MIDDBRIEFS

Author: JASON F. SIEGEL

College competes in waste reduction contest

Middlebury College recently joined Yale University, Grinnell College, MIT and 89 other colleges and universities in a nationwide campaign to reduce waste on campus. The contest, known as Recyclemania and sponsored by the Environmental Protection Agency, began on Jan. 29 and will continue through April 8.

In an e-mail to the College, Campus Sustainability Coordinator Jack Byrne expressed a desire to win in the categories of lowest waste produced per person and highest rate of recycling per person. He also provided a list of recyclable materials for the school.

After the first week, Middlebury led the country in the Per Capita Classic, or the highest rate of recycling, as well as in the Food Service category. Other high-performing schools include Connecticut College and Kalamazoo University.



Middlebury graduate receives fellowship

Allegra di Bonaventura '85, a graduate of Middlebury College's undergraduate program and German Master's program, recently received the Gilder Lehrman Fellowship for assistance on her doctoral thesis, which she is about to undertake at Yale University. The project will deal with masculinity in colonial New England.

Di Bonaventura has received a number of degrees and fellowships since her graduation from Middlebury. She has earned a D.B.S. from the London School of Economics and a J.D. from Yale Law School. She also received a Fulbright Research Fellowship, a Pew Foundation Fellowship in Religion & American History, a William C. & Ruth A. Gaines Dissertation Fellowship in History, a Samuel I. Golieb Memorial Fellowship in Legal History and an Irving S. Ribicoff Fellowship.

The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History has financed a variety of academic and journalistic research projects since 1994. In 2005, the Institute gave out $143,072 for 69 fellowships, to be used in one of five archives in New York City.



College ranks 8th for Peace Corp participation

With 21 alumni serving abroad, Middlebury is eighth among small colleges sending students to the Peace Corps. It tied for that position with Kalamazoo College and Mount Holyoke College.

Middlebury has sent a total of 408 volunteers to the Peace Corps since the program's inception in 1961. It has consistently ranked as one of the top 25 small colleges and universities with alumni serving.

The College dropped slightly from last year's rank when, with 25 alumni serving, it was ranked fifth in the nation. With so few students involved, a slight drop in numbers can cause a rather significant decrease in the College's ranking.

The University of California-Berkeley is the all-time leader in providing volunteers to the Peace Corps, topping 3,000, while the University of Wisconsin-Madison has led the nation uninterrupted for the last 20 years.



Senior's story roars onto Hollywood silver screen



"Duma," a recently-released Hollywood film about a boy who forms a bond with his adopted pet cheetah, will be shown at 7 p.m. today in Dana Auditorium. Besides being a well-received movie, the film is also the touching story of Middlebury College student Xan Hopcraft '06.

Dooms was Hopcraft's pet cheetah and was one of his few friends growing up due to the relative isolation in which his family lived - about 45 minutes away from Nairobi. When the cheetah died, it was Hopcraft's first encounter with death, and it inspired him to write a book with his mother about the experience.

The book became the basis for the movie, which opened in September. Several elements of the story have been changed from Hopcraft's personal experience, though he has stated that the movie captured the essence of his relationship with his unusual, beloved companion.