Abstract Magazine // vol. 1 issue 2

VOLUME 1 / ISSUE 2 AN ADM I S S I O N M AG A Z INE

Sarah Lawrence College is a community of intellectual and creative risk-takers who nimbly traverse academic disciplines and place parallel value on curiosity and community. Abstract previews the highly individualized academic experience that unfolds on a verdant residential campus just 15 miles north of Manhattan.

Each issue shares stories of students who connect their passions to create their futures, with insights into the admission process along the way.

abstract VOLUME 1 / ISSUE 2

abstract (noun): A brief summary of an article or another long body of work meant to give the reader an idea of what’s in store should they press on. abstract (adjective): Relating to a conceptual representation of ideas, though not having a physical or concrete existence.

Editor Vanessa Pius | Designer Alison Wilkes

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contents 02 Notes from Mead Way 04 Fall Comes to Sarah Lawrence Quiz: What’s your Conference 06 Work Style?

08 Narratives: Tinder Kiely ’22 10 In Conference: Hazel Pritchard ’20 12 Inquiries: Philip Ording, Mathematics 14 Healing the Hudson 26 Narratives: Mia Jimenez ’20 28 New York Minute 32 Keeping Score 34 Inquiries: Michelle Hersh, Biology 36 Narratives: Bele Edeoga ’20 38 Areas of Study 40 Quips: Evan Suzuki ’20

features 16 (un)archived: Walk through the moments in Sarah Lawrence’s past that have shaped the College’s future.

22 Traditions: Fall Fest brings together the best Northeastern autumnal traditions—with a Sarah Lawrence twist.

24 Navigating Admission: What are admission counselors thinking when they read your application? We’re ready to tell you.

Cover illustration by Eleanor Taylor; back cover photo by Jörg Meyer

THE BARBARA WALTERS CAMPUS CENTER was designed using significant student feedback; when it opened in August 2019, students flocked to find their new favorite nooks and crannies for writing essays, sharing lunches, and planning events. At the heart of the building is an open staircase flanked by a seating area with outlets for extra study space, all connecting the social and event spaces of the first floor with the gallery, meeting room, and activity space on the second.

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PHOTO BY DON HAMERMAN abstract 1

notes from mead way

ca. 1930 Archery Team.

Glimpse SLC’s history on page 16.

ne of my favorite questions that comes up in conversations with prospective college students, often isn’t even phrased as a question, but I tend to know what they’re getting at.

Sometimes it comes out as, “What makes someone a good ‘fit’ for Sarah Lawrence?” Other times it’s a bit more declarative: “Tell me what makes someone a ‘Sarah Lawrence person.’”

The reason I love this “question” (sometimes questions come to us in disguise or below the surface, after all) is because my answer changes every time I learn about another current student’s work. There’s never a simple response that boils down to a word or phrase. “Creative,” “intellectually passionate,” and “leaders” may certainly describe SLC students (as well as students from any number of other liberal arts colleges), but my answer is most often culled from my deep collection of favorite examples of student work, research, and art that is being done right now.

The stories in Abstract provide a glimpse into recent faculty and student work, that radiate with the energy of the SLC community. You’ll meet a mathematician integrating art and algebra, a burgeoning journalist finding his niche in investigative reporting, a poet lifting up unheard voices, and a community ecologist leading fieldwork just minutes from campus on the Hudson River.

We know all too well how quickly the world can change, even within a few months. Sarah Lawrence graduates are prepared to adapt to a rapidly-evolving professional landscape, because they’ve been challenged directly by faculty to connect their interests to areas that they may otherwise never have known existed.

But that’s the value of a liberal arts But that’s the value of a education: not training to do one thing, liberal arts education: not but preparing to take on anything with training to do one thing, vigor, excitement, and confidence.

And that value is the one thing I don’t but preparing to take on see changing at Sarah Lawrence any time anything with vigor, soon. Read on, and I promise you’ll know excitement, and confidence.” what I mean.

“

Sincerely,

Kevin McKenna Dean of Admission and Financial Aid

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OUR APPROACH TO ADMISSION SLC employs a holistic admission process—in the simplest terms, no one thing earns or precludes you from admission.

We don’t have a formula for an ideal student— and think Sarah Lawrence would be a pretty boring place if we did; rather, our admission committee considers a wide range of factors when selecting students to make up our intellectual and compassionate community.

Front Row Sarah Lawrence’s

educational philosophy encourages an equal standing and open dialogue among students and faculty. Round-table seminar rooms are the norm at SLC—this one just happens to be down the hall from the president’s office in Westlands.

PHOTOS (TOP) BY DON HAMERMAN; (BOTTOM) BY QUYEN NGUYEN

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CHRIS TAGGART

CHRIS TAGGART

CHRIS TAGGART

Fall Comes to Sarah Lawrence When the leaves start

to change in Bronxville, students eagerly reunite with their favorite flannels and SLC traditions; students play homecoming games and in music festivals, dance their hearts out at formals and on stage, and ride everything from bikes to mechanical bulls at Fall Fest.

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ALL PHOTOS BY DANA MAXSON EXCEPT WHERE NOTED

Not much beats peak foliage and sharing a book with a friend.

PICTURED IN ANDREWS COURT / PHOTO BY JÖRG MEYER

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quiz

Conference projects at Sarah Lawrence College are an opportunity to infuse

creativity into academia, and the way students deliver their ideas are often as creative as the ideas themselves. The answers to this quiz are all real student projects. (You can read about them by scanning the QR code below.) How will you share your ideas?

poetry

SLAM POETRY OR STAND-UP COMEDY?

comedy

brussels

PAPERBACK OR E-READER?

m a x im a lism

MINIMALISM OR MAXIMALISM? HAVE YOU EVER WRITTEN A BLOG POST?

WOULD YOU RATHER STUDY ABROAD IN...

Start Here

e - r e ader

botswana

COFFEE OR TEA?

WHAT'S YOUR GO-TO BAGEL ORDER?

pa per back

coffee

y es

no

MUSEUM OF MODERN ART OR THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM?

tea

WOULD YOU RATHER LEARN JAPANESE OR JAVASCRIPT?

min im a lism

city

DAY IN THE CITY OR THE MOUNTAINS?

th e met

mom a

mou n ta ins javascr ipt

ta rot

ja pa n ese

TAROT CARDS OR POSTCARDS?

tiktok

post

TIKTOK OR INSTAGRAM?

CODE AN APP OR WRITE A NOVELLA?

instagr a m

a pp

novell a

These are all real student projects. Check them out.

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FIELDWORK OR LAB WORK?

lab no

field

HAVE YOU EVER DYED YOUR HAIR? y es

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ROCK OPERA

see a show

ON AN AFTERNOON IN THE CITY, I’D LIKE TO...

the wor k s

ta k e th e fer ry wa lk the highline

POETRY

cr e a m ch eese vega n

+

gluten - fr ee

CURATE AN EXHIBIT ca fé

STUDY IN A LIBRARY OR CAFÉ?

ca r negie h a ll

PERFORM IN CARNEGIE HALL OR SPEAK ON THE SENATE FLOOR?

senate floor

libr a ry

BROOKLYN OR MANHATTAN?

brook ly n

WRITE FOR A NEWSPAPER OR A LITERARY MAGAZINE?

actua l turtles

TURTLENECKS OR ACTUAL TURTLES?

m a n h atta n

tu rtlen eck s

SOUND SCULPTURE

ORGANIZE A CAMPAIGN

ADVOCACY REPORT

newspa per

PODCAST lit m ag

MARCH FOR CLIMATE CHANGE OR GUN VIOLENCE?

clim ate ch a nge

DATA ANALYSIS STUDY

gun violence

POLICY PROPOSAL

DORM DECOR OF CHOICE?

house pl a nt

pulitzer

ta pestry

EMMY, NOBEL, OR PULITZER PRIZE?

nobel emm y

DIRECT A SHOW OR TEACH A CLASS?

FIELD EXPERIMENT

cl a ss

show

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SCREENPLAY

ABSTRACT PLAY abstract 7

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PICTURED AT BRONXVILLE METRO-NORTH TRAIN STATION / PHOTO BY DON HAMERMAN

narratives

tinder kiely class of

2022

“

Journalism is all about studying the real world and how other people exist in it.”

Hometown Kent, CT Studies Journalism, Mandarin Pronouns He/him

u n in ter ested in con ven tiona l journalistic starting blocks, Tinder Kiely began building his investigative reporting portfolio at Sarah Lawrence right away. His first year, he penned an in-depth profile of a man who faced nine years of homelessness in New York for his writing class, “A Question of Character: The Art of the Profile.”

Tinder spent five full days interviewing his subject, producing a 15-page profile, utilizing both high-level feedback and line edits from his professor, former The New Yorker editor Alice Truax.

“It was the kind of class I wanted when I came to SLC,” Tinder said, “These really in-depth projects with a lot of individual support.”

Conference work is typically (and distinctively) done solo, but Tinder often finds himself teaming up with his peers for more ambitious projects. In “Food, Agriculture, Environment, and Development” with Joshua Muldavin, he collaborated with a classmate to interview farmers in Connecticut and Vermont.

“We looked at how climate change has affected farming in the last generation,” Tinder said. “When you’re out in the real world, you have to do collaborative work—plus, you totally learn from your peers. And you can tackle way more, like in Marek’s class.”

Tinder is referring to “Wrongly Accused” with former New York Times columnist Marek Fuchs, in which his class collectively researched and reported on people incarcerated for crimes they claim they didn’t commit. Students phoned lawyers and witnesses; read thousands of pages of case notes; and, in Tinder’s case, conducted an interview at a maximum-security prison.

Tinder’s professors offer advice from years of experience as working journalists, though Tinder also appreciates learning from faculty outside his main discipline. His faculty adviser (or “don,” as SLC calls them), Kevin Landdeck, is an Asian Studies professor who turned him onto Chinese during his First-Year Studies course.

“Even though Kevin isn’t a writing professor, he helped me find my way academically,” Tinder said. “I never thought I was going to study language, and now I’m planning to study abroad in China.”

Taking courses outside writing and exploring New York City exposed Tinder to narratives he might not have found otherwise, providing the foundation to seek out stories on his own.

“Journalism is all about studying the real world and how other people exist in it,” Tinder said. “Digital media is increasing accessibility to stories, so journalists need to keep finding new takes and experimenting.”

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in conference

Conference work, semesterlong projects conducted in tandem with course work,

First year Course “Art and Myth in Ancient Greece” with David Castriota

epitomizes a Sarah Lawrence education. Named for the biweekly “conferences” students have with their professors, conference projects invite creativity to meet academic rigor. Students bring their outside interests into each class and write research papers, short stories, poetry, experiment reports, or whatever else they might think of. Students typically graduate with a portfolio of 1215 conference projects specific to their academic interests and an arsenal of valuable research and writing skills.

Project The “Nature” of Female Devaluation in Ancient Greek Societies

hazel pritchard ’20 Hometown Milwaukee, WI Studies English Literature Pronouns She/her Conference works completed 18

Hazel Pritchard primarily studied literature during her four years at Sarah Lawrence, pulling in themes from her sociology classes to reflect on sexuality, feminism, gender performance, and nature.

While her conference projects didn’t always end up where they started (“I planned on writing a slice-of-life anthology series, and it became a satirical dystopian news podcast. Things change,” she said), she found her niche writing in-depth research papers and the occasional creative nonfiction essay—including a love letter to her English roots and tea culture.

With the steady guidance of her faculty mentors, Hazel found that, with each conference project, her writing and her confidence in her own opinions improved. The narrative evaluations she received in each class reflected her growth. “One of my professors called my writing ‘beautiful and strikingly intelligent,’” she said. “It was one of the nicest evaluations I’ve ever received!”

“

One of my professors called my writing ‘beautiful and strikingly intelligent.’ It was one of the nicest evaluations I’ve ever received!”

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PHOTO BY DON HAMERMAN

First year Course “I’m Not Making This Up: Writing Creative Nonfiction” Project Loose Leaf: A Tea Collection

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Senior year Course “Green Romanticisms: The Garden and the Wild” with Fiona Wilson Project Puppets in the Garden: Nature and Artifice in Angela Carter’s The Magic Toyshop

Senior year Course “Women, Culture and Politics in US History” with Lyde Cullen Sizer Project Always Falling in Love: The Problems of Marriage and Autonomy in Daughter of the Earth and Their Eyes Were Watching God

Sophomore year Course “Studies in the 19th-Century Novel” with Ilja Wachs Project Naturally Pure: Heroic Ruralism in Thomas Hardy’s Nature Novels

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inquiries

philip ording professor of mathematics

At Sarah Lawrence, students are encouraged to find connections between seemingly disparate disciplines; Philip Ording, whose work focuses on the intersections of mathematics and art, leads by example. He has served as a mathematics consultant to New York City artists since 2003 and, in 2019, published 99 Variations on a Proof—a monograph offering 99 proofs to the same theorem bringing in everything from architecture to sign language to social media to expand how readers think about a seemingly unremarkable equation.

What drew you to teach at Sarah Lawrence? Learning math is difficult. It’s a foreign language but without any of the foreign films or food or cities to enjoy. So, teaching and learning math has to be a shared act of imagination. At least that’s what I want from my seminars. Sarah Lawrence’s model of education makes it a very attractive place to do this. There’s a tradition here that values discussion over lecture, self-directed study over training, and collaboration over competition. I think that’s what drew me here.

But I’m also a geometer, so it could have been the circular seminar tables.

What does conference work look like in mathematics? It starts as a conversation.

If we met for conference, we’d begin with why you want to study math. Is it to apply math to another subject like economics, chemistry, or architecture? Is it the intellectual and emotional rewards of solving precise problems? Not every student has a ready answer, which is fine—math’s hold on me has certainly changed over time.

What’s important is that conference work in mathematics advances your mathematical interests. And it communicates the results of that progress to an academic audience— or at least to your seminar instructor and classmates.

ILLUSTRATION BY ANNA HIGGIE

“ Teaching and learning math has to be a shared act of imagination.”

Q A +

What inspires you about the intersections of mathematics and art? I think it’s similar to what inspires some of our students.

The first class I taught here was “Discrete Mathematics,” which is a seminar on problems of counting, structure, and logic. One student wanted to know what would happen if you added an extra note to the 12-tone chromatic scale that is basic to Western music. For conference, he made a synthesizer with 13 keys per octave; devised scales, chords, and compositions on it; and wrote a paper describing the give and take between mathematics and music that all this entailed. It was surprising, otherworldly, and just cool.

Did working on 99 Variations influence your teaching? I think so. What I remember about my favorite teachers is that nothing seemed abstract to them. They could describe an idea the way you’d describe a character in your best-loved movie or book. Not just with numbers, equations and figures, but also with color, metaphor and humor. Working on the 99 Variations gave me practice and a bit more confidence to teach with that kind of agility.

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Healing the Hudson For Sarah Lawrence students eager to put into practice what they’ve learned about environmental issues and urbanization in our classrooms and labs, interning at CURB is

often the natural next step. The Sarah Lawrence College Center for the Urban River at Beczak (CURB) is just four miles from campus, and relies on student research interns to help monitor the water quality of the Hudson River and its tributaries and to run educational programming for pre-K through high school students. SLC students work out of an EPA-certified lab on long-term studies that include collecting data on contaminants like enterococcus, tracking eel migration patterns for conservation efforts, and studying biodiversity of the regional fish populations. CURB collaborates with legislators and regional partners, using data-driven research to push for legislative change.

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PHOTO BY DANA MAXSON

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(un)archived The College’s archives offer a glimpse into Sarah Lawrence’s past and hints of its future.

By Lauren MacLean

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Wander down the spiral staircase in Esther Raushenbush Library and you’ll find the Sarah Lawrence College Archives, where nearly 100 years of history is preserved for research and reflection. Photos, manuscripts, news clippings, presidential papers, even theatre playbills offer a glimpse into past generations of Sarah Lawrence. The Archives protects the cultural and institutional memory of Sarah Lawrence, capturing what life was like during significant moments in the College’s history, both on-campus and beyond Westlands Gate. While it began as a junior college for white upperclass women, the Sarah Lawrence community has grown and changed over its 95-year history enrolling men, students of color, and international students. On the following pages, you’ll see how SLC students contributed to conservation during World War II, felt the impact of McCarthyism when our own professors were put on trial, and laid the foundation for Women’s History Month against the backdrop of the women’s liberation movement—continually working to create a diverse and welcoming campus for all, work that continues today. As we move through a significant historical moment, it’s worth looking back at a few of the moments that contributed to Sarah Lawrence’s lasting legacy of advocacy and progressivism.

CAROLINE PARSONS

1926 William Lawrence founded Sarah Lawrence College as a women’s liberal arts college in honor of his late wife, Sarah Bates Lawrence, with the first class arriving in 1928. Inspired by the Oxford system, the College pedagogy employed John Dewey’s progressive education model to encourage student and faculty collaboration, along with high levels of independent scholarship. Like today, students had frequent individual meetings with their professors to discuss their research projects.

1930 (Above) 117 students graduated in the Class of 1930, a record class size at the time.

(Right) During the Great Depression, economics students partnered with the nearby Yonkers and Tuckahoe housing authories to conduct five-week surveys in local communities; their data was used to help improve housing conditions.

(Below) Students work in the Publications Office.

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MARY MORRIS LAWRENCE

1936 Mary Morris

Lawrence, Class of 1934, was the first female photographer for the Associated Press. She returned to campus after graduation to capture beautiful scenes from the College’s earliest years.

RIZZOLLA PHOTO SERVICE

1942 During World War II, every American was expected to contribute to the war effort, and Sarah Lawrence students were no exception. The student War Board worked out of the enclosed gazebo, now known as the Teahaus, where students found work and service placement in the local community.

1943-44 In less than two years, students recycled approximately seven tons of paper and 2,400 tin cans and collected stockings and rags for reuse in the war effort to create things like rope, parachutes, and mosquito nets.

FRANCIS E. FALKENBURY, JR.

1946-51 While SLC didn’t officially become

co-educational for a few more years, our first male students enrolled under the GI Bill, which provided educational support to veterans after World War II.

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1951 During the era of McCarthyism, 18 current and former faculty members were accused of communist and subversive activities by the American Legion and US Senate. The SLC community was vocally and unwaveringly supportive of the accused faculty members—especially SLC President Harold Taylor, who publicly reiterated his commitment to intellectual and academic freedom on college campuses.

1941-55 Never a community to shy

away from harsh realities, economics and social science students participated in field trips to the Tennessee Valley Authority to learn about life and economic realities in the rural segregated south. Students were given a firsthand look at the role of agriculture in the national economy, and how governmental agencies influenced programs related to the social needs of the region.

1960 Against the backdrop of GARY GLADSTONE

the civil rights movement and mounting national protests to end whites-only lunch counters, students coordinated a picket and boycott of the Bronxville Woolworth’s.

1968 The College officially became fully coeducational—it wasn’t the first time male students were on-campus, though. In addition to male students admitted through the GI Bill, graduate programs admitted men since their inception in 1949. abstract 19

ROSEMARY QUESADA-WEINER

1970 Students participated

in the National Student Strike against the war in Vietnam, along with students from 450 other colleges and high schools.

1972 Gerda Lerner

GARY GLADSTONE

(center) founded the Women’s History Graduate Program, the first of its kind in the United States.

1975 Recognizing the value of self-expression, the Theatre Outreach program was founded to share different artforms with local schools, community centers, museums, libraries, hospitals, and prisons.

Students led lessons in writing, acting, singing, and improv.

1979 Leaders from prominent

national women’s organizations convened for SLC’s Summer Institute for Women’s History, resulting in, among other things, the successful lobbying of the US Congress to designate an official National Women’s History Week—which we still celebrate today as National Women’V3 s History Month.

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SVEN MARTSON

1988 During her commencement address, Toni

Morrison encouraged graduates to avoid “comic book solutions to biblical problems in nuclear times.”

“

I want to talk about the activity you are always warned against as being wasteful, impractical, hopeless. I want to talk about dreaming ... engaged, direct daytime vision.

About entrance into another space.”

—Toni Morrison

1995 (Above) Regina Arnold founded the Right-to-Write program, where students collaborate with writing faculty to facilitate reading and writing workshops with incarcerated people at a nearby correctional facility. The program continues to offer workshops and classes in Westchester and Yonkers.

(Left) students studying in their dorm.

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Fall Fest

traditions

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Each October, students

congregate for a weekend of quintessential northeastern autumn activities–plus a few less traditional larks, like braving the mechanical bull or gracing the bouncy castle with their best grande jeté.

WSLC radio and student bands play against a backdrop of pumpkin carving, pieeating contests, and orchard-fresh candy-apple dipping. You might even catch SLC President Cristle Collins Judd swinging by to help with your leaf art.

ILLUSTRATION BY MARTIN HAAKE

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navigating admission

Filed Away Sam L. The admission committee isn’t just looking at what grades you earned, but also how you challenged yourself based on what courses were available to you.

aca demic s Sam is interested in studying history,

environmental science, and public policy. Sam has consistently taken a challenging curriculum made up of honors and AP courses. All A’s so far in senior year, and generally an A/B student across the board. eng agemen t Sam has taken on a number of leadership

opportunities, completed some impressive internships (including one at a refugee organization), founded an interfaith group in high school, is part of Model UN and

This student had a clear thread of engagement and interests around cross-cultural dialogues, a value SLC definitely embraces.

a sustainability org. Worked as an assistant teacher at synagogue every weekend. voice Personal essay contains one of the most striking

Essays that let us know how you think and approach problems are really helpful.

opening lines I’ve read in an application, and Sam’s instinct for sharp, concise sentences is evident throughout the entire piece. Essay discusses challenging self to hear various and opposing points of view, even if position remains unchanged. sl c f it The same applies to the supplemental essay,

which explores Sam’s passion for Yiddish language and

Each reader will note their vote for a file, and if there’s a difference between the first and second reader votes, the committee discusses the case together.

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What you say is just as important as how you say it!

Let your voice and your story come through your writing itself.

culture. Is interested in working with SLC professor Glenn Dynner. vot e Strong admit.

It’s great when students have clearly done their research on SLC and understand how their interests intersect with what we offer.

In the midst of a stressful selective

admission process, we can’t fault students for asking, What are admission counselors actually thinking as they page through my application? The admission counselors at Sarah Lawrence College don’t see the need to maintain the mystery.

At the end of traditional admission cycles, they share “reader notes” with admitted students, letting them know exactly what went through the counselors’ heads while reading the student’s files.

Internally, admission committee members use reader notes to share observations with each other in three key areas: academics, engagement, and voice. This looks very different for every student, and there’s no magic formula

we’re looking for—Sarah Lawrence isn’t a box-checking place, and neither is the admission office. In a holistic admission process, different parts of the application don’t hold predetermined weights (the transcript isn’t worth X%, the essay Y%). Counselors understand each page of the application in the context of the pages preceding it. At least two counselors read each application and discuss them all in committee, where the overall diversity of the class is considered and admission decisions are made.

These pages share two sets of reader notes based on real Sarah Lawrence applicants, noting both the content of their applications and the glimmers of SLC-ness that we saw.

Jaimie W. Admission counselors make sure to note important pieces of context, like moves, family events, and school disruptions.

aca demic s Jaimie transferred to Smith High School

sophomore year, taking a very demanding curriculum that includes AP Stats and AP Lit. Interested in studying economics, writing, and computer science. eng agemen t Works 10hpw as culinary assistant

(25wpy since 9th). Played cello since elementary school and writes for school paper. Started a catering business for neighborhood gatherings four years ago.

Your Common App essay is the one you send to every school on your list, and we understand that the topic might not be as specific as your supplemental pieces.

Reader notes aren’t formal documents, so you’ll notice abbreviations (‘hpw’ = hours per week, ‘wpy’ = weeks per year) and even the occasional typo.

voice Writes CA essay about cooking as an escape, a

place to hone foundational skills while developing new ones.

Fresh pasta and galettes have distracted Jaimie through difficult times while learning patience. Nicely written and only made me a little hungry! sl c f it Writes a supplemental essay with ideas for

food-related conference work—love it! Wants to create sustainable meals for environmental science class, prepare dishes to represent each character in an Austen novel for lit

Food and cooking are really clear threads in this application, but even more evident is creativity.

course, etc. Connects to sharing learning with peers and prof.

Had a quality conversation with senior interviewer:

The best applications don’t require any creative license on our end!

“Jaimie is evidently a creative learner; one of their favorite assignments was rewriting Alanis Morrisette’s ‘Ironic’ to include scenes from Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale.” Easy for me to picture Jaimie at SLC.

Interview write-ups come up toward the end of your application, and we usually don't find anything too surprising.

vot e Strong admit.

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narratives

mia jimenez class of

2020

Hometown Naperville, IL Studies Writing, literature Pronouns They/them

a s a w r iter , Mia Jimenez elevates voices often excluded

“

Half the class is SLC students, half the class is incarcerated women, and we’re all writing poetry and receiving college credit.

We’re all coming from really different places, and we don’t ignore that.”

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from mainstream narratives. As a public policy advocate, Mia knows the on-the-ground impact hearing those stories can have.

“I’m gathering experiences from marginalized sex workers— so, trans sex workers, sex workers of color, disabled or nonneurotypical people,” Mia said about their conference for “Narrative Journalism in the Age of S-Town and Other Serialized Podcasts” with writing professor and working journalist Ann Heppermann.

Mia produced a series of nuanced podcast episodes, bringing together stories at the intersections of marginalized identities.

“Too often, you only hear these stories after something horribly violent has happened,” Mia said. “The conversation needs to be so much more complex—the end goal is decriminalization.”

Mia is grateful for classroom experiences that prepared them to talk about big ideas, even with someone who “totally disagrees with you,” especially in public policy professor Luisa Heredia’s class, “The Politics of Illegality, Surveillance, and Protest.” Mia’s conference paper focused on mental health in undocumented communities in Chicago, where young activists are working to flip the script about the undocumented experience.

“Youth activists combated the silence that the generation before us was taught. Now people come out and say ‘I am undocumented and proud,’” Mia said.

Mia wasn’t content to write about communities from afar; during their senior year, Mia spent Wednesday evenings at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women, writing poetry alongside incarcerated women under writing professor Suzanne Gardinier’s guidance.

“Half the class is SLC students, half the class is incarcerated women, and we’re all writing poetry and receiving college credit,” Mia said. “We’re all coming from really different places, and we don’t ignore that.”

Mia remembers realizing the complexity of their own personal identity during their first year at SLC. Their literature and poetry conference work often reflected on gender and racial identity, and they tried to convey those ideas to their mother, who passed away about a year before Mia graduated.

“When I look back on a lot of my writing, it’s always connected to my mom and gender and sexuality and trying to come out to her in different ways, trying to navigate our relationship.” Mia said.

PICTURED IN ANDREWS COURT / PHOTO BY DON HAMERMAN

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23. American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)

22. HarperCollins Publishers

21. The New Yorker Magazine

20. Center for Italian Modern Art

19. Comedy Central

18. Annie Leibovitz’s Studio

17. Food Network Magazine

16. Writers House, Literary Agency

15. UNICEF

14. Climate Museum

13. US Senator Kirsten Gillibrand

12. Amnesty International USA

11. HBO

10. ViacomCBS

9. Simon & Schuster

8. Late Night with Seth Meyers

7. New York-Presbyterian Hospital

6. Penguin Random House

5. ELLE Magazine

4. Full Frontal with Samantha Bee

3. Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts

2. American Museum of Natural History

1. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum

RECENT INTERNSHIPS

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New York Minute

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is a mere 15 miles from the heart of Manhattan, making it easy for hundreds of SLC students to take advantage of internships there each year. Students can receive academic credit for internships during the school year, along with funding to offset commuting costs. The Office of Career Services works with students to connect them with companies and organizations in NYC, though SLC students aren’t a hard sell—they’re well-known for their comprehensive research skills, professionalism, and creativity when it comes to tackling large-scale projects.

Sarah Lawrence’s Bronxville campus

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ILLUSTRATION BY ZOE MORE O'FERRALL

Toward the end of the fall semester, Bronxville trades saturated foliage for snow flurries that transform Sarah Lawrence’s 42-acre campus into a snow globe.

December dustings provide picturesque reprieves from late nights in the library, though average winter temperatures remain above freezing. To those uninitiated with colder weather or the delicate art of layering, never fear: Sarah Lawrence’s climate is West Coast-approved, with more students hailing from California than from anywhere else (besides New York).

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PICTURED ABOVE THE REMY THEATRE / PHOTO BY DON HAMERMAN

PHOTO (ABOVE) BY DON HAMERMAN

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Keeping Score SLC’s athletic community is as diverse as our wider one, made up of athletes with academic interests ranging from journalism and music to theatre and math. Scholar-athletes are always students first, but don’t mistake an emphasis on academics for a lack of competition.

Of course, there are athletic facilities available to the entire SLC community, including dance studios, a fitness center, squash courts, an elevated jogging track, rowing tanks, and a six-lane pool.

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15 DIVISION III TEAMS

M en’s Basketball M en’s Cross Country C o-Ed Equestrian M en’s Soccer M en’s Tennis M en’s Volleyball W omen’s Basketball

W omen’s Crew W omen’s Cross Country W omen’s Soccer W omen’s Softball W omen’s Swimming W omen’s Tennis W omen’s Volleyball PHOTO BY QUYEN NGUYEN

JIM O'CONNOR

JIM O'CONNOR

2

TONY CORREA

LORI RAKOCZY

6

QUYEN NGUYEN

DANA MAXSON

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inquiries

michelle hersh professor of biology

Bronxville is touted for its proximity to Manhattan, but Michelle Hersh is grateful for Sarah Lawrence’s easy access to the Hudson River, where a rich ecosystem serves as an extension of her on-campus lab. Michelle is a community ecologist looking at the ways different species interact and the mechanisms maintaining biodiversity. Students play an active role in her research on plant diseases, both in her lab and classes like “Environmental Metagenomics.”

How would you describe the dynamics in a Sarah Lawrence classroom? SLC classes are dependent on not only what I bring to the table, but what all of the students bring, as well. Every time I teach a class it’s unique, because student perspectives shape our seminar discussions.

Students are working collaboratively, whether they’re culturing bacteria or measuring trees at a nature preserve.

What are some of the research methods students in your labs and courses are exposed to? Students are involved in every aspect of my work, from field work to highthroughput DNA sequencing to statistical analyses. When I teach “Ecology,” I take students to collect data in parks and field stations all over the county: We catch fish in the Hudson River, measure and identify trees, and find insects and salamanders in streams.

The labs are designed to give the students the tools they need to design and carry out their own field experiment for their conference work.

What does conference work look like for your courses? Some students use journal articles to research a topic they are excited about. Others will design and carry out an experiment in my lab, often involving fungi, bacteria, or other microorganisms. I’ve also had short stories, plays, films, art projects … you name it.

ILLUSTRATION

BY ANNA HIGGIE CREDIT TK

A student in “Global Change Biology” made a fabric out of bacteria from a kombucha scoby. One student in my “Symbiosis” course wrote a story about humans getting infected by Cordyceps fungi, the so-called “zombie ant fungus.” Someone in my “Evolutionary Biology” course is writing fictionalized accounts of how dragons might evolve from flying snakes and bats. Some memorable experiments include sampling bacterial communities from the soils on campus green roofs and testing soils from community gardens in Yonkers.

Q A +

“ The environmental problems we are facing are not going to be solved by science alone.”

What do you hope students take away from your classes? The environmental problems we are facing are not going to be solved by science alone. We need to look at policy, economics, and social impacts. And we need to change hearts and minds to involve the general public. Everyone has an important role to play from their own personal choices, to work in science, in policy and education, or through the influence of the creative and performing arts.

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narratives

bele edeoga class of

2020

“

Sometimes you realize, yes, you formed the wrong opinion; and that is a bit of a letdown, but it’s still rewarding.”

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Hometown Jos, Nigeria Studies Political economy, Chinese, Spanish Pronouns She/her

bele edeog a’s in ter est in the relationship between colonialism and economics took her halfway around the world to study abroad in Shanghai and her course schedule through seemingly half the departments at Sarah Lawrence. She has studied international relations, taken two languages, dabbled in Classics, and even took a podcasting course her senior year—each discipline allowing her to tackle her interests from a new angle.

Bele analyzed colonialism in several geographic contexts, finding connective threads particularly between Latin America and Africa as early as her First-Year Studies course, “The Problem of Empire: A History of Latin America” with Margarita Fajardo.

“We looked at the impact and legacy of colonialism in Latin America,” Bele said. “My conference work looked at the history of Cuba pre-colonialism and then, present day, looked at its policy with Afrocubanos.”

Bele gravitated toward research papers, building on previous conference work and making interdisciplinary connections.

“My independent study senior year was on the relationship between the Chinese government and the entertainment industry, looking particularly at censorship,” Bele said. “I had looked at the topic when I studied abroad in Shanghai, but from a different focus—then I was looking at censorship around religion.”

During a macroeconomics class her junior year, Bele created a business plan modeled on the makeup industry, connecting external economic and legislative factors—like minimum wage laws and tax rates—to her company’s decision making.

“I was basically doing a five-year projected plan for the company,” she said. “It was really interesting, because I was able to research the various regulations and laws for the makeup industry.”

Bele has found that the research process is often as valuable as the research itself, and she isn’t afraid to learn from missteps.

“Sometimes you realize, yes, you formed the wrong opinion; and that is a bit of a letdown, but it’s still rewarding,” Bele said. “I did work on China’s impact in Africa—I wanted to do it initially on Nigeria, because that’s where I’m from; but there wasn’t enough literature, so I had to find another angle.”

Never afraid to seek help or make mistakes, Bele is confident she’s ready to take her academics into the real world.

“I think the core of what SLC teaches is being independent, being able to talk about your opinions and form an opinion, and having enough sources to cite and back up your opinions.”

PICTURED IN THE ESTHER RAUSHENBUSH LIBRARY / PHOTO BY DON HAMERMAN

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Each first-year student is assigned a don (SLC-speak for faculty adviser), who provides mentorship and guidance to students as they create their own program of study. Most students meet with their don every week during their first year, adapting the frequency later to fit their needs.

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PICTURED IN THE LIVING ROOM OF THE BARBARA WALTERS CAMPUS CENTER / PHOTO BY DON HAMERMAN

areas of study

Sarah Lawrence’s open curriculum means that

students aren’t in a class to check a requirement-mandated box—rather, they’re seated at the round seminar table because of a genuine interest in the subject matter of the course. No two students study exactly the same thing, creating a rich environment diverse in both experience and pedagogy. Faculty advisers ensure students take advantage of both breadth and depth in their course selections and that they push themselves to make connections and learn outside their comfort zones.

Undergraduate Programs Africana Studies Anthropology Architecture and Design Studies Art History Art of Teaching* Asian Studies Biology Chemistry Child Development* Chinese Classics Cognitive and Brain Science Computer Science Dance Development Studies Economics Engineering (Five-Year BA/BS with Columbia University) Environmental Studies Ethnic and Diasporic Studies Film History Filmmaking and Moving Image Arts French Games, Interactive Art, and New Genres Gender and Sexuality Studies

Geography German Greek (Ancient) Health, Science, and Society History International Studies Italian Japanese Latin Latin American and Latino/a Studies Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies Literature Mathematics Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies Music Music History Philosophy Physics Political Economy Politics Pre-Law Pre-Med and Pre-Health Psychology Public Policy Religion

*Five-year bachelor’s and master’s degree programs available

Professors provide narrative evaluations (plus traditional letter grades) that describe what the student brought to the table and how they grew throughout the course. These evaluations often provide a basis for recommendation letters for jobs and internships.

Robotics Russian Science, Technology, and Society Sociology Spanish Theatre Urban Studies Visual and Studio Arts (Digital Imagery, Drawing, Game Design, Painting, Photography, Printmaking, Sculpture) Women’s History* Women’s Studies Writing

Graduate Programs The Art of Teaching* Child Development* Dance Dance/Movement Therapy Health Advocacy Human Genetics Theatre Women’s History* Writing Dual Degree: Health Advocacy and Social Work with NYU Dual Degree: Social Work and Child Development with NYU Joint Degree: Women’s History and Law with Pace University

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quips

Q A +

evan suzuki Where are you from? Langley, WA! On Whidbey Island, near Seattle.

Favorite class at SLC? Too many to list.

I would start with “Self-Experimentation: Cultures of New Media” with Una Chung or “Creative Impulse” with Sibyl Kempson. But I will never forget my First-Year Studies with Lyde Sizer, either.

Reason you most recently took a trip to the City? To perform in a dance piece in Brooklyn.

How did you meet your closest friend(s) on campus? A lot through working on different performances together! Finding people whom I really enjoy collaborating with artistically but also as friends has been one of the most rewarding aspects of my Sarah Lawrence experience. But there are a couple of people from my FYS whom I’m still really good friends with, too.

What's your greatest extravagance?

Riverdale. I'm not ashamed.

A class you never thought you’d take?

“More or Less: Architectural Theories from Modern to Contemporary.”

What word or phrase do you most overuse?

“Vibe.”

Describe your don in 10 words or less. Thoughtful,

supportive, one of the most brilliant people I've met.

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Class of 2020 Pronouns: He/him

What do you wish you could tell your senior-year-in-high-school self? You actually don’t really know how to read and write yet, even though you think you do— and that’s okay. Oh, and take a language in college.

Most impressive-sounding conference project title? “Poetic Madness / Exquisite Pathos: Typologies of Gothic Space in Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle.”

How do your friends describe you?

Hardworking, independent, with a dry sense of humor.

What’s the last thing you had to tell everyone about? This video on YouTube from 2009 of a guy making grapefruit ginger juice underneath an RV.

Favorite internship/summer job? Working at HERE Arts Center in Soho—I met so many cool artists! But I also worked at a cheese shop one summer, and that was fun.

Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

The dream would be to be making my own creative work, in a place that I love, with people who inspire me.

ILLUSTRATION BY ANNA HIGGIE CREDIT TK

CREDIT TK

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Continuing its longstanding policy to actively support equality of opportunity for all persons, Sarah Lawrence College does not discriminate on the basis of race, sex, color, sexual orientation, gender identity or its expression, disability, religion, age, veteran status, or national or ethnic origin in its admissions, employment, educational policies, scholarship or other financial aid programs, or in access to other College-administered programs. Sarah Lawrence affirms that it admits students and selects employees regardless of race, sex, color, sexual orientation, gender identity or its expression, disability, religion, age, veteran status, or national or ethnic origin and thereafter accords them all the rights and privileges generally made available to students or employees at the College. The College is strongly committed to basing judgments about individuals solely upon their qualifications and abilities and to protecting individual rights of privacy, association, belief, and expression.

Connect your passions. Create your future.

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