You Have To Learn To Be Courageous

David Jimenez, a graduating senior from Pittsburgh, discusses his Catholic faith, conservative perspectives, and the courage it takes to live with commitments that challenge the status quo. He reflects on the significance of his gap year in Camden, NJ, his founding of the Eisenhower Forum, and how exhausting it can be when living only with 18-22 year-olds. David heads to Romania on a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship and hopes to pursue a career in diplomacy.

People Want To Put a Label on You

Marcella Jimenez, a graduating senior from Dallas, Texas, discusses coming to Bowdoin from a bi-cultural and bilingual family. She reflects on her decision to become a Spanish major, the complex racial dynamics of her campus activism, and what she's learned from middle school girls.

We Are Afraid of Letting People Understand Us

Ryan Szantyr, a graduating senior from Poland, Maine, offers the advice he wishes he had heard as a first-gen student. A Government major and Cinema Studies minor, he weighs the uses and abuses of Yik Yak and reads students' aversion to vulnerability through Batman v Superman. Ryan meditates on failures of understanding on campus. He is Co-President of the Bowdoin Film Society.

Misconceptions Regarding Hooking Up Explained (for the older generation)

Anna Williams talks about what it was like to go to the same college as her two older sisters and father. She reflects on the challenges of developing a chronic illness in her first year, but how that experience led her to Peer Health. She describes how she learned to talk about her privilege, but fell short in cultivating friendships across difference. Anna will be an elementary school apprentice teacher next year.

Feeling the Weight of Bowdoin's History

Ashley Bomboka reflects on what it is like to be a black woman at Bowdoin who feels the weight of the College's long history. She discusses how she learned to process failure in the pursuit of knowledge. Ashley is President of the African American Society. She hopes to return to the Twin Cities after graduation.

Loneliness Isn't Valued Here

Graduating senior Michelle Kruk reflects on her experiences at Bowdoin as a Polish/Mexican woman from Chicago. She is Vice-President of the Bowdoin Student Government and Student Director of the Women's Resource Center. She heads to Poland on a Fulbright in a few months.