Continental Magazine Spring 2025 by The Continental Magazine

CONTRIBUTORS

Editors-in-Chief

Stella Essenmacher ‘25

Creative Directors

Lillian Foley ‘27

Brennan Cunnigham ‘28

On the Hill Editor

Kate Thum ‘28

Travel Editor

Ava Cargan ‘27

Features Editor

Zoe Neely ‘25

Opinion Editor

Emma DiGiacomo ‘25

Lifestyle Editor

Sylvia Woodbury ‘27

Ellie Carlson ‘27

Photography Director

Jeffrey Cheng ‘25

Social Media Manager

Oliver Jackson ‘27

Cover Art

Front: Annie Huang ‘27

Back: Eniman Imoke ‘26

Writers

Andrew Brennan ‘25

Ford Collins ‘26

Lily Manning ‘27

Liv Todd ‘25

Caro Cerecero ‘28

Sabrina Grossman ‘28

Photographers

Katie Kilcoyne ‘26

Jasper DeWitt ‘27

Oliver Jackson ‘27

Maeve Browne ‘25

Andrew Hadden ‘25

Merch Team

Artist: Zoe Neely ‘25

Jeffrey Cheng ‘25

Emma DiGiacomo ‘25

Letter from the Editors

Dear beloved readers,

We could not be more proud to present you with the Spring 2025 issue of The Continental Magazine. We offer you tales of exploring Hamilton’s hidden spots on campus like the tunnels and cemetery, break down concerns that are close to the hearts of students, faculty, and administrators, and highlight some of the unique opportunities and people that call this place home. With the colder months and long darkness, it seems that we all found some time for reflection and conversation, and we hope that our musings might inspire you to question your surroundings as well.

A further goal of ours was to build our name recognition on campus and expand our readership. We held a cover design competition and were excited to receive 26 submissions from the extremely talented graphic designers and photographers on campus we didn’t even know were out there. Annie Huang won with her breathtaking submission that is featured on our front cover.

We are also thrilled about the LAWNch PARTY being thrown on May 4 from 4-6 pm at Beinecke Village, complete with lawn games, the Mangia Macrina food truck, and our very own merch giveaway. Thank you to Zoe Neely for her incredible merch design and our whole merch team for making our dreams come true.

In the fall, we are excited to welcome back the hilarious and creative Will Kretz as Co-Editor in Chief. He has been abroad this semester and was dearly missed. The same goes for the incredible Vivian Miller and Morgan Hodorowski, who will be returning as editors. Thank you to everyone who has played a part in getting this fantastic issue to print. We hope you enjoy reading it as much as we loved making it!

Yours truly,

Stella and Ellie Editors-in-Chief

STUDENT SPOTLIGHT: BRENDAN STEWART

BY EMMA DIGIACOMO

Photo courtesy of Brendan Stewart

When preparing for his first summer as a wilderness firefighter, Brendan engaged in physically demanding training. Brendan hiked, often through the Glen, with weights in a backpack that were meant to mimic the supplies that would be carried in the field. Brendan continued his work the following summer, joining a crew that were called in to more intense fires as a Speciality Resource. Therefore, the preparation was focused on trail running to build endurance. A typical day for a wilderness firefighter requires long hours in dangerous, life-threatening situations. Brendan described how there was a morning briefing delivered to the crew following wake-up in camp. The briefing included a report on the state of a

his personal experience, Brendan noted how his former coworkers were part of the team who fought the fires. Brendan also lamented how atypical it is for so many homes to be burned, especially in a wealthier income region like the Palisades. In a similar vein, it is noteworthy that when high profile personalities are affected, there is disproportionate media attention given to the tragedy as opposed to more remote regions. Brendan emphasized how these types of wildfires are occurring constantly, so hopefully the increased coverage of the California tragedy will increase attention to fires affecting more rural, less affluent areas.

By Sylvia Woodbury

DELVING INTO...

ANIMALS IN ART FROM THE WELLIN MUSEUM

Ifhumans can be described as having “humanity” — some sort of quintessential but amorphous blend of self-awareness, metacognition, empathy, and agency — what, then, is animality? Undoubtedly, animals possess intelligence. But, often, animal intelligence doesn’t mesh with human intelligence. We can communicate with animals only in the most rudimentary ways, such as through body language, physical touch, or commands (sit! jump! roll over! play dead!). Are animals kin or others to us? Are they our inferiors, or our betters? What animality represents is the subject of “Menagerie: Animals in Art,” the Wellin Museum’s weighty and potent new show, on view through June 8. With such an enormous wealth of depictions to draw from, it’s no surprise that the exhibition is an eclectic combination of cultures, time periods, mediums, and forms with everything from paintings to sculptures, prints, photographs, sketches, and garments.

As Liz Shannon, the Wellin’s Collections Curator, was investigating the museum’s collection during the bleak quiet of the COVID pandemic, she noticed the prominence of animal representations among the Wellin’s holdings. An exhibition concentrating on “animals in art” would allow the museum to display a diverse variety of objects united by a common, approachable theme. “I wanted to find a theme that was super broad, super accessible, would really enable anybody hopefully to come in and connect with an object, and animals just seemed like such a great — and maybe

a bit obvious — choice,” explained Shannon. Animals are an instantly relatable topic; every one of us has a pet story or a narrative of an encounter with a wild animal. The oldest figurative artwork, over 51,000 years old, is a cave painting of a wild pig surrounded by hunters, an interaction that captures the fraught complexity that has characterized animal-human relations since our ancestors began to craft weapons. Nowadays, this tension often manifests in the ever-intensifying specter of climate change and pollution. Our collective climate anxiety charges the exhibition with a sense of urgency that imbues otherwise bucolic works — like the French photographer Laure Albin-Guillot’s pastoral of a donkey and a flock of geese by a pond, La Mare — with an edge of unease. One could almost imagine a smoke-spewing factory or a clogged highway lurking beyond the confines of the frame. The inert serenity of the scene seems to presage its destruction.

Meanwhile, the show’s title, “Menagerie,” slyly injects into the exhibition a critique of the power imbalance between humans and animals whose ecosystems we exploit for profit and whose bodies we render into products for consumption. In the 17th century, menageries were collections of usually exotic animals displaying the opulence and influence of their aristocratic owners. Later, menageries became traveling spectacles. Exotic animals, imprisoned in tiny cages, were abused and neglected. If the animals of “Menagerie” make up the exhibition, then visitors are voyeurs. “Menagerie is

not a neutral term, but it does kind of broadly reflect what we’re doing, which is basically presenting a group of different animals which have been brought together for display and study,” said Shannon. “Menageries were owned by people of great wealth and power too, and we’re on a campus of an institution that does have some money and some power, so that’s also not entirely inappropriate.”

The exhibition loosely groups different works by theme. As a placard explains, certain Mesoamerican cultures venerated jaguars as symbols of power and war, and viewed birds as “mediators between men and deities” which acted as “guides for souls on their journey to the underworld.” Vessels depicting these creatures nestle side by side with effigy jars sculpted to resemble domesticated animals, well-fed and collared, with shortened tails that may indicate docking. Reverence shades into a more mundane kind of adoration; the supernatural coexists with the prosaic. “One of the ideas that is underlining the entire show . . . is just this idea of tolerance and coming to an understanding that different cultures, different time periods have different attitudes to the treatment of animals,” explained Shannon. Another section is dedicated to illustrations and photographs of bullfighting. One photograph, captured by Swiss photojournalist Yvan Dalain, is titled “During the faena, beauty must never cease to be effective.” The faena is the final part of the bullfight, after which the matador kills the bull.

While preparing the show, the Wellin team also made new purchases, hunting through art fairs, magazines, and the web to sniff out unique, multifaceted pieces that might provide new perspectives on the exhibition’s theme. “We really wanted a plurality of voices in terms of makers and artists,” said Shannon. A new acquisition from the Japanese-Canadian paper and printmaker Alexa Kumiko Hatanaka, Koinobori (eggs in the belly), acts as the centerpiece of the show. In Japan, streamers shaped like carp, or koinobori, are “traditionally flown to celebrate Children’s Day on May 5.” Hatanaka’s koinobori, which she sewed from washi, rice bags, and homemade gampi paper, is large, multi-colored, and intricately detailed, with a round, staring eye, bright blue and yellow scales, and long tassel-like streamers for fins. Because the traditional process of making washi paper sustainably utilizes water and land, as the label elucidates, the work tacitly expresses a steadfast dedication to preserving endangered environments and fading artistic practices. The piece, refreshingly, communicates hope for a possible future in which humans and animals have become truly symbiotic, in which concern and respect for animalkind has inspired us to better ourselves and our planet. But I can also imagine a future in which representations and portrayals are most of what remains of animality, in which an exhibition like this becomes a tally of our losses rather than a celebration of life.

Sustainability Coordinator: Leaf Them Alone

Zoe Neely

The Hamilton Sustainability Coordinators (HSC) are a group of roughly 16 paid students who work about five to ten hours per week on sustainability initiatives on campus. There are four subcategories of the agency: Food Waste, Forestry and Land, Social Media, and Education and Outreach. Eileen Bussiere ‘25 is one of four Co-Leaders of the organization and mainly focuses on Forestry and Land.

Bussiere has been a major part of Hamilton’s reforestation project. “Hamilton has over 1,000 acres of land, a lot of which are or were previously agricultural plots. So we have bought back some of that land from renters. And one of the plots specifically has been out of commission for a while, so we thought it would be a good area to start testing out reforestation. I’ve helped a lot with not only the planting, but the maintenance and also the administrative side of getting grants and stuff for it,” said Bussiere. Another one of HSC’s forestry initiatives is the Green Attributes Project that focuses on converting highly maintained land into more naturalized areas. For example, there are two plots at Minor Field that have recently been converted into pollinator gardens to help with better carbon sequestration as Hamilton attempts to approach carbon neutrality by 2030.

When it comes to the organization’s driving goals, HSC really wants to find a way to get students to change their mentality about what it means to be sustainable and also what sustainability can look like on a campus wide scale. Bussiere said, “It can feel daunting to take on a project, and I think we’re really trying to push this idea that if you have a vision, it is completely within your grasp. And the Hamilton faculty and professors will really help bring these ideas to fruition.”

Bringing any of HSC’s projects to life requires partnership with many different stakeholders and organizations on campus. “When it comes to Facilities Management, if it weren’t for their support, none of what we do would be accomplished,” Bussiere said. And HSC is always looking for new partnerships. Bussiere added, “I think the main thing about the agency that makes us really special is that we’re very eager to work with people and we’re not afraid to reach out.”

One of the most visible projects from HSC was the Green Container Initiative on campus, which was met with initial pushback from the student body. When asked what it was like to roll that program out Bussiere said, “It was tough at first. I think it took a while for people to, you know, not have the leniency to just go outside with their plate. Because that’s what the norm was, but I think once we got our partners to fully support this idea, it really worked to get that initiative going. Now our culture regarding it has changed a lot, which I’m really happy about.”

One misconception Bussiere wants to dispel about HSC and sustainability is the idea that individual actions don’t mean anything, especially on such a small campus. “There’s only two thousand people here, and if you get a certain number of people to change their habits on, say, single use paper plates or cups, that creates such a change. So I think people need to understand that even the smallest efforts are really crucial.” Additionally, many people assume sustainability efforts are really costly, but Bussiere says that in reality they’re helping to save money and energy.

If you’re interested in getting involved with HSC, watch for their emails and attend one of their events, such as a tree planting, or submit an application to become a sustainability coordinator later this semester!

ONE JANUARY AT A TIME

By Kate Thum

Photo: Eniman Imoke

“It has been January for months in both directions,” is, I’m sure, a quote of John Green’s that most of us can relate to quite easily. This winter wasn’t an easy one. It was harsh winds, and no sun, and wearing layers and layers of clothing surrounded by layers and layers of snow. The two snow days — impressively back-to-back despite this historically not being the case — were a much needed reprieve for students in the no-break month of February. Hamilton students went snowshoeing, baked cookies, got together for movie marathons, and built igloos in Minor Field.

The whole campus didn’t just decide to take the snow days off, though. Study rooms from Root Hall to the Taylor Science Center were booked by students studying for exams, catching up on work from being sick, or even getting ahead in their assignments to prepare for the following week.

Ask any student on campus what they’re doing any given day, and the answer is probably work. It’s usually homework or studying, sometimes it’s paid work, but it almost always means they’ll be busy for the entire day. So, of course students will complain about their workloads — it’s a shared experience of stress, a community built from exhaustion, but it’s also one that recognizes its privilege.

The work that we do on this campus is largely by choice. The majority of it is hours spent poring over textbooks and materials that we are, at the end of the day, interested in learning about. No one chooses to attend a prestigious liberal arts college for the purpose of going to parties or for the purpose of relaxing with friends. We’re all here (or most of us, at least) because there’s something we crave for our future and we know this is the place we can get it.

While it’s fun to party on the weekends, there’s a reason Hamilton isn’t a party school. The people who attend are determined people, even those who have yet to declare a major, and are here for the purpose of educating themselves. When we are in the busy part of the semester, it takes more effort to find time to relax with friends, and I find that often group study sessions or getting dinner with a friend are the way to go. This is the college we chose and we all chose it for a reason.

In my experience during a busy week, free time dwindles until the weather is described as “lovely” only by those who frequent the Glen House, but that doesn’t mean this semester has been wasted. Sometimes the reality is that a day just wasn’t good, that a week just wasn’t fun or wasn’t productive or went by too quickly or felt like it would never end, but then we all remember why we’re here.

Sometimes we wake up and the air feels right, the bustle on Martin’s Way is endearing, and the heaps of snow, the trees that look like chandeliers in the nighttime, the lights along “Our Village,” the occasional shriek of laughter, just makes us smile. Sometimes we do find a moment to talk with friends in KJ, we read a chapter in one of our books, we get just the right compliment from a stranger, and we remember why we chose this college.

This winter wasn’t an easy one. We can’t lose sight of the future we’re all working towards. Some of us work towards it collectively, some of us have more individual plans, some of us still don’t know exactly what we want, but we still know why we’re here. “It has been January for months in both directions,” but we’ll get to the future one day.

Exploring Hamilton’s Tunnels

By Ford Harrison Layout and Photo: Jasper DeWitt

Hidden beneath Hamilton’s campus lies...

a series of tunnels: unseen, yet ever-present. “There’s a small hatch in the back that you have to open and crawl through.” That was the only hint I had been given to begin my search for the tunnels running below the grounds of KJ and List. I had first heard of the tunnels in the spring of my freshman year during a long bout of storms that kept a majority of the student population from enjoying time outdoors. The stories I heard back then mirrored the gloominess of the weather—myths of dank, dark passages that twisted and turned beneath the ground of Darkside. In order to write a story expounding the mythos of the tunnels in a proper, investigative way, I thought it best to compile whatever background had been developed by Hamiltonians in years past, which meant reading old stories submitted by alums.

Most of what I found consisted of mysteries on the Hill that revealed older generations’ preoccupations with paranormal activity: campfire stories that seem to linger upon the wind that blows up over the crux of our hill. One memorable tale spoke of a dedicated professor, buried in the graveyard on the east side of campus, who would supposedly intrude upon conversations amongst students if the subject were enough to stir them from purgatory. Even more stories spoke of the other graveyard residents that seemed to pop in from time to time to bring a sense of fear and excitement to the lives of students. To me, they simply brought new renditions of my own fears that almost prevented me from entering what I now presumed to be a haunted system of tunnels that would run endlessly beneath campus.

Before the irrational fear could prevent me from acting, I channeled Theseus and stepped into the possible labyrinth beyond the hatch. I found myself standing within a rather normal hallway leading to a set of double doors. The hallway seemed so normal I felt a brief sense of disappointment at not seeing a floating specter at the other end.

I continued towards the doors, feeling as though I had made a mistake and simply entered an active part of the regular campus. But I pressed on, hoping there weren’t many other places on campus that had to be accessed through a hatch.

I breached the doors at the other side of the hallway without breaking stride, entering into yet another hallway lined with lockers on both sides. The lighting coupled with the abandoned lockers did add some degree of suspense to the tunnels, but not enough for me to give any merit to the stories written by alums of the many hauntings on campus. Rooms that supposedly housed doomed souls were just ordinary classrooms, cluttered with chairs and desks. Other rooms had clearly been used for music classes in generations prior to ours, but did not seem the least bit haunted by hymns of the past. What had previously appeared to insist on evidence of Hamilton’s mysterious past now appeared to be a harmless relic that had been left and marred with the mythos of fear.

The tunnel, while not revealing much spiritual evidence, pushed me to investigate the graveyard on campus without the fear of the supernatural hurrying me down the path towards Wally J. I walked slowly through the rows, reading the names and imagining the lives that had been lived upon the campus’ grounds. Ulysses S. Grant III sticks out in the Root patch of the graveyard due to his carrying of the historic president’s namesake. Grant III had married Edith Root, the daughter of the Nobel Peace Prize Winner and famed alum, Elihu Root, whose name can be seen across the Hill.

The graveyard also holds the remains of the campus’ old Philosophy building, its pillars rising out of the grass and towards the sky. In times when the campus isn’t being hit by an onslaught of wind and snow, the pillars offer students a place to sit and bask in the sunlight of a warm day. I recall one time in the fall of my sophomore year when I sat on the stone of the pillars and watched as a society of orange ladybugs crawled on the cracked surface of the ruins.

These parts of campus are forgotten in the hustle and bustle of students’ lives. The graveyard rests ostensibly easier in the background of campus life as the tunnels lie away and out of sight from most of the school’s community. In discussing this project with some friends, however, I found that some life can be said to persist within the tunnels as students sometimes occupy the rooms in the days preceding exams and term finals. They boast the promise of seclusion offered by the subterranean hallways.

From my own perspective, the tunnels and the graveyard exist as the more obvious monuments to the shifts in Hamilton’s structure. Others include the fraternity houses that have been converted into regular dormitories or administrative buildings and line the streets interwoven throughout campus. All of these architectural features of the Hill speak to a time that could otherwise be utterly forgotten in the minds of the modern Hamiltonian. They carry the weight of Hamilton’s mythology, weaving a thread of continuity across generations. They stand in quiet defiance of modern additions like the science center and the ongoing construction that disrupts life on the northern side of campus. These relics of the generations—tunnels, graveyards, and ruins—remain the historical backbone of our community.

WHAT IF?

Lily Manning

Photo courtesy of the Office of the President

After President Stephen Tepper’s inauguration early this fall, he was quick to implement the “What If” initiative to the Hamilton population, an interdisciplinary approach to exploration and innovation. The “What If” initiative at its core is meant to give students the opportunity to share their ideas to improve all aspects of Hamilton by making propositions for the allocation of resources and funds. The initiative’s committee is made up of a mix of faculty members and students of various positions who are assembled with the purpose of evaluating and deciding which proposals will move forward to next steps, beginning with a proposal presented to President Tepper. The decisions on the next steps for the proposals are based on five categories of criteria: Creativity, Collaboration, Institutional Transformation, and Sustainability.

All enrolled students and current employees are able to submit proposals for the initiative. Proposals began in the Fall 2024, and in the Fall 2025, accepted proposals will be presented to the Hamilton community in a “What If” festival. On the Hamilton website, submitted “What If” proposals are organized by the categories of Arts/Culture, Co-Curricular, Dining and Food, Employee Engagement, Equity and Inclusion, Facilities/Physical Campus Spaces, Health Initiatives, Residential Experience, Stewardship/Budgeting, Sustainability, and Town/Gown and Broader Community.

It is interesting to note that the Health Initiatives category has the least amount of submissions (6) while the Curriculum (48), Dining (39), and Residence (40) categories have the most submissions. The are a few standout proposals that are repeated many times; contributors largely agree that there should be a milkshake machine on campus (16), specifically in the Diner, and that the Dunham Quad/Green is a space that people agree could be utilized as a hub for campus life (12) instead of just having the tent or “mud pit.”

Although we have yet to see the results of any of these propositions, it would be correct to assume that the results of this “What If” initiative may shed some light on where the student body and faculty/employees’ interests lie. The least discussed section, Health Initiatives, only has six proposals. The general initiatives and standouts seem to be largely focused on school amenities. Does this mean that the least discussed topics are those that provide best for the students and faculty? Are the students and faculty focused on the “wrong” things, or do they not feel comfortable enough to raise awareness to the issues they really want to bring to light? It is unfair to assume the answers to these questions without further inquisition. The results of the initiative and the allocation of resources will determine how Hamilton will progress moving forward. Will we be a college focused on amenities and appearances or will we work towards a more equitable and inclusive future for all students and faculty – or, can these directions coexist?

Untitled@Large SabrinaGrossman

Untitled @ Large is Hamilton’s student-run theater organization. You may have seen posters for Untitled’s fall production of Ride the Cyclone, and you may have hopped aboard the ride yourself and experienced this amazing musical. Currently, Untitled is hard at work on its spring production of Eurydice. I spoke to Alyssa Samuels ‘25, Untitled’s Artistic Director, to gain some more insight into the inner workings of the organization. and you may have hopped abard the ride yourself and experienced this amazing musical....

This academic year, Untitled is putting on two large productions, which isn’t always the case. “We function according to the voiced interests of our peers each semester,” Samuels explains. Untitled provides a Production Proposal form at the end of each semester, allowing other students to pitch ideas for productions they are interested in putting on. Samuels says, “Importantly, they can do so without experience, and we pride ourselves on often providing a space where individuals new to theatre can try their hand at the art form.”

The E-Board then votes on proposals and reaches out to those whose projects have been approved. Because of this, the number of shows changes from year to year, depending on the quantity and length of viable production proposals. As aforementioned, Untitled is working on two large shows this year, rather than a myriad of smaller ones.

This semester’s show, Eurydice by Sarah Ruhl, was performed April 15th and 16th at 7pm in the Annex. Samuels is directing this show, and it consists of a cast of seven characters in a retelling of the ancient Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice.

Aside from productions, Untitled often offers workshops and other smaller events. For example, Untitled held a playwriting meet-up in the beginning of the fall semester. That was the first Untitled event that I attended, before joining the cast of Eurydice as “Little Stone”. Most years, Untitled also holds a Comedy Night, run by the E-Board, and an interactive Murder Mystery Night, in collaboration with Sadove Late Nite, which Samuels says are “always very successful at capturing the interest of students who want to do theatre, but don’t have the time available for something like a mainstage or a Ride the Cyclone.” In terms of ideas for future Untitled events, the club is hoping to offer some workshops in puppetry and improv comedy.

For interested students, there are a lot of different ways to get involved in Untitled, whether that be attending workshops, auditioning for productions, or proposing your own productions. I asked Samuels how she first got involved in Untitled and she explained that she became involved in her freshman year during a 24-hour play festival. She said, “As someone who had been involved in theatre my whole life, but who hadn’t participated in it at Hamilton yet, I jumped at the chance to act in this festival. It was a chaotic and exhilarating process, but it definitely opened me up to the world of student theatre at Hamilton, and thus also Untitled.”

For some final remarks about Untitled, Samuels says, “I am overjoyed that I have been able to be part of an organization that allows students to fulfill their wildest theatrical ideas. If anyone is even slightly interested in trying student theatre, I’d recommend them to join Untitled.” And hey, as a freshman who has only just started out with Untitled, I couldn’t agree more!

SECRETS FROM A GIRL (who lived in glenview)

Glenview. What used to receive a sad smile or groan when I told people where I was rooming freshman year has now become the stuff of legends, the stuff I foggily remember as I reflect on my first year at Hamilton. And so, as we celebrate the one year anniversary of Glenview-gate, I thought it was only right to reminisce on my time in that glorious, godforsaken place, and share a few of my favorite memories with those who didn’t have the luxury of experiencing it for themselves.

I remember, once I finally committed to Hamilton, excitedly scrolling through all of the different housing options on Hamilton’s website, showing everyone at home Wertimer and bragging to my friends going to bigger schools that I would practically be living in a house. During my perusing I always scrolled past Glenview. Because I wouldn’t be put there! So there was no reason to even look at that page on the website. Throughout the summer, I anxiously checked my housing account, waiting for the room assignments to drop. Then one day, I opened up the site to glowing letters: Glenview A, room 124. My anxiety about moving across the country tripled once I knew I would be living in a parking lot, but I tried to

stay positive despite the odds being heavily against me. Once move-in-day came around, I had gone through the five stages of grief and accepted my fate. Now, I know the future will not reflect kindly on Glenview, but one thing I can confirm is that, like what all the orientation leaders tried to tell me when I first grabbed my key, it really was an easy spot to move into. And hey, some might call that foreshadowing.

My roommate and I — shoutout Susie — lived peacefully in our Glenview box for all of fall semester. Sure, our books got warped from the weird humidity problem, and yes, both of our closets did break within the first two months of school, but all in all we made Glenview a Glen-home. And, we had even snatched the highly coveted room that looked directly at the tan wall of Glenview B. Lucky us!

Life was on the up for the residents of Glenview, until the fateful day — about two weeks into the spring semester — when we got the email. Glenview was infested with mold and all residents had to relocate. Five minutes after we received the email, the whole school was also told that all Glenview residents were being kicked out of our rooms, just so they knew who to

Ellie Carlson

Photos: Katie Kilcoyne

point to and laugh at on Martin’s Way. From here, it was a whirlwind. Packing up all of our belongings, moving to Dunham third floor (#jansplant), and losing the comfort of the fluorescent lights seeping under our door from the hallway. My roommate and I tried to hide the fact that we were put in Dunham (it was every man for themselves during this week), but word somehow got out and before we even settled in, we had people calling us saying Tanith was offering up our room to residents that were placed in Bundy. So, our qu-oble soon became a true quad, and the four of us quickly adapted to both a new dorm and new roommates. While we had been Stolkholm syndrome-d into believing that Glenview was the place for us, I felt like the whole world opened up the first time I walked back to my dorm after a late night and didn’t have to walk through a dark, maze-like parking lot to get to my room.

During the initial chaos, the information given to residents was questionable, but the facts were there: Glenview had mold. A lot of it. When explaining how places get mold, one of the speakers at our information session told us that mold in dorm rooms typically comes from cottage cheese and oranges, and not from being temporary housing on the outskirts of the woods, as one may be inclined to believe. Which led me, and many other ex-Glenview residents to wonder: why did we have such a large stock of cottage cheese and oranges in those cardboard walls? I’m not sure if I’ll ever be able to answer that question, but now that Glenview has been banished to the Elephant Graveyard and deconstructed like a stack of Legos, I can’t help but mourn the loss of the beautiful stories, community, and mold that grew from it.

Climate Change Conversations with Hamilton Administration

PhOTO COURTESY OF THE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT

Cby ava Cargan

limate change is one of, if not the greatest, issues of the 21st century and will continue to worsen if we can’t commit to large-scale, collective action. In the past few weeks, the climate crisis has been making headlines as the current United States administration pursues reckless climate change policies. Notably, we’ve withdrawn from the Paris Agreement, revoked executive orders which supported the National Climate Task Force and the State Department’s Climate Change Support Office, and declared an energy emergency. There is widespread frustration as we seemingly move backwards at a point ative that we focus our actions on combating climate change...

It’s essential now, more than ever, to have discussions about climate change. I recently spoke with four administrators on campus to feature some perspectives on the issue. I spoke with President Tepper, a professor in the history department, an ALEX advisor, and an Associate Dean of Admissions. I compose a definition of climate change based on the individual answers of the following question: How do you define and understand the term climate change? The synopsis is that climate change is the changing of earth’s natural functions, increasing natural disasters and warming of the planet over time, resulting from human actions. Also mentioned is that there are differing levels of impacts from human activities. Multiple interviewees brought up fossil fuels and said that part of acknowledging climate change is recognizing that countries have varying carbon footprints the impacts of climate change are not evenly dispersed.

President Tepper emphasized the disproportionate impacts of climate change on underprivileged communities. Notably, he said, “The West got rich by taking the planet.” He continued by proposing that wealthy nations be taxed so that other countries could receive resources to mitigate the effects of climate change on them. Similarly, others mentioned that there needs to be more regulations for countries who are the greatest carbon emitters, and that this needs to happen now. The administrators each mentioned what they saw as a challenge to addressing climate change, including capitalism, overconsumption and consumer culture, and the meat industry. However, they all brought up the fear that motivation for change will require hitting rock bottom. One of the administrators said that we won’t be able to fully address climate change unless people are willing to change their behavior, which has been a large obstacle in the climate crisis.

A concern of President Tepper’s is our struggling democracy. He stressed that the state of politics in the United States hasn’t set us up for collective action and that we’ve been unable to commit to a sense of urgency. Many administrators brought up concerns of future global catastrophic traumas, devastating wars, and possible new government systems without a semblance of democracy — some referred to dystopias and anarchy. They warned that there might have to be a large event to actually light a spark. Additionally, our current economics and insurance companies may already be unprepared to handle more climate disasters. While the climate crisis is a difficult topic to discuss, President Tepper offered solutions that he’s envisioned, with hope that more people will get involved. He mentioned how powerful it would be if at least 90% of young people were voting. President Tepper also talked about his vision for creating creative educational resources. A history professor emphasized the importance of Hamilton’s Environmental Studies department, saying that it is crucial to continue building up the program and find ways to link environmental education across all of Hamilton’s curriculum.

Winter Recap

Rating Local(ish) Ski Mountains in Upstate NY

Lily Manning

As the frost slowly melts, flowers begin to bloom, and Hamilton students start thawing out around campus, I can confidently say that we are ready for spring to come in full swing. This year’s winter proved to be a monumental one, granting students and professors multiple snow days for the first time in years! This winter evoked many different feelings from people in the Clinton, New York area, but the majority were astonished by the beauty and magic of a snowy, Upstate winter. With a vehicle and a love of winter sports, the winter in upstate New York is exciting and limitless. This winter was a big win for students on campus who love skiing and snowboarding, with the ski season starting early and ending almost a month later than last year. In the spirit of the end of winter and the beginning of spring, I thought it would be a great idea to wrap up the season with a personal review of the ski mountains in the area.

#1 Labrador Mountain: Located about ninety minutes southwest of Hamilton in Truxton, NY, Labrador is an amazing, easily accessible ski resort that is great for skiers and snowboarders of all experience levels. The Hamilton Ski Team travels there consistently in the winter for practices and races, and Lab has earned its credibility as a reliable mountain. My favorite part about this mountain is that there are never any lines! One of the perks of going to college in Upstate NY is that you can drive to the mountains on days that are not normally high traffic ski days. Even on these high traffic ski days, there is rarely any ski traffic at Labrador. There are a few small lifts that take you to the top of the mountain for various trails. Labrador has a wide selection of trails that are groomed really well if you get there early in the day. Like any East Coast mountain, there is a normal amount of ice on the trails, but this is to be expected. Recently, I discovered a few ungroomed and backcountry trails at Lab, which are great if you want to switch things up and experience a different type of skiing. There are plenty of black diamond trails, moguls, and an excitingly great terrain park, which are amazing additions considering Lab is a small mountain. Make sure to ask for the student discount when you buy a lift ticket!

#2 Woods Valley Ski Area: Located about thirty minutes north of Hamilton in Rome, NY, is a mountain’s existence that took me by surprise! I was shocked when I found out that this mountain existed because it is so incredibly close to campus. Their lift tickets and rentals are very cheap as far as ski tickets go, but not for a lack of trails and accessibility! Like Labrador, there is rarely ever a wait for the lifts. Woods Valley is great for beginner and intermediate skiers and snowboarders. The mountain has a large bunny hill, as well as plenty of green and blue trails that are pretty great in length and variety. There are not that many black or double black diamond trails, so this mountain may not be for you if you are set on skiing advanced. Regardless, this mountain is great for casual skiing and snowboarding! It’s extremely close to campus and on the less expensive side, which makes it a great option for students at Hamilton.

#3 Windham Mountain: Located about two hours southeast of Hamilton is Windham Mountain, one of the largest ski resorts in New York. Windham is an awesome ski area, but it is chronically overcrowded and icy. In order to get some decent skiing and snowboarding in, you would have to get to the mountain pretty early, as it fills up very fast. The mountain has a lot of very big lifts, some of them easily fitting eight people, that zoom quickly up the mountain. These lifts lead to a very wide selection of greens, blues, and especially black and double black diamond trails, making it excellent for people who are more advanced skiers. Windham mountain is giant, so the trails are much longer and much more complicated than either Labrador or Woods Valley’s, but the length of the runs unfortunately do not make up for the amount of time that you will ultimately spend waiting in line for the lifts. Windham has lots of amenities, like furnished wooden lodges, firepits, cookouts and hotels on the mountain, making it a fun — but ultimately very expensive — trip.

In order to make the most out of your ski day, I recommend going for the smaller mountains for less of a wait time. Woods Valley and Labrador are both extremely reliable, relatively inexpensive, and guaranteed to give you a great ski season. On the other hand, larger mountains like Windham are great for advanced and committed skiers, who want to be challenged and get the full ski resort experience. This ski season was certainly one of the best, and at some points we may have gotten as close to powder as the East Coast can get! If you are more of a flat land skier, make sure to check out the cross country trails in the Glen on campus!

A Call for a Questbridge Hub

Caro Cerecero

Photos: Maeve Brown

Have you ever come across the Opportunity Program Study Space? If you are a frequent visitor at McEwen Dining Hall or FoJo Beans, you most likely have! The study space is a welcoming and available office where many Opportunity Program (OP) students visit for a break between classes, a quiet work area, or a designated spot to chat with other OP members. As a member of QuestBridge, I can’t help but wonder what it would be like if a similar space existed for other scholarship programs. It is so important to have a comfortable space that’s always open to you, especially if you may feel like an outsider at times. What would this welcoming space look like for a different scholarship like QuestBridge?

For context, it is essential to begin with an explanation of QuestBridge as a program. Google, and pretty much anyone you ask, will say it is a full-ride scholarship that seniors in high school work to earn. However, there is a lot of information missing from this description. There are a multitude of things that contribute to a QuestBridge scholar being a QuestBridge scholar, so it is important to at least understand what the scholarship is and what the recipients must do to earn it.

QuestBridge has multiple parts, but I will be focusing on the Match Scholarship. The Match Scholarship partners with various colleges that award different levels of “full-rides” depending on which school an applicant matches with. Because of the high amount of money awarded to these students, QuestBridge has many requirements for its scholars, including an impressive academic achievement through high school, excellent scores on standardized tests, and having come from a low-income household.

To earn the Match Scholarship, a student must express determination to pursue higher education, which is shown in their activities and extracurriculars throughout high school. More often than not, students are already wellversed in QuestBridge by their junior year through another program called College Prep Scholar. Working to become a QuestBridge Scholar is truly a time-consuming process, but the end result is very rewarding, as it allows a student to take pride in their identity. Even those who don’t match through Early Decision can still continue to pursue a match through Regular Decision, a process that requires just as much work and dedication.

As the QuestBridge Scholars Network (QSN) representative for the Class of 2028, I hosted a study session back in November. In order to do so, Maria Chipres, the QSN President, had to reserve a random classroom in Root Hall for us to have space. While the classrooms around campus are beautiful, the tedious process of reserving unaffiliated spaces takes away from the feeling of pride that QuestBridge students have worked for. There’s no reason why we shouldn’t have our own space at Hamilton College, especially considering the interest the college has in making all of its students feel welcome. Having a space for Questbridge students to host events, study, or hang out would be one step closer to Hamilton’s overarching goal of creating a truly supportive and collaborative environment.

By Stella Essenmacher

Photos: Oliver Jackson

According to the Hamilton Career Center website, roughly 15 percent of students pursue graduate school directly after graduation. This year, I have been one of the 60 or so students who fall in this category. As I anxiously await my decisions, I want to reflect on a process that has been frustratingly complex and isolating. If you are a junior or underclassman considering your post-graduate plans, I hope this guide brings your search both clarity and purpose.

Since sixth grade, I have known that I would eventually pursue a Ph.D. to study volcanoes. As many of us come to find, Hamilton boasts a plethora of opportunities and resources, but it is up to students to determine what best fits their interests and to get involved. For instance, while the open curriculum provides the benefit of exploration, it means that you won’t have to take Calculus II even if most of the jobs you want to do after college require it. Additionally, in my

experience, Hamilton’s liberal arts philosophy means that pre-professional and niche upper level classes are offered infrequently or not at all. I recommend that you discuss your aspirations with your academic advisor and supplement your opportunities at Hamilton with summer internships or taking relevant classes abroad.

The graduate application process can also feel isolating. In high school, all of our friends were also applying to colleges, so we could commiserate and celebrate with one another. Graduate applications, on the other hand, vary greatly between fields and programs, meaning that you may be the only person you know applying to programs similar to yours. Geosciences graduate programs, for example, require students to reach out to potential advisors before applying, so I sent almost 20 cold emails to professors I found interesting and had a half a dozen Zoom calls to discuss the research project I was applying to work on. On the other hand, fields like chemistry have a rotation where students are accepted to the department and spend several months trying out different lab environments before committing to a project. This vast difference in application process made searching for programs lonely, but I was fortunate to find support through a free mentoring program called GEMS, where I was paired with a current Ph.D. student. Some of my friends hired coaches, but these coaches are expensive and not realistic for many students. Join free online mentoring programs or Reddit and Grad Cafe forums and don’t be afraid to be pushy or ask dumb questions. There were things that in retrospect I should have asked more about, but I liked the comfort of my ignorant bliss.

As the application process can be overwhelming, it is essential to know what resources Hamilton offers. First, a huge benefit of Hamilton is that your professors know you well and have gone through graduate school themselves. They can put you in touch with recent graduates or help you talk through your decision to pursue graduate school. However, professors are experts only on their experiences, so you may get advice skewed towards pursuing academia. For a more balanced opinion on your post-graduate opportunities, I recommend also chatting with Hamilton alumni in the workforce. Professors are incredibly busy, so asking them to read through essay drafts or have weekly hour-long checkins is likely more than they have time for. Instead, you might want to get your application essays looked over by a Writing Center tutor.

A further resource is the Career Center. I have utilized the Career Center a huge amount for my graduate search, from interview preparation to networking. That being said, the Career Center is more tailored towards people pursuing normal jobs than graduate school, at least in my experience. For example, Peer Advisors are trained on resumes and cover letters. You will likely have to make a CV, the academia version of a resume, and a Statement of Purpose, a cover letter for graduate school admissions. I set up many peer advising sessions to get someone to read over my CV and cold emails to prospective advisors. Peer Advisors aren’t trained for the nuances of graduate application materials, so the Career Center cannot be relied upon as an ultimate resource in the same way that a student applying to finance internships can. However, when used with an open mind and pointed questions, you can still learn a lot from the Career Center. Hamilton also offers advisors for pre-law and pre-med students, so for students who fall into those categories, that is another resource one can use to aid in their preparation. The Career Center is reworking its advising system to expand its support, so I am optimistic that in the future, this resource may be more useful to students applying to more niche graduate programs.

Pre-professional clubs are a great way to find community through the graduate application process. The Finance Club, Pre-Law Club, Consulting Club, and Pre-Health Club are just some examples. Rather than provide students with platitudes accompanied by links to online resources, these clubs are a way for students to crowdsource insights. In the future, Hamilton should increase funding for these pre-professional clubs so that they can better support students who cannot afford private coaches or graduate admissions test preparation (LSAT, GRE, MCAT prices range from $220-345 per attempt). I would also have appreciated more workshops and alumni panels specifically tailored towards the graduate school application process. Although I felt that I had to get crafty with using the resources available to me, finding other people who were facing the same challenges as me really helped me stay motivated and ultimately find success.

PROCESS AS A HAMILTON STUDENT

APPLICATION

IT’S IN YOUR HANDS: A GUIDE TO SURVIVING THE GRADUATE STUDENT

The Case for Not Going Abroad

By Liv Todd

Photos: Oliver Jackson

During my junior fall, I was faced with the decision of whether to go abroad the following spring. Throughout the majority of the semester, I was feeling very conflicted, as the majority of my classmates were going abroad, giving the impression it was the “right” thing to do as a Hamilton student. However, staying on campus for my junior year ended up being one of the best decisions I have made throughout my time at Hamilton.

Being on campus allowed me to foster relationships with people I would not have connected with otherwise. While at times campus felt empty, having a good portion of our class away provided the opportunity to make new friendships simply through casual meals, studying in the library, or joining club sports. Additionally, I was able to build upon many of the friendships I had made previously through increased quality time since a large part of my class was abroad. In the fall I had a great groove and rhythm in terms of my relationships, and wanted to keep that going!

Furthermore, as a junior, I felt my time at Hamilton slipping away. All of a sudden I was starting to prepare for my senior year and began to consider my post-graduation plans. As the past three years had flown by, I wanted to take advantage of the little time I had left at Hamilton. Specifi-

cally, there were classes I was still really excited to take on campus. This, combined with the fact that many abroad programs I was looking at did not relate to my major, made me more inclined to stay on campus. Additionally, as a student not taking a foreign language, I was faced with the question of why I personally should go abroad.

However, I did not say goodbye to the chance of going abroad forever, as I will likely have the opportunity to travel the world later in life, either for work or for pleasure. With that mindset, I realized staying on campus would be a great opportunity to make my own fun. I tried to make mundane events exciting, and adopted a more positive attitude to make the best of being on campus, despite the dreary weather. I also grew a great appreciation for the beautiful (although somewhat short) spring that Clinton has to offer.

Of course there are so many positive sides to going abroad, but I hope this serves as an alternative perspective, as staying on campus can also bring about a unique experience!

G A P YEAR THE EXPERIENCE

Sylvia Woodbury

The year after I graduated, my high school was dismantled and entirely rebuilt, erasing the graffiti, the mildewy ceilings, the teal lockers nobody used, the garish murals which gave a bad name to art brut, and the narrow hallways. Each day as I drove home from Starbucks, where I worked after graduating, I would glance at the immobile backhoes and cranes paused amidst the new building’s skeletal framework.

The destruction and subsequent rebuilding of my high school seems a metaphor almost too apt for the end of adolescence and the beginning of adulthood, but life tends to proffer symbols and parallels without contrivance. At Starbucks, I didn’t strike it rich, but I did make good tips and also opened a matched 401k. The store was constantly out of stock due to “supply chain issues” and permanently short-staffed. Employees were undertrained and underinformed, and every day was besieged with a phonebook’s worth of mobile orders spitting venomously from the ticket printer. A year of working at Starbucks made me about $16,000. I spent about $3,000 to backpack through Europe with a friend, called L, from my hometown.

A couple years before graduating, L and I started to plan for our trip. Staring down the barrel of ten or so more years in school (I planned to go to grad school), I found that the stronger I finished out my senior year (“finish the year strong” was a recurrent mantra), the weaker and less motivated I felt. The process of organizing the trip was restorative in that my plans, for once, were both imaginative and concrete, fanciful and actualizable. L and I itemized a day-by-day itinerary, crafted a budget, bought tickets and reservations and lodgings, and inventoried our packing. About a month out from my trip, I requested — foolishly, hopefully, anxiously — a month of leave from work in order to travel. I was sure this request would be denied, unprecedented as it was for a new employee. It was denied — when I was in Amsterdam. My store manager quit a few days later. I panicked. I managed to get my job back by furiously contacting coworkers. As ever, the store was short-staffed: they couldn’t afford to lose an employee.

Over the course of a month, I traveled through Denmark, the Netherlands, France, Italy and Greece toting only a 40L backpack, which fit a couple changes

of clothes (a slightly bigger backpack might have been smarter), a coat, toiletries, my phone and chargers, a microfiber towel, and a couple of books and notebooks. The price breakdown: both L and I bought a Eurail pass, about $260, but spent more than expected on seat reservations for trains not included in the pass. Each of us spent about $670 across seven hostels and a little less than $800 on transportation, including flights. Attractions — almost every museum, heritage site, and monument required an admission fee — food, and essentials (laundry, shampoo, tissues) all together cost about $1,300. I spent about $60 on souvenirs. In total, this is an unaffordable price for many, probably most. My parents didn’t bankroll my travels, but in a less direct sense they did: I grew up with a monthly allowance, my relatives gifted me sums of money when I graduated from high school, and I had free room and board throughout my gap year.

For the duration of the trip, L and I hopped from city to city, fields giving way to towns giving way to rolling hills. Themes and motifs emerged, linking disparate countries and cities. Music was one connection. Outside the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, somebody was blasting Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, and strains of organ music echoed through the St. Vincent Cathedral of St. Malo, a walled city on the northern coast of France. In Florence, the sound of opera filtered through the walls of our hostel, like a brush with another world. Our hostel, I was delighted to discover, was adjacent to a church which hosted performances. At Starbucks, after I returned, instrumental pop songs from Bridgerton played for months over the loudspeakers. A very small penalty to pay, after everything. Do I recommend taking a gap year? There were downsides. I often felt lonely and adrift, isolated from peers and friends, as I worked through college applications, a process most of my classmates had already completed. It’s difficult to access support from counselors and advisors during a gap year, and gathering the requisite materials — recommendation letters and transcripts — is similarly complicated.

I took my gap year between high school and undergrad. I might take another gap year between undergrad and grad school if I can secure an internship or fellowship. Otherwise, a gap year after undergrad might be an exercise in futility. The majority of the grad schools I researched for this article — based on the top grad schools from the US News and World Report’s Ranking — grant admission deferrals (i.e. applying during undergrad, gaining acceptance to a college, and deferring admission to a later year) only for certain programs or for specific medical, financial, or personal circumstances. Applying to grad schools during a gap year, however, is relatively more orthodox, and most institutions I researched seemed open to applicants pursuing gap years to gain work, fellowship, or internship experience. Whether or not a gap year will contribute to your future success is mostly unknowable: it’s up to the individual to weigh the finances, risks, possible consequences, and possible benefits.

The College Cemetery: A Hidden Campus Gem

Andrew Brennan

Photos: Katie Kilcoyne

Perhaps the most peaceful part of campus, the College cemetery, rests quietly on the hill, located just past Bristol Center and Morris House. On a brisk fall morning, you can hear the chirping of birds as you reach the beginning of the winding path, while only just being able to make out the faintly muffled words of students talking in the distance. The serene sounds of nature make for a pleasant stroll for anyone looking to stray from the hustle and bustle of Hamilton life for a moment. Shaded partly by trees, the cemetery is a unique spot that allows students to be alone with their thoughts with the shelter of nature while still being on campus.

On top of its therapeutic qualities, the cemetery offers a window into the interesting history of the College and some of its great figures. The cemetery was established in 1820 by the College’s trustees–only eight years after the school received its charter from New York State. With a few exceptions, those who

have been buried in the space are related to the College, as the institution’s faculty and their families or students. The intent was that only those with a strong connection to Hamilton or those closely related to them would be able to join the ranks of the cemetery’s tenants. In total, 352 people lay to rest in the confines of the cemetery.

One of the most interesting aspects of taking a walk along the path of the cemetery is being able to see the variety of gravestones and their names, along with any epigraphs inscribed onto the stone. Many of the names are familiar — their names memorialized by other buildings around campus — while others are less known, their legacies etched into the history of the college through the preservation of the cemetery. The founder of Hamilton College, Samuel Kirkland, and his friend and proselyte Chief Oskanondonha (Chief Skenandoa) were transferred together from their original burial site to the College

cemetery. Seven college presidents, including the grave of Azel Backus, Hamilton’s first president, are buried there. Other notable names include the Roots, with 30 members of the family buried in the southeast corner. Many of the gravestones have unique artistic components to them, exemplifying a history to be shared or a message to be passed on. One could walk for hours around the cemetery soaking in the story of Hamilton College.

In the present day, Fred Rogers, the director of gift planning, serves as the self-appointed “dean and docent” of the cemetery, leading tours to help spread awareness of this hidden part of campus. The cemetery’s presence demonstrates the legacy and story of Hamilton College, and enables students to directly engage with the present and the past. When I walk on the path through the cemetery, I feel a deeper connection between myself and the community, a place that joins a whole history’s worth of lives and their stories into one.