podcast, Running to the Noise, which I’m thrilled to be hosting. As the first college in America to officially embrace the admission of Black students and the first coed school to grant bachelor’s degrees to women, Oberlin has been a leader in shaping necessary change since our founding days. So we’ve been running to the noise for years, which is why I thought that was an apt title for the podcast—and because that’s exactly what we’ll do in each episode. Our goal is to learn together as we tackle the tough topics, sprinkling in some laughter for good measure. In the debut episode, “Using Your Platform for Good,” I spoke with my friend Ed Helms ’96, an actor-comedian-musician who is a member of Oberlin’s Board of Trustees. We covered a lot of ground, including his work diversifying the writers’ room for his show Rutherford Falls; his activism around making elections fairer; and how to use your platform to change the world. I suggested that we all have an obligation to try to make positive change. Ed agreed with me but added the caveat that “we also need to have grace for the different ways and levels that people are capable of contributing to making the world a better place.” “A lot of people in the world are barely able to take care of themselves and their families, let alone take on the larger cultural or even existential problems that the world is facing right now,” he continued. “If you’ve got the bandwidth, jump in and help out—and it can be in the smallest ways too.” I loved his answer because he’s so right. Not everybody has this incredible platform like Ed does, but that’s OK. We can take our slice of the sidewalk—even a little slice of it—and make it better. The Running to the Noise episode with Ed is available now wherever you get your podcasts. In the future, I’ll have conversations with U.S. diplomat and former longtime president of the Council on Foreign Relations Richard Haass ’73, famed operatic mezzo-soprano and educator Denyce Graves ’85, and others. Look for a new episode on the final Thursday of each month. carmen twillie ambar President, Oberlin College and Conservatory
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Communications Project Manager Yvonne Gay Director of Content and Strategic Storytelling Erich Burnett Executive Director, Office of Communications Kelly Viancourt Vice President for Communications Josh Jensen
The Oberlin Alumni Magazine (ISSN 0029-7518), founded in 1904, is published by Oberlin’s Office of Communications and distributed to alumni, parents, and friends of Oberlin College. Office of Communications 247 W. Lorain St., Suite C Oberlin, OH 44074 Phone: 440.775.8182 Fax: 440.775.6575 Email: alum.mag@oberlin.edu www.oberlin.edu/oam Oberlin Alumni Association Dewy Ward ’34 Alumni Center 65 E. College St., Suite 4 Oberlin, OH 44074 Phone: 440.775.8692 Fax: 440.775.6748 Email: alumni@oberlin.edu www.oberlin.edu/alumni POSTMASTER Send changes to Oberlin College, 173 W. Lorain St., Oberlin, OH 44074
TA N YA R O S E N -J O N E S ’ 97
Where Progress Really Happens
Contributing Art Director and Graphic Designer Ryan Sprowl