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(10/15/20 9:58am)
When Bennet Konesni, Chris Howell and Jean Hamilton, all members of the class of 2004.5, first planted the idea of an organic garden at Middlebury in 2002, they did not expect it to become a haven for students seeking refuge from a global pandemic. The values of connectivity and serenity upon which The Knoll was originally built help explain its newfound importance during a semester of social distancing and uncertainty.
“We always had this thought that it would be about more than just food,” Konesni said.
Throughout the fall semester, gathering sizes have remained strictly limited, and students continue to flock to The Knoll to spend time with friends amid the garden beds.
"[The founders] really wanted it to be a communal and welcoming space for anyone that came to appreciate it, whether that was to walk, run, sit, learn, just be — or gather a bouquet of flowers," Megan Brakeley ‘06, The Knoll's current manager, said.
Konesni was unsurprised to learn about the central role that The Knoll has played for the campus community this semester.
“That’s what we wanted,” he said. “It’s amazing that even during a pandemic, The Knoll is there for people to go to and use this challenging moment to look inward.”
Eighteen years ago, Konesni and Hamilton imagined developing an organic garden to serve as an educational space that would foster a connection with the natural environment and local community. But convincing the college that the project could be sustained was no easy task.
“The administration was not into it at first,” Konesni said. “But we wanted a farm because the act of growing things is powerful, and we knew it was educational. We thought that if we have sports fields and art museums and concert halls, we should have a farm, too.”
Following countless conversations with peers, professors and town residents, veteran Vermont farmer Scout Proft connected Konesni with Cornwall resident Jay Leshinsky, who helped bring their vision to life.
Leshinsky guided Konesni and Hamilton for more than a year as they worked to build the idea, mobilize resources, recruit faculty and administrative supporters and find a site for the garden. Eventually, they received the green light from then-President John McCardell to use a nearby parcel of the college's nearly 6,000 acres of Vermont land. The hunt for the perfect location began.
Middlebury offered a range of potential sites for the garden, but most lacked access to water and electricity or had clay-heavy soil that would take years to make viable for farming, according to Leshinsky. He and the students enlisted the help of Shoreham farmer Will Stevens in the search for the right spot.
"On our walk, Will pauses, looks across the street and says, 'Well, what about there? Who owns that knoll?'" Leshinsky said.
The founding team received funding from the Student Government Association to start a new student-run organization. Not long after, they invited President John McCardell to plant the first cover crop and see what had become of their project.
“He came out there with the chairman of the Board of Trustees, too,” Konesni said. “We definitely had to keep hammering the fact that it would be a liberal-arts, multi-disciplinary approach to growing food, but they were excited about it.”
Leshinsky continued to oversee the garden until retiring in 2018, but still frequents The Knoll.
"He still comes out and volunteers a lot and offers his knowledge because of his deep memories of the people and our relationship to this place," Tara Santi ’20, who interned at The Knoll in the summer of 2019, said. "Many of the events and partnerships that have arisen out of The Knoll are because of him."
The summer internship program is a hallmark of The Knoll's emphasis on place-based learning, which has been a core tenet of the organic farm and its maintenance from the outset.
"The way that I think about place-based learning is building awareness of our interdependence on a lot of interdependent scales," Brakeley said. "It is about noticing where you are and analyzing the characteristics of where you are in a way that is tangible."
As an intern, Santi said she "lived the effects of place-based learning daily" by being encouraged to think deeply about her relationship to her environment and surrounding community in the context of sustainability.
"The amount of learning that I did, not just about planting beds or different species of corn but also about how to care for a place with other people and learn about consequences, was incredible," Santi said. "You make one decision one day, and three months later, there's an effect."
According to Leshinsky, in addition to the more than 100 interns who have cycled in and out of the internship program since 2003, a variety of classes have also been taught by professors eager to integrate place-based learning into curriculum across the disciplines, including music, sociology and architecture classes.
Education and inter-community relationships continue to be a central focus of The Knoll. The farm has partnerships with Middlebury College Dining, Facilities, Environmental Affairs, the Center for Community Engagement, FoodWorks and the Center for Spiritual and Religious Life — which was responsible for bringing the Dalai Lama to The Knoll to bless a marble bench, known as the meditation bench, in 2013.
The Knoll also sells a portion of its produce to Middlebury Dining Services, which has been a point of contention among community members who have expressed concerns about siphoning profits away from local business. When The Knoll was absorbed into the college budget in 2018, the focus was able to shift away from production and more towards renewed community engagement.
"The students never wanted to compete with local growers because they saw that the relational aspect is what brings so much meaning," Brakeley said. The Knoll donates much of its produce to the HOPE Food Shelf in Middlebury and has been giving produce to members of Vermont's native Abenaki community for two years.
The Knoll is located on Abenaki land and has partnered with local Abenaki chief Don Stevens as part of a broader initiative to improve land recognition efforts at the college. That initiative included growing Abenaki corn and beans in the 2019 season under Stevens’s guidance, with broader educational opportunities planned for 2020.
“We had also been working on permanent signage for The Knoll that described the land acknowledgement and shared more about the land’s original inhabitants, but this project got shelved given the uncertainty of budgets and other Covid-19-related timelines,” Brakeley wrote in an email to The Campus.
In 2017, the organic garden celebrated its 15th anniversary and was officially renamed The Knoll, after the small hill where its creators’ vision was realized.
The Knoll's founding mission — to educate and nourish its surrounding environment — came into clear focus when the onset of the pandemic left many staff and community members without a steady source of income.
"The college basically gave us permission to grow produce in anticipation of the community's emergency food needs," Brakeley said.
Brakeley not only continued to grow produce as an essential worker but also received approval to bring in four dining employees for paid full-time work at The Knoll over the summer.
"We were able to make something beautiful out of a really tricky situation," Brakeley said.
(02/27/20 10:55am)
Exploring the role of education in a time of global uncertainty, an interdisciplinary panel and Q&A served as a follow-up to writer and climate activist Naomi Klein’s Feb.13 talk. Moderators Hannah Laga Abraham ’23 and Ivonne Serna ’23 asked five faculty members from across the disciplines — Carolyn Finney, scholar in residence in environmental affairs; Jamie McCallum, professor of sociology; James Sanchez, professor of writing & rhetoric; Kirsten Coe, professor of biology; and Tara Affolter, professor of education studies — to discuss their fields’ relevance in the midst of the climate crisis.
The event aimed to create an ongoing dialogue on environmental issues. The overarching question guiding the conversation was, “Why are we here?”
“Being at an institution that is deeply enmeshed in the systems perpetuating this crisis doesn’t give us an excuse to avoid these conversations,” Serna said. “It makes it our responsibility to have them.”
Dan Suarez, professor of environmental studies, opened the panel by asking what exactly it would mean to reform institutional pedagogy in light of the increasing severity and scope of compounding environmental changes.
Affolter and Finney both discussed the importance of intersectionality in engaging with issues of climate change.
“We first need to look at whose voices matter, who’s in the room to ask the questions, and who’s not here and why,” Affolter said. “Part of the importance of our place here is to decenter ourselves and learn to care beyond what we know and understand.”
Finney urged her colleagues and the audience to consider the history of marginalized groups — many of whom are now disproportionately affected by climate change — in environmental discourse.
“I keep hearing the term, ‘state of emergency,’ but there are people who have been living in a state of emergency for the past 400 or 500 years,” she said.
McCallum emphasized the importance of including the sociological lens in climate change analyses. “There is a social crisis that has to do with alienation, isolation, division, and loneliness that is influencing the climate crisis,” he said.
Sanchez spoke about the impact of rhetoric in environmental discourse.
“There’s a difference between being convinced and being persuaded,” he said. “I could be convinced that climate change is real, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to actually get out and do anything.”
Finney said that persuasion will only come by making climate change personal to everyone. She said that means finding emotional links with others who may not agree.
“If someone told me they were skeptical about climate change,” she said, “I wouldn’t ask them why — I would ask them what they value and what they prioritize,” she said. “Skepticism from climate change arises because people have fears about something else in their lives.”
During the Q&A, the panelists responded to questions about how to move from white guilt to white accountability.
“I see moving from guilt to accountability as a personal question, but also one that can be reflected in our pedagogy,” Coe said. “I think it has to do with investigating and understanding the origins of our privilege and being interested in those questions.”
(01/23/20 11:02am)
“J-Term, play term,” Middlebury students joke. Taking one course for the entire month of January offers students plenty of time for fun alongside unique academic opportunities, but the planning that takes place behind the scenes is not so simple. Deciding which courses to offer, as well as who gets to teach them, is a process that requires extensive vetting and interdepartmental approval.
Beginning in April, the Curriculum Committee, composed of four elected faculty members, the dean of curriculum and a representative from the registrar’s office, reviews hundreds of course proposals from faculty members and visiting instructors wishing to teach a Winter Term class the following January. The committee tries “to balance offerings across the curriculum to provide a relatively equal distribution of courses offered across areas,” said Dean of Curriculum Suzanne Gurland.
“We want to bring in some variety relative to what is typically taught at Middlebury,” Gurland said. “Sometimes chairs or directors will make recommendations on what they have identified as a specific need for students that they could not necessarily fulfill in another one of their department’s own courses.”
According to Gurland, there is no set number of courses that a faculty member must teach during Winter Term. “In terms of requirements, it can be fuzzy,” she said. “We say to chairs and directors that part of their responsibility is to distribute teaching equitably in their department and to fulfill the department’s responsibility to the college-wide curriculum.” Some professors may teach a Winter Term class every year, while others have not taught one in several years.
With so many proposals and such limited space, not all course proposals can be accepted. “Every year we get a ton of great proposals from prospective visitors, and the hardest part is saying no to them,” Gurland said. “When it’s members of the regular faculty, the assumption going in is that we’re not going to say no to a faculty member.”
While faculty members’ proposals are almost never explicitly denied, Gurland said the committee often requires that minor — or major — tweaks be made to a proposal before approval. “In some cases it’s three or four rounds of emails until we can come to a consensus on an agreeable, workable, course,” Gurland said.
These adjustments are not always received enthusiastically. “Sometimes a professor will say that an edit has completely changed the meaning of their course,” Gurland said.
Faculty can also apply to teach courses that fall outside of their departments, if their expertise spans multiple disciplines. In such instances, faculty must also receive approval from the department in which they want to teach. Gurland said it is more common for professors to apply to teach “interdepartmental” courses.
Christal Brown, the chair of the college’s dance department, consistently teaches a course outside of her department. Brown worked with MiddCORE, an entrepreneurship-based leadership and innovation program, for four years before being asked to serve as the director of the program.
But as low-stress as winter term tends to be, teaching high-intensity classes like MiddCORE during such a short time span can pose challenges for professors.
“When you have four weeks, you have to be so clear about how you’re spending your time,” Brown said. “You have to cover three weeks of work, in a week, every week. That can either be super overwhelming, or integral to how you spend your time — which I think for a lot of people, if you haven’t taught outside the usual structure, is daunting.”
For visiting instructors, the review process takes on a much different form. In addition to the course proposal, the visiting applicant must submit a curriculum vitae, resume, “or description of background and experiences relevant to the course you are proposing,” according to the Middlebury College website.
Each year, the committee receives applications from prospective visitors from all different walks of life. “Some applicants are professionals out in the world, some are practitioners, some have never taught before, and some are academics,” Gurland said. Gurland said that some form of teaching experience is almost always a necessary prerequisite for course approval.
Jeanie Bartlett ‘15 and Katie Michels ‘14.5 are teaching a course this winter titled “Food, Farms, Future: Vermont,” which draws together their work in Vermont’s agricultural sector with many of the concepts highlighted during their Middlebury experience.
“Whenever I’d make those connections between what I was learning through work and what I had learned at Middlebury, it just started to plant the seed for coming back to give a talk or maybe teach a J-term class,” Bartlett said. “So when I realized one of my best friends was also thinking of teaching a J-term class, I asked if she’d be willing to team up.”
(11/21/19 11:04am)
The complexities of dining preparations don’t usually cross our minds as we try to squeeze in meals between the hustle and bustle of classes, jobs and other commitments. Since most of the work is already done for us, we rarely consider the behind-the-scenes operations that allow for students to have a maximally comfortable dining experience.
Middlebury Dining Services employs 106 people, including student employees, who assist with basic prep, run The Grille and manage the overall operations. Each dining hall has a head chef, a secondary group of chefs, dishwashing staff and a receiver in charge of handling food deliveries.
“Many of our employees have been here for more than 20, sometimes even 30 years,” said Executive Director of Food Services Dan Detora.
The college’s three dining halls operate, for the most part, independently of each other, according to Detora. Although Atwater boasts the largest kitchen, food is prepared separately at each dining hall. This excludes the baked goods prepared at the bake shop, which is centralized at Proctor and provides all the bread and desserts for Proctor, Ross, Atwater, The Grille and Wilson Café.
The bake shop is staffed with three professional bakers and a host of student workers responsible for making dessert bars and other sweet delicacies. Detora said that the shop is also home to MiddCakes and the headquarters of the “granola gang,” the group of students tasked with making granola for the entire campus.
Ingredients for meals are typically ordered in bulk, meaning that the dining halls will order 1,000 pounds of squash at a time, for example. Because the dining facilities are rather small, materials are delivered to all three locations, plus The Grille, daily. This inventory is monitored through a system called E.A. Tech, which allows staff to keep track of what food needs to be ordered and informs dining halls from where they can borrow if one site runs out of something.
Each dining hall receives the same materials, but each operates on an independent menu cycle that repeats itself every five weeks. Detora said that these menus are curated at the beginning of the semester, based on existing information about what students are eating and what they are not. In terms of how much food is made for each meal, production in each dining hall is determined by the previous experience of long-time employees. Ross, for example, will typically prepare an average of 1,000 portions of whatever is on the menu, Detora said.
A significant amount of the food is also locally sourced. While the dining halls do have a contract with a national company called Reinhardt Foods, a lot of produce is purchased from nearby farms or from a company called Black River Produce, which Detora said “works as a middleman between us and the farms.”
Coffee is purchased from Vermont Coffee, cheese from Cabot Creamery and milk from Monument Farms in Weybridge. In addition, beef is purchased from two Vermont beef farms, one in Cornwall and one in Essex. Instead of purchasing actual pieces of meat, the college will purchase whole animals, which are later slaughtered and packed at Vermont Packing.
“If we can get it locally, we do,” Detora said. “We put over $1.2 million back into the economy last year in terms of local sourcing.”
For a campus that is a national leader in sustainability, however, the focus of environmental and economic sustainability in the college’s purchasing practices is not widely broadcast.
“I don’t think we do a good job, to be honest, with advertising what our purchasing practices are and how we are different than most schools,” Detora said.
Detora said that a lot of schools use pasteurized carton eggs, whereas Middlebury “uses cracked, shelled eggs from just down the road.” Middlebury also uses real maple syrup in all of its dining halls, whereas UVM only has one dining hall that has real maple syrup, according to Detora.
To ensure maximum freshness, food is typically prepared one day before it is served, unless frozen meats are being used, in which case the meals are prepared several days in advance. If chefs at a dining hall are cooking a Recipe from Home — a family recipe that a student has submitted — Detora said staff will conduct research in advance. Chefs will sometimes call the parents of students who submitted a recipe and ask for advice, and often invite the student into the kitchen to supervise the preparation process.
One change the dining halls have had to contend with recently is the increase in the size of the student body over the past couple of years, and the out-the-door lines that coincide with it.
According to Detora, Ross is built “for four- to five-hundred people tops,” but now serves around 1,000 people in one meal. The same goes for Atwater, where it is common to see students eating on the floor during lunch after all of the tables fill up.
“On a typical Tuesday in Atwater, from 12:15–12:35 we swipe in anywhere between 1,600 to 1,800 students,” Detora said.
Detora said that the influx of students has proven to be particularly challenging given the small size of the Ross kitchen.
“On a busy morning there will be six to eight chefs in there, and they’re all bumping into each other,” he said.
Thankfully, the swipe system has helped staff gauge how many students are coming in, and what preparation adjustments need to be made. Still, this method is not always one hundred percent reliable.
“I’d be lying to you if I said we haven’t run out of an entrée before,” Detora said.
Despite these challenges, Detora believes the dining system has done rather well, considering it has to cater to all but the few students who aren’t on a meal plan.
Dining is also currently working to incorporate a system in which recipes can be converted into their nutritional value. This will allow each dining hall to post the nutritional information of each dish and not just the ingredients.
(11/14/19 11:03am)
“No one can disguise the fact that the history of fraternity life has been inseparable from the spirit of the exclusion.”
These were the words of seven faculty members who, in 1990, expressed their concerns about Greek life culture in a letter to the Board of Trustees in hopes of addressing the exclusive ethos that dictated Middlebury’s social scene.
The first social houses emerged from the dissolution of the fraternity system in 1991. Twenty-eight years later, the College boasts five co-ed social houses: Chromatic, The Mill, Tavern, Xenia, and the newest addition, PALANA.
While each of the houses has a physical space, students do not need to live there to be members. Instead, houses often serve as communal gathering places; each hosts a number of events throughout the year, both for members and the wider campus community. Unlike the Greek life system, social houses are open to anyone and students can be members of more than one.
Since their formation, each house has been grounded in a unique theme. Yet, some students and staff question the extent to which they have served their intended purpose.
“I think the social houses have always searched for an identity,” said Karl Lindholm ‘67, a former dean of students. “I do believe that on their worst day, though, the houses are better than the fraternities that separated the campus into those that deserved to be ‘somebody’ and those who did not.”
Lindholm also served as the chair of the Committee to Restructure the House System, comprised of both students and faculty, which originally proposed the creation of co-ed social houses to the Residential Life Committee in 1991 as the ideal solution in fostering a more inclusive and less misogynistic partying environment. The committee, however, could not reach a consensus on whether the houses would produce this effect, deferring further action to the Community Council.
Community Council was initially opposed to the implementation of social houses out of fear that they would recreate the Greek life atmosphere the college wanted to put an end to. After much deliberation about concerns regarding exclusivity, Community Council conceded, voting to allow for the creation of social houses in the most neutral language possible. They voted 9–6, “in a spirit neither for or against, on the creation of a limited number of co-ed social houses,” the 1991 Community Council Resolution on Coeducational Houses read.
The neutral stance taken by much of the college regarding the creation of social houses is reflected today in the infrastructure of the social house system. While the Community Council developed baseline anti-hazing and gender-balance requirements for each house, the houses are completely self-governed by an Inter-House Council consisting of each house president and vice president. These positions are elected by all members of the house.
All in all, this lack of explicit institutional backing has left a lot of leeway for members to define their houses’ desired purposes.
“They aren’t well defined, but I think that’s exactly what they’re supposed to be,” Lindholm said.
According to the college website, these social houses “fulfill their mission through a diverse array of social events, parties, community service, and other events.”
Tavern, for example, prides itself on building a community predicated on its mission statement values of trust, unity and respect. Community service has historically been its guiding theme, although some students seem to hold an alternate perception of the house.
“All of my friends like to joke that I’m the president of the drinking club,” said house president Avery Lopez ’20.
Lopez said that the house has done away with a lot of traditions that were “more reminiscent of the fraternity days,” and is looking to sponsor more house-wide community service events to preserve the spirit on which it was founded.
Historically, each member has been required to log a certain number of community service hours, but Lopez said this has proven virtually impossible to gauge accurately, and many students have taken advantage of this lack of accountability. This year, she hopes to shift the individual focus of the house’s community service component to a more collective effort.
Some of the events planned for later in the year include writing birthday cards for children in hospitals through the Confetti Foundation, and sponsoring fundraising events in conjunction with non-profits around Addison County. As of now, Lopez said she does not have specific information about the organizations the house plans to work with.
Another one of Tavern’s service initiatives this year aims to capitalize on the house’s reputation for heavy recreational drinking. Throughout the semester, the house has been collecting tabs of beer cans to eventually donate to David’s House, an organization which takes the money generated from those beer tabs to provide housing for families whose members are getting treatment at Dartmouth Hitchcock Hospital.
According to Lopez, this effort represents a step toward the house’s intended mission.
“One thing I’ve really appreciated is that our executive staff is consistently conversing with the former executives about how we can change and evolve as a House,” Lopez said.
Lopez said it is common for many Tavern members to also be affiliated with the other social houses such as Chromatic, the Mill and PALANA — excluding Xenia, the substance-free house. A student can join as many social houses as they wish without fear of being denied membership. In order to become a house member, interested students must attend a certain amount of rush events, which can range from a movie night to indoor field hockey. Once students become a part of the pledge class, they go through unique initiation rituals.
Some social houses are more explicitly committed to certain initiatives than others. PALANA, (Pan-African, Latino, Asian and Native American), for example, is Middlebury’s newest social house and a former academic interest house that has long fostered a close-knit community among students from marginalized groups at Middlebury. Previously located at 97 Adirondack View, PALANA found its new home as an official social house in Palmer this year.
PALANA is predominantly a space for students of color, that “seeks to create a space or community which has diversity and highlights all backgrounds by acknowledging and celebrating people of all identity groups,” President Tre Stephens ’21 said.
In the last two months, the house has hosted a series of events, including house Sunday brunches, an open-house disco night and multiple movie nights. PALANA also plans to do a community dinner over Thanksgiving, a poetry slam event and an alumni mixer later in the year.
Chromatic and The Mill are the two social houses known to fill the art and music niche on campus, but Mill President Brenna Wilson ’20 is working to dilute the exclusionary allure that The Mill in particular can create. Wilson said that the house can sometimes appear intimidating for prospective members, although its technical mission is to “maintain a diverse membership irrespective of race, gender, sexual orientation or creed,” according to the 2013 Social House Biennial Review.
“I used to think that you had to dress a certain way and you had to smoke American Spirits and you had to listen to the right artists,” she said. The Mill frequently has concerts in the house basement, and appoints a member to plan concerts throughout the year.
Both Chromatic and The Mill are trying to host events that breach into different categories. Chromatic Co-President Scott Powell ’20 said that the house is working on trying to incorporate an observed interest in culinary arts into events with studio and performing arts. Chromatic hopes to have an official art showcase open to the rest of the campus by the end of this year.
“The other thing I know all social houses are looking at is outreach,” Powell said, as not much is known about houses such as Xenia, which aims to foster a communal environment where members can socialize in a substance free space, according to the 2013 review. The co-presidents of Xenia, Dean Arredondo ’20 and Jillian Ohikuare ’20, could not be reached for comment.
“My rough estimate is that only about a quarter of students are active members of social houses, and I think we should advertise a little more about what we are and why social houses are a valuable part of Middlebury’s community,” Powell said.
(10/31/19 10:02am)
Three years ago, Saifa Hussain, associate chaplain to the Muslim Student Association and Mosaic Interfaith House at Middlebury College, set out on a journey to connect more deeply to her faith. Now, at just 28 years old, she has fulfilled the pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca three times. It is a feat which all Muslims are obligated to complete once in their lifetime if they are physically and financially able.
The pilgrimage, also called the Hajj, is the last of the five major tenants of Islam, and takes place between the eighth and the 13th of Dhu al-Hijja, the 12th month of the Muslim calendar. Hussain performed her first Hajj the summer of 2017, and made her third pilgrimage to the holy city alongside her husband this past summer. However, her decision to trek across the world and make the trip three times, let alone once, was not always part of her shorter-term agenda.
“Back then, I never thought about making the Hajj pilgrimage,” Hussain said, explaining that it is an undertaking many Muslims save up their entire lives for. “It was originally something that I was planning to do when I was much older.”
Hussain decided to make her first pilgrimage while living in a micro home built by her husband on a farm in New Haven, Vt. They had moved there from Chicago in the spring of 2017 to practice sustainable living, minimalism and Islamic spirituality. At the time, making the cost-hefty journey did not seem possible. That is, until her change in lifestyle began to shift Hussain’s conception of her own spirituality.
“A lot of it was fueled by me negotiating my various identities and seeking out teachers and spiritual guides to help me connect deeper to my faith,” Hussain said. “One of the things that they advised me to do was to make the Hajj pilgrimage.”
The holy pilgrimage, they told her, was “central to rooting yourself as a Muslim in a modern American context.”
She began looking at Hajj packages online, and that August, she left to meet the group she had been matched with. Hussain said it is common to make the pilgrimage in a group, and that there is a “whole industry” connecting Muslims from all over the world who wish to make the trip with others traveling from similar areas.
After meeting her group in Chicago, they flew to Germany and then to Jeddah, the gateway for pilgrimages to Mecca. Their spiritual journey, however, began on the flight to Jeddah, during which the group entered the purification state of Ihram, which is required before one embarks on the Hajj pilgrimage. In order to fully achieve Ihram, one must pass through several points around Mecca called the Miquat, the first of which the group happened to pass on the plane.
“There were pilgrims on the plane getting into this Ihram state, putting on the clothing, making the intention, starting their reciting,” Hussain said.
While in this state, men must dress in a traditional white cloth, and a variety of practices are prohibited, such as bathing with scented products, clipping nails, cutting hair, wearing perfume or having sexual intercourse.
“You really go into this liminal state where you are out of the ordinary and are in this monastic, austere way of being,” she said.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-niTMok-UM
This past summer, Hussain’s Hajj journey once again began in Jeddah, where her group was picked up by a bus which made the day-long drive to Mecca. Once there, they rested and prepared to perform the rituals of the Hajj that would take place in the days ahead.
Each day of the pilgrimage is separated into distinct rituals, many of which are dedicated to the life of the prophet Abraham. On the first day, Hussain’s group performed the tawaf, which entails walking seven times, counter-clockwise, around a black cube-like structure called the Ka’ba. In the Islamic tradition, this is the point where heaven and earth meet, but more than that, Hussain said, it is the point which Muslims consider to be “the center of their spiritual universe.”
“It represents this circular movement of oneness, and you’re doing this with millions of pilgrims from all walks of life,” she said.
Next, they passed between the hills of Safa and Marwa to commemorate the struggles of the Lady Hagar. Along the way, they also drank holy water from the well of ZamZam, which is meant to replenish pilgrims who “experience the intensity of the heat and the struggle of these rituals,” she said.
The next day, they traveled to the tent city of Mina and then to the Plain of Arafat in Mina for a day of vigil and prayer.
“This is the encounter of a lifetime with God,” Hussain said.
Hussain said it was a highly emotional experience during which she felt that many pilgrims were in “a complete state of submission.” She and millions of other pilgrims stopped to just cry.
“You go there with all of your life in your heart and all of other people’s lives in your heart,” she said.
Hussain was one of the millions of people who took prayers of their loved ones with them to read on the pilgrimage. Before she left, she created a shared Google document for others to write their prayers on, which she then read off of her phone at various points throughout the Hajj. Hussain extended this offer to Muslim students at Middlebury, too.
After traveling from Arafat to Muzdalifa to spend a night in the desert, she returned to Mecca with her group to perform the next ritual, the Jamrat. During this ritual, pilgrims stone the pillar of Jamrat, an act that symbolizes casting away the negativity in one’s life. Hussain said many pilgrims believe that when they throw the stones, they are hitting the devil.
Once these major rituals have taken place, an animal is sacrificed, which allows a pilgrim to exit the purification state of Ihram. To signify this transition, men will typically shave their head and women will cut off around an inch of their hair. Pilgrims are then also allowed to resume their normal hygienic practices.
The last ritual of Hussain’s Hajj took place in Mecca, where she returned to perform the farewell tawaf, this time from outside the state of Ihram. With each journey into and out of the state of Ihram, Hussain said her life changed in ways that have allowed her to realize the meaning of her connection to God and who she truly is as a spiritual being.
“The Hajj takes you out of autopilot, and that is the purpose of pilgrimage,” Hussain said. “To get out of the mundane and into the sacred ... What it did for me is that it disrupted the monotony, or the human sort of heedlessness that we often find ourselves in.”
Ultimately, Hussain’s journey to step out of the mundane of everyday life is one that she knows will be ongoing, which is why she plans to make the Hajj every year.
“It doesn’t mean you have to have it all figured out, but I think it’s the questioning that’s important,” she said. “Because if we can’t question things, then we will just be in autopilot forever.”
(09/26/19 10:05am)
After years of growth spurts, you can only withstand sleeping so many nights in a too-small-bed. Adam Wisco ’22, a varsity hockey player measuring in at six feet “and a quarter,” hadn’t given much thought to the inconveniences of snoozing in a twin XL prior to founding Bigg-A-Bed, but there was one thing that was for sure: “It definitely wasn’t nice.”
“Then I got a girlfriend,” he said. From there, he came up with the idea to create an extension piece that would hook onto the side of the school-provided bed frame to accommodate a full-size mattress. Countless dorm room conversations, hours of research and one $1,500 grant later, Bigg-A-Bed, Middlebury’s new student-run bed extension company, was born.
Wisco’s initial vision started out last April with nothing more than a hockey stick and some bed measurements. Using those measurements, he created a design in which the proposed hockey stick extension would slide into a 3D printed attachment piece that would hook onto the side of the bed frame.
Then, he did what any good entrepreneur would do: He sought the input of his potential buyers, who seemed more than enthusiastic about the idea. His floormates were the first to be consulted.
“It was all I talked about for a very long time,” Wisco said. At the same time, some of Wisco’s peers were pursuing similar, competing ventures, like Middorm, an affiliate of Roomie mattress rentals, and Rockefeller Beds, a company with origins at Dartmouth College.
Upon gauging that there were plenty of students who would jump at the prospect of sleeping in a bigger bed, Wisco took the design to the Makerspace in the Freeman International Center and printed out a plastic prototype for the attachment piece.
Equipped with his prototype, Wisco decided to take the idea to the Innovation Hub. He applied for a MiddCHALLENGE grant, a highly competitive application for students hoping to fund their business or social entrepreneurship ideas.
Wisco was accepted as a finalist and took his hockey stick prototype to pitch his idea to local entrepreneurs and alumni. They liked what they saw and awarded him a $1,500 honorarium to support preliminary expenses, under the condition that he submit a log of his progress each month.
Wisco then tested more than 30 different designs, using the money to experiment with different kinds of attachment piece prototypes. He spent up to four hours a day working on the design towards the end of last year and through the summer in search of a model that best incorporated simplicity, safety and cost efficiency.
“At the time, I was like, ‘okay, I guess I need a bunch of broken hockey sticks,’” Wisco said.
He began testing the hockey stick model out on his own bed, but Wisco soon discovered that while broken hockey sticks worked well in theory, they were all built differently, and were too expensive to manufacture in mass quantities.
“I had to think of what else I could use that was strong like a hockey stick, but that you can get in custom quantities in relatively uniform size,” he said.
By the end of the year, Wisco found a local company that would make custom cut metal to replace the hockey sticks as the extension piece. The only problem was that the metal didn’t fit his original attachment piece prototype.
“Inch by inch, I had to adjust the design of the hook to fit the metal piece,” he said. “At that point, if people asked to buy one, I could have said yes because there was something tangible that could go on beds and that people could sleep on.”
By mid-April, Wisco’s roommate, Paul Flores-Clavel ’22, began to tackle the advertising aspects of the venture. Bigg-A-Bed promotion posters soon lined the halls of dorms and academic buildings all over campus.
But the design was far from complete. Over the summer, Wisco continued to work on the evolving model at home in Canada, even as he started taking orders in July.
“I didn’t want to make people bring their own full-sized mattresses, so we came up with the idea to use foam to put on top of the metal extension,” he said. Wisco then found a company to custom cut foam, another to mass produce the hooks, and one to cut the wood for the support beam that would sit on top of the metal.
By that point, Flores-Clavel had revamped the informational website that Wisco created in the spring into a business from which buyers could choose from a wide array of options.
“I wanted to give people customizable options for their bed,” Wisco said. “You can buy just the frame, the foam and the frame, a topper, no topper, or you can rent and store the topper with us for any semesters you want. We wanted to adjust the product to what each person actually wanted, rather than saying, ‘Here’s what we’re giving you and you have to deal with it.’”
Due to his Visa restrictions, Wisco cannot do any work for the company while in the U.S., so he appointed Cathy Han ’22 to manage and run the business. Fyn Fernandez ’22 is in charge of deliveries, pickups and making sure everything is in order at the company’s on-campus storage container.
At this stage, Wisco is hoping for enough sales to help offset the research and manufacturing costs that went into building the company. Aside from the MiddCHALLENGE grant, Wisco funded the project entirely himself
“I tried to price it so that it would cover most of my costs, but I underestimated,” he said.
“When I’m home for breaks, I’m going to see what we can do better for next year, and how we can streamline the process,” he said.
So far, 50 people have ordered the company’s bed extension in some form.
“Someone else’s parent posted the company website on the parents’ Facebook page, so I’m just excited to see that people have really taken to the idea,” Wisco said.
(09/19/19 10:05am)
Middlebury College broke ground on an anaerobic digester facility at the end of August, pushing the college towards its goal of using 100% renewable energy sources by 2028. The digester, the first of its kind in Vermont, will combine cow manure and food waste to convert the energy stored in organic materials present in the manure into Renewable Natural Gas (RNG).
During the event, spokespeople from the college, Vanguard Renewables, Goodrich Farm and the State of Vermont gathered at Goodrich Farm in Salisbury, Vt., to discuss the significance of the facility for the community and the college.
“This is a unique partnership between a Vermont college, local dairy farm, utility, and renewable energy company,” said John Hanselman, executive chairman and CEO of Vanguard Renewables. “The exciting result will be a sustainable source of energy that didn’t previously exist and the recycling of tons of organic waste that was once sent to landfills. The project will also enable food producers and users in Vermont to comply with Act 148, Vermont’s Universal Recycling law that bans all food waste from landfills and goes into effect in 2020.”
Vanguard, a renewable energy company based in Wellesley, Mass., will build, own and operate the digester. Vanguard currently owns and operates five other digesters located in Massachusetts, and its collaboration with Middlebury will be its first with a college.
“There isn’t another college in the country that’s in a partnership with a digester,” Hanselman said. “Middlebury is a true leader in this regard.”
The college will be the primary consumer of the RNG produced at the dairy farm. The energy from the digester is created by combining locally sourced food waste with the cow manure. This allows for a process of anaerobic digestion to take place and produce renewable gas that will be used to supply approximately 50% of the energy the college uses for heating and cooling. The other 50 % will be supplied by the college’s biomass plant.
Gabe Desmond, ’20.5, a student organizer and summer Sustainability Solutions Lab intern, toured the project site at Goodrich Farm.
“Although we meet the majority of our heating needs from gasifying woodchips in our biomass plant, during peak consumption, we still rely on fossil fuels, namely fracked natural gas,” he said. “Fracked gas is not only bad in terms of climate change, but it is also detrimental to the communities who live near fracking sites. Transitioning to RNG that comes from manure and food waste will allow us to stop relying on fracking, while also repurposing food waste and manure.”
Vermont Gas, another shareholder in the Goodrich Farm digester, is spearheading the construction process of the five-mile pipeline that will connect the farm with the company’s pipeline network in Addison County. Once completed, the natural gas produced at the farm will travel via the pipeline to Middlebury College’s main power plant.
Beth Parent, the communications and brand manager of Vermont Gas Systems, said that her company is the first local distribution company in the country to offer customers a renewable natural gas service.
“With the Vanguard project, VGS is proud to have a local source of RNG, with all of the benefits it brings to this community and our state,” she said. “This is another big win for Vermont — a big step forward in helping achieve Vermont’s clean energy goals, and we at VGS are proud to do our part.”
The digester is expected to produce 180,000 Mcf per year, with each Mcf containing 1,000 cubic feet of renewable natural gas. The college will buy 100,000 Mcfs from Vanguard, Vermont Gas will buy 40,000 Mcf and Vanguard will retain 40,000 Mcf.
While the partnership between Middlebury College, Vanguard Renewables, Vermont Gas and Goodrich Farm was announced in 2017, the Goodrich family and the college first engaged in talks of such a project over a decade ago, and have been working on it in various forms ever since.
“Our family is excited to see this project transition from a dream into a reality,” said Chase Goodrich, who is among the fourth generation of his family to operate the farm.
The farm will reap the benefits of the digester, both environmentally and financially; free heat for farm use and an annual lease payment for hosting the digester will diversify the farm’s revenue sources.
According to Vermont Secretary of Agriculture Anson Tebbetts, the environmental benefits of the digester all have serious potential to transform the dairy industry, one of the main contributors to climate change. These benefits include the production of quality liquid fertilizer that will reduce reliance on chemical fertilizers, as well as a reduction in the farm’s phosphorus levels and greenhouse gas emissions.
At the digester’s launch, Tebbetts credited the Goodrich family for their leadership.
“We hope a project like this spark more innovative partnerships that include other Vermont farms,” Tebbetts said.
President Laurie Patton voiced a similar sentiment, confident that the facility will “provide our students and faculty with new research and teaching opportunities” and will serve as a fundamental component in the college’s Energy 2028 plan.
The 2028 initiative also includes a 25% reduction in overall energy use and a complete divestment of Middlebury’s endowment in fossil fuels.
Construction of the anaerobic digester is slated to be completed by 2020.
(05/09/19 9:58am)
The Middlebury women’s tennis team battled to the very end this Sunday before falling to second-seeded Wesleyan 2-5 in the NESCAC Championship on the Proctor tennis courts. On Friday, the Panthers blanked fourth-seeded Amherst 5-0 to advance to the final for the fourth-straight year. Wesleyan will receive an automatic bid into the NCAA tournament with Middlebury now boasting a 16-2 record for this season.
“I think we can all agree that this is the strongest our team has ever been physically and mentally,” senior Christina Puccinelli ’19 said. “Even though we may not be thrilled with the results of this past weekend, we are all extremely confident in our ability to take it all the way at NCAAs … I’ve got two more weeks playing tennis with my ten best friends, and I don’t intend to waste them.”
On Friday during doubles play, Middlebury swept all three doubles matches. The junior duo of Katherine Hughes and Skylar Schossberger posted an 8-2 victory in the second flight over Camille Smukler and Anya Invenitsky, while Puccinelli and Maddi Stow ’20 clinched an 8-6 win against Anya Ramras and Maddie Dewire in the third slot. The top squad of Heather Boehm ’20 and Ann Martin Skelly ’21 triumphed 8-7 (1) over Kelsey Chen and Jackie Bukzin to secure the 3-0 lead.
In singles action, Boehm eased past Bukzin 6-0, 6-1 at the No. 1 spot, while Puccinelli posted a 6-2, 6-4 victory over Dewire in the third flight. As for the remaining matches which went unfinished due to the Panther’s 5-0 lead, Hughes and Smukler split sets at No. 2 singles, with Hughes up 1-0 in the third. At the No. 4 spot, Schossberer also split the first two sets with Ivenitsky, trailing Ivenitsky 0-2 in the third set. In the fifth slot, Amherst’s Claire Evans clinched the first set against Stow and was up 3-2 in the second, while Middlebury’s Emily Bian ’21 claimed the first set at the No. 6 spot over Camilla Trapness, down 1-3 in the second.
On Sunday during doubles, the Panthers secured a 2-1 lead, grabbing points at No. 1 and No. 2 doubles. The No. 1 duo of Boehm and Skelly toppled Victoria Yu and Kristina Yu 8-2, after which the Cardinals tied the match at 1-1 with an 8-5 win in the third spot. The No. 2 pair of Hughes and Schossberger triumphed 8-6 over Venia Yeung and Polina Kiselva, however, to solidify the team’s 2-1 advantage.
“Wesleyan played like they had nothing to lose,” Boehm said. “Every point was close, we just got a little unlucky here and there and the score was definitely not indicative of the play … The men’s team actually lost NESCACs to Bowdoin last year, and they ended up beating them in the NCAA final when it really mattered. We brush this loss off, because at the end of the day, we came here to win a national championship.”
During singles play, the Cardinals grabbed the first four points to win the match, posting a straight-set win at the No. 3 spot followed by a three-set triumph at the No. 4 spot. Wesleyan advanced to a 4-1 lead after securing a three-set win at No. 5 and a three-set victory in the second flight as well. As for the two matches remaining when Wesleyan clinched the winning point, the Cardinals claimed the opening set in each one. Victoria Yu edged Boehm 7-6 (5) in a first-set tiebreaker in the top flight, with Boehm leading 3-0 in the second set. At the bottom of the lineup, Wesleyan’s Alissa Nakamoto triumphed over Bian 7-5 in the first set, with the second set tied at 4-4.
With many of the matches being close three-setters for the Panthers, their championship loss was heartbreaking to say the least. However, it will only make them stronger as they prepare for the NCAA tournament starting next weekend.
“It actually takes a lot of pressure off of us,” Boehm said. “The love we have for each other is unmatched by any team we played this season. We played an incredible match and just needed a few points here and there. Our goal is not to look back, and to just look forward at who our next matchup is.”
(05/02/19 9:57am)
The Panthers wrapped up their regular season this past weekend as they picked up two victories against No. 6 Amherst (9-0) and No. 16 Skidmore (8-1). On Saturday, the Panthers blanked Amherst at home inside the Nelson Recreation Center before heading to Skidmore on Sunday for a 1:00 p.m. match. The Middlebury women’s tennis team has now won eight straight matches in a row, bringing their overall record to 13-1 and 7-0 within the NESCAC.
“We feel very fortunate to be in the position that we are in right now,” senior Christina Puccinelli said. “We can look back on a season of long practices and grueling matches and know that we’ve done everything we can to prepare ourselves for our goals of winning the NESCAC and NCAA titles!”
The Panthers kicked off the match against longtime “rival” Amherst by grabbing all three points during doubles play. The No. 3 duo of Puccinelli and Maddi Stow ’20 blanked Jackie Ahn and Laura Swenson 8-0, while the top squad of Heather Boehm ’20 and Ann Martin Skelly cruised past Risa Fukushige and Renee Karchere-Sun 8-2. The No. 2 junior duo of Katherine Hughes and Skyler Schossberger posted an 8-1 victory over Lily Feldman and Sofia Carlsson to secure the team’s third point.
The Panthers crushed their singles matches as well, sweeping all six points in straight sets. At the top of the lineup, Boehm won 6-3, 6-0, while Hughes clinched a 6-4, 6-0 victory against Smukler at the No. 2 spot. In the third flight, Puccinelli won 6-3, 6-3 against Dewire, while Schossberger triumphed 6-4, 6-3 over Ivenitsky at the No. 4 spot. At the No. 5 spot, Stow posted a 6-4, 6-1 victory against Camilla Trapness before Emily Bian ’21 rounded out the scoring with a 6-3, 6-4 win against Ramras at the bottom of the lineup.
On Sunday against Skidmore, the Panthers once again took all three doubles points. The No. 3 tandem of Puccinelli and Stow came out firing to earn an 8-0 victory over Jackie Ahn and Laura Swanson, while Boehm and Skelly eased past Risa Fukushige and Renee Karchere-Sun 8-2 in the top flight. At the No. 2 spot, Hughes and Schossberger clinched the team’s third point with an 8-1 win against Lily Feldman and Sofia Carlsson.
In singles action, Puccinelli did not drop a single game as she cruised past Karchere-Sun 6-0, 6-0 at the No. 3 spot. In the second flight, Hughes secured the team’s fifth point and overall victory with a 6-2, 6-0 win against Kaiova, Schossberger clinched a 6-2, 6-4 win against Feldman at the No. 4 spot. Emily Bian blanked her opponent at the bottom of the lineup and Stow posted a 6-4, 6-0 victory at the No. 5 spot. Skidmore picked up one point with a straight-set win at the top of the lineup for the final 8-1 score.
The Panthers are heading into the postseason on a high note as they eagerly anticipate the NESCAC Championships and NCAA playoffs. “We have five days to prepare for the NESCAC tournament and we plan to use them wisely,” Puccinelli said. “We all have individual projects that we come to practice with each day, and we will continue to work on those projects throughout the rest of the postseason. While we are all incredibly excited for the conference tournament, it will be important for us to approach this weekend just as we have every other weekend this spring.”
Middlebury will host the NESCAC Championships next weekend on the Proctor Tennis Courts.
(05/02/19 9:53am)
There’s something about dumping leftover food on dining hall carousels and watching it slide out of sight that just makes it seem to disappear. A new student-led initiative, sponsored by the SGA Environmental Affairs Committee, is trying to change that by assessing and publicizing data about quantities of food waste that students left behind in Proctor Dining Hall last week. From Monday through Friday, Middlebury dining staff weighed all uneaten food at the end of each lunch period and reported the results back to students Ryan Guttheil ’22 and Jiaqi Li ’22, the forces behind this year’s Weigh the Waste campaign.
The project, sponsored by SGA’s Environmental Affairs Committee, originally started in 2013 by Cailey Cron ’13.5 and Molly Shane ’13.5, is part of a broader effort in cooperation with dining to increase student awareness of food waste. According to an article published by The Campus in 2013, the college was reporting approximately 300 tons of food waste annually, but did not produce data on how much came from students who still had uneaten food on their plates. In the first collection, the campaign found nearly 140 pounds of edible waste in Proctor Dining and 160 pounds in Ross.
Guttheil first proposed a revival of the campaign to Head of Dining Operations, Dan Detora, in Winter Term, after growing tired of seeing students who simply “weren’t hungry anymore” continue to throw away uneaten food.
“Food waste has always been something that bothered me because it is so avoidable,” Guttheil said.
Detora, who agreed to handle logistics, left the design of the campaign primarily up to Guttheil and Li. They then emailed Head of Proctor Dan Boise to devise a way in which to make excess food waste more visible to the student body.
To better discern how much edible waste students are responsible for, they agreed to weigh all excess food coming into the conveyor belt at the end of each lunch period, beginning on Monday, April 15. On the first day, they reported a total of 106 pounds of waste. Before dining staff weighed the waste on a scale, they put it through a pulper to extract excess water and break the components down to prepare the waste for composting.
While composting has promising environmental benefits of its own, composted materials still release greenhouse gases as they decompose. And the campaign organizers believe holding consumers responsible for their actions may better address the underlying causes of food waste, while composting might only ameliorate its environmental consequences after the fact.
“Even though we compost, it’s a matter of not wasting the resources that have been put into making the food,” Guttheil said. “It took a lot of water, a lot of sun energy and a lot of time energy for that food to be made only for it to go to waste.”
Guttheil, Li and Detora discussed the manner in which to best increase visibility of student-generated waste at length. While the previous Weigh the Waste campaign put clear plastic buckets on display into which students dumped their waste, Guttheil said that Detora wanted this campaign to cultivate awareness of the community’s contributions, rather than to “waste-shame” individual students.
Results showed a gradual decrease in the amount of excess food waste as the week progressed. Tuesday’s data reported 119.5 pounds of waste, Wednesday saw 102 pounds, Thursday saw 92.5 pounds and Friday saw 63 pounds. It is unclear, however, how much of this decline can be attributed to student initiative, as Guttheil pointed out that dining was processing a lot more volume than usual that week due to the influx of prospective students during Preview Days.
“We would have liked the numbers to go down in a way that was more clear,” Guttheil said. “Unfortunately, there was not as much of a behavioral change as we had hoped, but the goal was mainly to bring awareness to the issue.”
To balance out the quantitative weight of the campaign, members of the Environmental Affairs Committee and the Green New Deal Town Hall tabled outside Proctor all week to discuss the results and their potential implications. After each day, Guttheil printed signs of the results to hang outside Proctor to encourage students to aim for better results the next day.
Gutheil said that even slight changes to our eating habits, such as “taking less food on your first trip in, or making sure that you are actually going to eat what you take,” could have substantial economic, environmental and community benefits. For next year’s Weigh the Waste campaign, Li and Guttheil hope to implement a sort of friendly “competition” between Proctor and Ross to increase incentive.
The results of this year’s project can be accessed in more detail at go/weighthewaste.
(04/25/19 9:59am)
The No. 3 Middlebury women’s tennis team took a road trip north this past weekend, beating long-time rival No. 6 Bowdoin (8-2), before finishing off Bates 8-1 that same afternoon. With these wins under their belt, the Panthers move to 7-0 in the league and 13-1 overall.
On Saturday morning against Bowdoin, Middlebury came out firing, sweeping all three points during doubles play. The No. 2 junior duo of Katherine Hughes and Skylar Schossberger posted an 8-4 win against Izzy Essi and Tasha Christ, while the No. 3 tandem of Christina Puccinelli ’19 and Maddi Stow ’20 eased past Sarah Shadowens and Fleming Landau 8-3. In the top flight, Heather Boehm ’20 and Ann Martin Skelly ’21 triumphed 8-7(2) over Julia Mark and Devon Wolfe, saving three match points along the way. Additional doubles points have gone a long way for the Panthers this season, as they have historically carried most of their strength in singles.
“It’s so fun to see us improving at doubles because traditionally we have been a very strong singles team with okay doubles, but now our plays are really taking off and you can see us having fun on the court,” Boehm said. “There is no better feeling than beating a top team on their home courts.”
The doubles sweep set the Panthers up well for singles play. At the top of the lineup, Boehm won for the 12th-straight time by 6-1, 6-0 scores against Marks. Puccinelli posted a 6-1, 6-2 victory against Wolfe at No. 3. Singles, while Hughes clinched a 6-4,6-0 win over over Christ at the second spot. Schossberger defeated Essi 7-5,6-4 at No. 4, before Stowe secured the team’s victory after a marathon of a match. At the No. 5 spot, she triumphed over Sasa Jovanovic (5-7, 6-0, 10-7) to give the Panthers the final 8-1 score.
“Beyond the score, we were really happy with how we competed and the positive energy that we were able to bring to every single court,” Puccinelli said. “We played with sportsmanship and class, and we all felt that we represented Middlebury in the best light.”
After easing past Bowdoin, the Panthers traveled further north to Bates, where the Bobcats proved to be no match for the Panthers. Once again, Middlebury took all three double points, as Stowe and Norah Dahl ’21 posted an 8-4 victory at No. 3 over Isabelle Rovinski and Suzanne Elfman, while Hughes and Schossberger cruised to an 8-3 win against Bella Stone and Anna Rozin in the top flight. In the second spot, Skelly and Catherine Blazye ’20 secured an 8-6 victory over Hannah Sweeney and Lauren Hernandez.
In singles action, Stow gave the Panthers a 4-0 lead after she cruised past Elfman 6-0,6-1 at No. 4, before Puccinelli blanked Stone in the second spot to give the team their fifth point and solidify their overall victory. Hughes triumphed over Sweeney 4-6,6-2,10-3 at the top of the lineup, before Ruhi Kamdar ’21 rounded out the scoring with a 6-4, 5-7, 1-4 win at the No. 6 spot.
The Panthers will return to the courts this Saturday when they host No.7 Amherst at 1:00 p.m.
(04/18/19 9:59am)
It was another big weekend for the No. 3 ranked Middlebury women’s tennis team, as they eased past No. 8 Tufts (7-2) on Saturday and No. 9 Williams (7-2) on Sunday at home on the Proctor Tennis Courts.
On Saturday morning, clear skies and 70-degree weather drew an array of spectators to the courts as the team played their first outdoor home match of the season. To kick things off, the Panthers grabbed two out of three points against the Jumbos during doubles play. At the No. 2 spot, the junior duo of Katherine Hughes and Skylar Schossberger blanked Anna Lowy and Nicole Frankel, after which Christina Puccinelli ’19 and Maddi Stow ’20 doubled the lead with an 8-2 triumph over Tomo Iwasaki and Patricia Obeid.
Of course, playing outdoors again for the first time came with challenges of its own. For one thing, the Panthers had to ease into the slower-paced ball and longer points that distinguish outdoor play from the fast-paced play of indoor hard courts. Moving forward, sophomore Emily Bian says that “incorporating more slices and lobs to change up the points” will be crucial to adjusting accordingly. The wind also proved to be an obstacle, but nothing that the Panthers couldn’t handle.
“It was a little tricky at first with the wind, but I believe we all embraced the challenge,” Hughes said, as the team was ultimately able to persevere through the weather conditions.
In singles play, Schossberger swung past Carolin Garrido 6-0, 6-0 at the No. 4 spot, while Heather Boehm ’20 posted a 6-2, 6-2 victory against Iwasaki in the top flight. At the No. 3 spot, Puccinelli edged past Obeid 7-6 (2), 6-4, while Stow secured a 6-1, 6-4 win against Frankel in the fifth spot. Bian sealed the Panthers’ victory as she clinched the team’s fifth point with a 6-3, 6-0 win against Kiara Rose at the bottom of the singles lineup.
The women’s tennis team increased their winning streak to five on Sunday morning against Williams, getting a sweet taste of revenge after falling to them last year during the season and in the NESCAC finals. During doubles play, the Panthers once again took two of the three points, as Hughes and Shossberger edged Emily Zheng and Korina Neveux 8-6 at the No. 2 spot. In the top position, the powerhouse duo of Boehm and Ann Martin Skelly ’21 posted an 8-4 victory against Leah Bush and Julia Pham.
In singles, the Panthers advanced to a 3-1 lead when Hughes clinched a 6-2, 6-0 win against Chloe Henderson at the No. 2 spot. In the fourth flight, the Ephs closed in with a straight set win to make the score 3-2, to which Middlebury responded by taking the final four singles matches to finish. Puccinelli sweeped Neveux 6-1, 6-1 in the third spot, while Boehm cruised past Bush 6-3, 6-2 at the top of the lineup. At the No. 5 spot, Stowe put up quite the fight after dropping the opening set, coming back to win the match 1-6, 6-4, 10-3 against Pham. Bian rounded out the scoring at No. 6 with a 6-4, 6-4 triumph against Maxine Ng to secure the Panthers’ 7-2 victory.
“This weekend was a great weekend for MWT,” Bain said. “We really showcased our grit, resilience and competitive spirit this weekend. Tufts and Williams are a loud and skillful team, but we came out swinging, executed our strategy and the score took care of itself.”
The Panthers will travel to No. 6 Bowdoin next Saturday for a 9:30 a.m. faceoff, before driving to Bates that afternoon for a 3:30 p.m. match.
(04/11/19 10:00am)
The Middlebury women’s tennis team wrapped up one of the most monumental weekends in Panther history on Sunday, knocking off top ranked Emory (6-3) to hand them their first loss of the season. The Panthers also edged sixth ranked Wesleyan (5-4) on Saturday to boot, taking over their hold on the No. 5 national ranking, and cruised past Connecticut College 9-0 on Sunday to top off an impressive trio of victories.
Play began on Saturday inside the Nelson Recreation Center, where the Panthers grabbed two doubles points and three singles points during their match against Wesleyan. At the No. 2 doubles position, the junior duo of Katherine Hughes and Skylar Schossberger secured an 8-2 victory over Venia Yeung and Polina Kiseleva, while the top squad of Heather Boehm ’20 and Ann Martin Skelly ’21 posted an 8-2 victory against Victoria Yu and Kristina Yu.
“At number one doubles, Skelly and I were pretty nervous,” Boehm said. “We are usually a No. 3 or No. 2 doubles team, and this was completely unexpected for us. But we really capitalized on the opportunity, executed all of our plays that we have been working on for the past few months and saw some huge success.” Boehm also noted that “the brutal morning work outs” seemed to pay off on the courts this weekend, as the team was fitter than ever.
During singles play, Boehm eased past Victoria Yu 6-2,6-0, while senior Christina Puccinelli triumphed over Kristina Yu 7-6(5), 6-3 at the third spot. At the fifth spot, Maddi Stow ’20 secured the team’s 4-3 lead with a 6-2, 6-4 victory over Alissa Nakamoto.
“We have a saying that ‘we want to win with all 13 of us (including our coaches),’ and we did that in all three of our matches this weekend,” Boehm added. “Whether players were on court or cheering from the sidelines, every single member contributed to our wins over top teams in the country.”
On Sunday against Emory, during what was arguably MWT’s “biggest win ever,” according to Boehm, the Panthers took all three points during doubles play. At the No. 2 spot, Hughes and Schossberger continued their winning streak as they clinched an 8-2 win over Emma Cartledge and Daniela Lopez. Boem and Skelly defeated Ysabel Gonzales-Rico and Defne Olcay in the top spot, while the No. 3 powerhouse duo of Puccinelli and Stow edged Christina Watson and Stephanie Taylor 8-7 (9).
In singles, at the No. 4 spot, Schossberger only dropped one game, beating Lauren Yoon 6-0, 6-1, while Puccinelli clinched a 6-4, 6-3 win against Olcay in the third spot. Boehm solidified the team’s 6-1 lead with a 6-1,6-4 victory over Lopez at the No. 2 spot. The Eagles secured wins at the No. 1, No. 5, and No. 6 spots, but the Panthers posted three consecutive victories to make the final score of the match 6-3. With Emory knocked out of the top seed and Middlebury now ranked fifth, this historic win will propel the Panthers past a significant obstacle on their road to the national championship.
To top the weekend off, the Panthers blanked Connecticut College, dropping only seven games in total during doubles play and achieving straight set wins in each of the singles matches. In doubles, the top tandem of Boehm and Skelly won 8-1 against Mariah Warren and Brooke Scully, while Emily Bian ’21 and Nora Dahl ’22 secured an 8-2 victory against Allison Falvey and Stephanie Simon in the third flight. Puccinelli and Stow defeated Meredith Kenny and Skylar Morgan 8-4 in the second pot.
In singles, Stow swung past Rachel Weiss 6-0, 6-0 at the No. 4 spot, while Hughes blanked Simon at the second spot, and Schossberger cruised past Scully 6-2, 6-0 at the third spot. In the fifth flight, Bian clinched a 6-2, 6-1 victory over Morgan, while Boehm posted a 6-1, 6-2 victory against Emily Migliorini in the top position. First year Ruhi Kamdar was the final scorer for the panthers, triumphing over Paige Braithwaite 6-1, 6-2 at the bottom of the singles lineup.
Coming off of such a successful weekend, maintaining humility will certainly be a key factor in the Panthers’ success. “We still understand that we need to take this season one match at a time,” Puccinelli said. “We will be playing tough teams every weekend from now until the NCAA tournament and we’re not going to underestimate a single one of them. We respect every team we play against and we need to take every match seriously if we’re going to have a chance of going all the way this season.”
Boehm also noted the importance of team trust when it comes to maintaining composure during high-stakes matches like those of this weekend. “We know that if we look to our left and right on the courts, whoever is playing next to us will do whatever they can to find a win,” she said.
The Middlebury women’s tennis team will return to action this Saturday when they host No.7 Tufts at 10:00am. On this current trajectory, it seems there is little that can stand in the Panthers’ way.
(03/21/19 9:58am)
The Middlebury women’s tennis team, now 2-0, continued their killer start to the season with a 9-0 sweep against No. 20 Brandeis (3-4) this past Saturday in the Nelson Recreation Center.
Once again, the Panthers showed no mercy as they started off the match by taking all three points during doubles play. The team dedicated an extensive portion of their training to honing in on doubles play during the fall and winter seasons, which proved effective on the court. No. 3 tandem of Maddi Stow ’21 and first-year Nora Dahl secured an 8-1 victory over Brandeis’ Sophia He and Ana Hatfield, while the junior duo of Katherine Hughes and Skylar Schossberger doubled the lead with an 8-2 win in the top spot against Olivia Leavitt and Lauren Bertsch. In the No. 2 position, the tandem of Heather Boehm ’20 and Ann Martin Skelly ’21 secured the Panthers’ 3-0 doubles lead with an 8-3 victory over Diana Dehterevich and Karen Khromchenko.
“The Brandeis team is very mentally strong and they will fight until the very last point is played, so we were very happy with how we responded to that challenge,” captain Christina Puccinelli ’19 said.
The Panthers were relentless in singles play as well. Puccinelli made the score 4-0 after she cruised past Khromchenko 6-2, 6-0 in the third spot. At the top of the lineup, Hughes posted a 6-3, 6-3 over Dehterevich, while Boehm triumphed 6-0, 6-3 over Leavitt in the second slot. Schossberger clinched a 6-1, 6-2 win over Bertch in the fourth slot, while Stow gave the Panthers an 8-0 advantage with a 6-1, 6-3 victory at No.5 over He. To top things off, Emily Bian ’21 completed the sweep at the sixth position after she clinched a 7-6(2), 6-2 victory against Hatfield.
“Over the next few weeks, we will be playing against some very strong teams and we can’t wait to see how we stack up against them,” Puccinelli said. “We have had a strong start to the season but there are still many more matches to play before the NCAA’s, so we’re all pretty confident that the best is yet to come.”
The sixth-ranked Panthers will return to the courts for their five-match marathon in California during their spring break trip. Competition will start at Cal State LA on Sunday, March 24 at 1 p.m. eastern. If the team continues to follow their current trajectory, the trip should give them the momentum to continue on their path towards winning the NCAA championship.
(03/14/19 9:58am)
The Middlebury alpine and nordic ski teams wrapped up a historic season this weekend at the 2019 NCAA Skiing Championships hosted by the University of Vermont, accompanied by crews of tailgating students and family members who cheered them on from the sidelines. While the team’s results were not necessarily reflective of their massive feats this winter, the Panthers placed 10th overall out of 21 scoring teams, coming out of the four-day championship with 150 points. Utah won the national title with 530.5 points, followed by Vermont (476) and Colorado (455).
On Friday at the Trapp Family Lodge, senior Lewis Nottonson’s stellar All-American performance paced the Nordic squad, as he completed the circuit in 56:56 to earn All-American status and a 10th place finish at the 20k classical race. Sophomore Peter Wolter finished next for the Panthers, crossing the line in 59:15 to place 30th overall. Rounding out the scoreboard for the men was senior Sam Wood, who completed the course in 1:00.05, securing the 35th spot overall.
“We had a really satisfying season with a ton of career best results from individuals and some of the better results as a team in recent years,” Nottonson said. “It was particularly fun to get a big group of freshmen this year who were all so psyched on training hard. Winning Middlebury Carnival was also a huge highlight. It’s tough to have everything line up where the nordic men and women, and alpine men and women all have exceptional days and to have that come together on home snow was pretty phenomenal.”
Despite the stellar conditions and a few standout individual performances, however, Nottonson said it was clear at the end of the weekend that “a lot of the team left NCAAs wanting more and feeling that as a team, we underperformed.”
On the women’s nordic side, sophomore Avery Ellis led the Nordic team in the 15k classic race, completing the circuit in 49:40, earning her 18th place overall. Junior Annika Landis was second to finish for the Panthers, securing the 25th spot in 50:25. Sophomore Alexandra Lawson was the final scorer, completing the course in 50:39 to land 28th overall.
Alpine races took place at Stowe Mountain Resort on Friday, where sophomore Justin Alkier’s ninth place GS finish in 1:58:42 earned him All-American honors and highlighted the second day of competition. Unfortunately, it proved to be a rough morning for the other men’s scorers, as both sophomore Erik Arvidsson and first-year Tim Gavett fell during their first GS run.
“We were well-prepared coming into the week, but between tactical mistakes and bad luck, the results just simply do not show what this team is capable of. We had some great individual runs that prove our potential, and I’m super excited to join the alumni cheer squad and watch the team grow over the next couple seasons,” senior Caroline Bartlett said.
(03/14/19 9:52am)
The sixth-ranked Middlebury women’s tennis team proved they will be a force to reckon with this spring, opening up their spring season over the weekend with a 9-0 home victory over Hamilton on Saturday, March 9.
The match took place indoors at the Nelson Recreational Center, where the Panthers kicked things off by picking up all three points in doubles play. The No. 3 doubles duo of junior Maddi Stow and first year Nora Dahl secured a swift 8-0 victory over Jane Haffer and Sarah Bargamian, while the tandem of junior Heather Boehm and sophomore Ann Martin Skelly continued the streak with an 8-2 win against Ajla Karabegovic and Kat Roberts. Securing the third point for the Panthers was Middlebury’s top junior duo of Katherine Hughes and Skylar Schossberger, who triumphed 8-2 over Sophia Aulicino and Audrey Chor.
“This weekend we were finally able to put what we have been working on in practice to the test,” Hughes said. “We have been really focused on our doubles play these past few weeks and I think all our work really showed this weekend. It is great to be back from abroad and compete next to my teammates.”
During singles play, the Panthers dropped a combined four games, with No. 3 Schossberger solidifying the team’s 4-0 singles lead after her 6-0, 6-0 victory over Haffer. At the No. 4 position, Maddie Stowe clinched a 6-1, 6-1 win over Kat Roberts. Hughes continued to dominate in singles as well, cruising past her opponent 6-0, 6-1 in the top singles position, while Boehm blanked Chor 6-0, 6-0 in the second singles flight. Sophomore Emily Bian put the panthers at an 8-0 advantage with a ruthless 6-0, 6-0 triumph at the bottom of the singles lineup, and at one spot above, freshman Emma Gorman finished off the sweep with a 6-0, 6-1 victory against Karabegovic.
“Our goal this season is definitely to win both a NESCAC championship and a national championship,” Bian said. “Last year, we came so close (second in NESCAC and a Final Four finish in NCAA), so we are all really excited to try and make Middlebury history by winning it all this year!”
With their sights set high, the team will continue to put the pieces together to accomplish this feat, as they take the countless hours spent over J-Term on fitness training and in the weight room to the court this spring.
The Panthers will play with another home crowd behind them on Saturday, March 16 against 18th-ranked Brandeis at 10:00 a.m.
(02/28/19 10:59am)
This past weekend, the Middlebury alpine and nordic ski teams returned to action for the first time since their historic carnival win on Feb. 16, finishing third out of fourteen teams at the EISA Championships hosted by Bates. The squad’s two biggest rivals, Dartmouth and the University of Vermont, stole the first and second place spots, getting a taste of revenge following last weekend’s narrow defeat by the Panthers at the Middlebury Carnival.
Alpine competition took place at Sunday River with harsh conditions chipping away at the Panthers’ overall speed. Nordic competition took place at Black Mountain in Rumford. While Middlebury usually finishes just a few points behind their fiercest competitors, the Panthers’ combined ski teams came out of the EISA Championships with 758 points, losing to Dartmouth (973) by a hefty 215 points and to the University of Vermont (965) by 207 points. Nevertheless, the team was able to deliver some promising results.
On the men’s side, the Panthers placed third outright in the slalom event. First-year standout Tim Gavett paced the team, completing his two runs in 1:52.98 to clinch the sixth overall spot. Next to finish for Middlebury was sophomore Justin Alkier, who was able to crack the top ten, placing ninth in 1:53.46. Senior Max Stamler was the final scorer for the Panthers in the slalom event, securing the 31st spot overall with a time of 1:59.38.
“This weekend’s conditions were extremely difficult and made it less likely for our entire team to be fast across the board because there was a lot more room for error,” Gavett said. “I think that our team has extremely high ceilings, and simply being able to ski fast and minimize mistakes will allow us to reach our potential and have the ability to consistently win carnivals.”
On the women’s side, sophomore Lucia Bailey once again proved her ability to consistently occupy top positions, crossing the line in 1:56.14 to place tenth overall. Senior Caroline Bartlett finished second for the Panthers in 1:56.47, which was good enough for 12th place. Rounding out the scoreboard for the women was sophomore Madison Lord, whose two-run time of 1:57.55 gave her a 16th place finish overall.
“In comparison to last week, I would say we didn’t perform our best due to challenging conditions,” Bailey said. “On a high note, we were able to punch some results in spite of the conditions. We ended the weekend qualifying a full team for NCAA championships!”
The nordic ski performances were nothing short of impressive, with first-year Samuel Hodges achieving a career best in the 20K classic with a time of 53:27. In the same race, the men’s team placed second overall. Sam Wood ’19 finished first for the Panthers and fifth overall with a time of 53:08, and fellow captain Lewis Nottonson ’19 completed the course with a time of 53:26. In the 10K freestyle race the previous day, three racers placed in the top eight including Wood, Nottonson and Peter Wolter ’21.
On the women’s side, junior captain Annika Landis led the team with a time of in the 45:55 in 15K classic and 13:47 in the 5K freestyle race. Following close behind Landis were Alex Lawson ’21 and Avery Ellis ’21, with Ellis skiing to the fastest 15K in her career at 46:24.
Landis applauded Ellis’ performance, pulling her into the last qualifying spot for the NCAA championship race. Additionally, she praised their consistent placement in the top three. “This consistency I think really speaks to the all around fitness of our team and our ability to dig deep and fight every weekend to give everything we can,” she said.
The Panthers will return to the slopes stronger than ever for the NCAA championships on March 6 hosted by the University of Vermont in Stowe, where they are anticipated to finish as one of the top teams. Middlebury has qualified a full team of 12 skiers for the first time since 2008, making the team one of six schools to earn this feat.
Landis has ambitious goals going into the weekend. “I think that Middlebury has the capability to earn the highest points of Eastern schools at NCAAs, especially if we bring the same determination, focus and energy to Stowe that we brought to Midd Carnival,” she said. “Additionally, it is a team goal to have an All-American skier (top 10) for men and women, alpine and nordic.”
(02/21/19 11:00am)
Not only did the alpine ski team return to campus Saturday evening with victories in both the slalom and giant slalom events, they took home an outright first place finish at their home carnival for the first time since 2004. Like on every carnival weekend, hundreds of Middlebury students gathered at the Snow Bowl on Saturday to cheer their fellow Panthers, as they donned neon jackets and sports jerseys. This weekend, the Panthers finished with 915 points to edge Dartmouth (908 points) and cruise past the University of Vermont (875 points). The Nordic ski team also put out an impressive showing on Friday at the Rikert Nordic Center, only further firing up the alpine ski team for Saturday’s races.
“To have both the Nordic and alpine ski teams come together on our only home weekend takes a lot of stars aligning, and it feels incredible to succeed knowing how much work every athlete puts in each day,” said senior captain Caroline Bartlett.
The men’s alpine team captured the giant slalom title on Saturday, featuring a victory from sophomore powerhouse Erik Arvidsson, who took home first place overall in Friday’s slalom event. Arvidsson completed his weekend sweep with a two-run time of 2:05.87 to capture the giant slalom title, while first-year Tim Gavett stole the second overall spot in 2:06.18. Rounding out the scoreboard for the Panthers was sophomore Justin Alkier, whose time of 2:06.85 put him in fifth place.
“This weekend was just an unbelievable experience,” said Arvidsson. “We have been so close to having everyone click on the same day, and this weekend we finally got it to happen.… With the team skiing the way it is right now, anything is possible.”
On the women’s side, Bartlett led the Panthers to a victory in the giant slalom event with a two-run-time of 2:12.57, raking in the fifth giant slalom win of her career (three of which were at Middlebury Carnivals). Senior Lexi Calcagni was next to finish for the Panthers in 2:14.47, good for seventh place overall, while sophomore Lucia Bailey crossed the finish line just .02 seconds behind her, taking the eighth overall spot in 2:14.49 to secure the team’s second-place finish in the event.
“This weekend was a culmination of years of work and passion — I couldn’t ask for a better ending to my four years at Midd,” said Bartlett. “It will be super important to keep taking care of the controllable variables like equipment and health in order to maximize our training opportunities and prepare for our last few races of the season.”
The Panthers will build off the momentum from this historic weekend to bring the heat at next weekend’s races, where they will meet both Dartmouth and the University of Vermont again at the EISA Championships hosted by Bates.
(02/14/19 10:53am)
The Middlebury alpine ski team traded the beach for the slopes this February break as they competed in their fourth carnival race of the season this past weekend at Dartmouth’s Winter Carnival.
With 703 points, the Panthers currently sit in third place at the carnival, behind their top two competitors, the University of Vermont (914 points) and Dartmouth (913 points).
Slalom races took place at the Dartmouth Skiway on Saturday, with Friday’s GS races being postponed to Sunday, Feb. 17 due to bad weather.
Sophomore Erik Arvidsson once again proved his prowess on the slopes, leading the Panthers with a two-run time of 1:37.44, good for the sixth overall spot. Sophomore Justin Alkier was next to finish for the men’s side, placing 14th in 1:39.27, followed by senior Angie Duke, who earned the 18th overall spot with a time of 1:39.62. Senior Max Stamler had a promising first run, sitting in the eighth overall spot, until he fell four gates from the finish on the second run. Regardless, Stamler’s run only spoke to the team’s ability to occupy the top positions at any carnival.
“Dartmouth is a particularly easy hill, which means you really have to attack,” said Arvidsson. “In general, we held back a little on the first run, but everyone made nice adjustments.”
On the women’s slalom side, sophomore Lucia Bailey paced the Panthers with a time of 1:44.27, placing seventh overall. Sophomore Madison Lord was the second-fastest finisher for the women, clinching the 15th spot in 1:45.70. Rounding out the women’s scoreboard was senior Caroline Bartlett, who placed 19th with a two-run time of 1:46.37.
“Dartmouth Carnival is always a challenge for the circuit, and with the bad weather and broken chairlift, I think the team did a great job keeping composure,” said Bailey.
The alpine ski team will return to action next weekend for a team favorite, Middlebury’s own Winter Carnival.
“We love having everybody come out to cheer us on,” said Arvidsson. “We have skied on these hills so many times, and we have to take that knowledge into race day and utilize our home field advantage.”
With a home-turf edge and (hopefully) permitting weather, the team turns its focus this week toward winning a day on the men’s or women’s side. After all, what better place to do it than at home?