Issue 1

THE AMHERST

THE INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER OF AMHERST COLLEGE SINCE 1868

STUDENT VOLUME CXLVII, ISSUE 1 l FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 2017

Women’s Golf Primed For More Success See Sports, Page 10 AMHERSTSTUDENT.AMHERST.EDU

Raises in Family Contributions Surpise Students Shawna Chen ’20 Managing News Editor

Photo courtesy of Sarah Wishloff ’19

A group of first-year students meet with their squad during Orientation Week. Much of the programming remains similar to past years, though more events focused on the families of new students and building community by dorm.

Class of 2021 Arrives for Orientation Week Jingwen Zhang ’18 Editor-in Chief Amherst College welcomed 473 new students from around the country and the world on Tuesday, Aug. 29, kicking off the college’s orientation week, which included familiar programs from years past as well as new changes and improvements.

According to the Office of Admission, members of the class of 2021 were selected from a record-setting pool of 9,285 students, up 10 percent from last year. Of those applicants, 1,198, or 12.9 percent, were offered admission. One hundred and seventy-two students were admitted through early decision.

Students traveled to their new homes on the First-Year Quad from 388 secondary schools in 38 U.S. states and Puerto Rico as well as 26 countries. Of these students, 43 percent identify as domestic students of color. Men and women comprise nearly half the class each, with one student identifying as non-binary transgender.

The incoming class boasts record-high

scores and academic achievements, with an average SAT composite score of 2232 and ACT composite of 33. This year’s class was also the first to take the SAT in its new format.

Eighty-two percent of students ranked in the top decile of their high schools’ graduating classes.

Fifty-five percent of new students are receiving financial aid, and 11 percent are firstgeneration college students. In addition, 16 are transfer students, including two U.S. veterans.

Dean of Admission and Financial Aid Katie Fretwell ’81 said in an email interview that the new class brings “a tremendous array of talents and interests across the academic disciplines.”

“As a group, they have the distinction of having particularly strong aspirations for careers in diplomacy and foreign service and have had an unusually high participation rate in Model United Nations programs through their secondary schools,” Fretwell added.

This year’s orientation week includes familiar elements such as squad meetings, Sex-

ual Health Educator (SHE) skits, the DeMott Lecture and the “Voices of the Class” performance. Meetings on subjects like sexual respect and addressing bias will build on themes from previous years, but Dean of New Students Rick López said in an email interview that the format of some orientation events continues to “[move] away from having students listen to speeches” and toward “redesigning orientation events into small group dialogues.”

López said that some other changes geared toward students include longer academic advising and registration periods, a reception geared toward first-generation and low-income students, and at the request of student government members, the return of the classwide Honor Code signing event.

Also new to orientation are residence-hall specific dinners. “[Their] purpose is to help students create their own dorm identity, while also bonding with students in nearby dormitories,” López said. “Like all other events in orientation, our focus is on fomenting dia-

Continued on Page 3

When Claire Cho ’20 received her financial aid package in early July, she was shocked — her expected family contribution had doubled “without any indication that it would,” she said.

After conversing with friends and peers, she realized that a number of students’ expected family contributions had changed dramatically since their first year.

“People who were really close with me, especially my girlfriend, we were really unhappy with the way Financial Aid was handling it,” she said.

“It didn’t seem like just one or two people,” Cho added. “It seemed much more of a trend.”

The change in expected family contribution, as well as a seeming lack of transparency from the Office of Financial Aid, prompted Cho to gather data to assess the prevalence of this trend. In early August, she created an online survey about satisfaction with interactions with the Office of Financial Aid, asking if a student’s expected family contribution changed after their first year and whether a student had taken out loans to meet the expected family contribution. Other questions examined the financial aid appeals process and accessibility.

After creating the survey, she posted it on her personal Facebook page as well as the Class of 2020 Facebook page. Within three days, she was accepted into other class pages and began sharing her survey there. At press time, 115 students have responded to the survey, and she plans to reach out to other groups in the first few weeks of school. She hopes to receive responses from at least a quarter of the student body before conducting any analysis.

“It’s obviously going to be skewed toward people who do get financial aid or interact with the financial aid office, but hopefully we’ll have a good reach over all the students,” she said.

In addition to the changes in expected family contribution, which for some students tripled, Cho said survey responses revealed the unresponsiveness of staff in the Office of Financial Aid. “For a lot of people, it took two or more emails,” she said. “Some people said they had to resort to walking in and asking someone about it because there wasn’t a response in two weeks’

Continued on Page 3

Folger Shakespeare Library Given 1.5 Million Dollar Grant Emma Swislow ’20 Managing News Editor The Folger Shakespeare Library, administered by the college, was awarded a grant in August by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for $1.5 million to fund a four-year collaborative research project called “Before Farm to Table: Early Modern Foodways and Cultures.”

The Folger Library, located in Washington D.C., houses the world’s largest collection of materials on Shakespeare and was founded posthumously in 1932 by Henry Folger and his wife Emily Folger. According to the library’s Executive Director, Kathleen Lynch, Folger, who graduated from the college in 1879, first developed an interest in the Bard

after attending a lecture on Shakespeare by Ralph Waldo Emerson. In Folger’s will, he left the college with administrative control over the Folger library.

The project covered by the grant will focus on using interdisciplinary research techniques and Folger’s materials to study food pathways and the strong connection between food and culture in the early modern period.

The “untapped or neglected opportunity” in the Folger collections, according to Lynch, led to a focus on food. “Food is pervasive,” Lynch said. “It’s a basic necessity for survival.

But it’s also an indicator of culture and community and trade and economics. We’re demonstrating that our collections can support big questions that are not so obviously tipped off in our middle name — Shakespeare.”

While Lynch will head the initiative, three scholars — David Goldstein, Amanda Herbert and Heather Wolfe ’92 — will each lead a team of other academics.

“In a way, the three post-doctoral scholars will be the heart of the work, as they determine some of the emphases and products,” Lynch said. “They will have opportunities to advance their own individual research projects in the usual ways, but also to define new team products like an online edition of a play or a receipt book, a ‘mapping’ of the markets of London on a period map or a visualization of the use of certain terms — perhaps ingredients — over time.”

One project goal is to experiment with a more collaborative method of research. Rather than work as individuals each in their own

discipline, the scholars will work together, creating an interdisciplinary, collaborative project.

“Our idea in the new Mellon initiative in collaborative research is to set out a big set of issues and assemble teams of scholars, each with his or her own subject expertise, to have them talk across those areas of expertise,” Lynch said. “We need to broaden the scope of scholarly conversations to bring scholars and these experts into the same conversations.

We need to find new ways to bring some of the fruits of those discussions immediately out for our public audiences.”

Amherst students will also get a chance to participate in the project. The college faculty

Continued on Page 3

News

Natalie Sun June 1, 2017 - August 30, 2017

>>June 2, 2017 11:40 a.m., Webster Circle Officers checked on a male along College Street in response to a call from a concerned citizen. No assistance was needed. >>June 4, 2017 9:56 a.m., LeFrak Gym An officer assisted a summer program participant with a potential problem involving another member. >>June 14, 2017 9:44 p.m., Greenway Dormitory An officer discovered four students in the building, which was currently closed. The Office of Student Affairs was notified.

10:46 a.m., Merrill Science Road An officer investigated a report of unauthorized use of two golf carts. Two youths were identified and the matter was referred to Summer Programs administration. >>July 5, 2017 11:32 a.m., Keefe Campus Center An officer responded to a report of a woman in the building acting in an unusual manner. She was not found. >>July 10, 2017 8:31 a.m., Keefe Campus Center Officers assisted a person stuck in an elevator.

>>June 15, 2017 8:43 p.m., Chapman House Officers and the Fire Department responded to an alarm and found it was caused by use of a dirty stove.

10:22 a.m., Clark House Officers responded to a report of a male yelling in a wooded area along Seelye Street. An individual was seen but fled the area before officers could engage him.

10:50 p.m., Converse Hall An officer encountered three students in the building attempting to gain access to the roof.

They were identified and Student Affairs was notified.

>>July 12, 2017 9:42 p.m., Powerhouse Officers and the Fire Department responded to an alarm and determined excessive heat may have activated it.

>>June 16, 2017 7:50 a.m., Mead Art Museum An officer investigated an intrusion alarm and found it was accidentally set off by an employee.

>>July 16, 2017 2:43 a.m., Churchill House Officers investigated an intrusion alarm and suspect it was activated by an animal.

>>June 18, 2017 4:00 p.m., Cohan Dormitory An officer investigated a smoke detector sounding on the third floor and found that a resident decided to burn a letter. There was no other damage. The matter was referred to Student Affairs.

>>July 21, 2017 6:20 a.m., South Amherst College Drive An employee reported his vehicle was struck by a baseball while parked near Memorial Field.

>>June 21, 2017 2:54 p.m., Merrill Science Center Officers responded to a report of a man in the building attempting to sell books. He was located and advised that he needed permission. >>June 22, 2017 8:16 a.m., Merrill Science Center An officer checked on a report of a person who appeared to be residing in a first-floor lounge.

The person was identified as a student. >>June 24, 2017 9:36 a.m., Valentine Dining Hall An officer checked on a report of potential gas odor. Nothing unusual was found. >>June 25, 2017 3:04 a.m., Converse Lot An officer discovered an intoxicated male urinating near the bus stop. After identifying him, he was transported to his residence.

>>August 13, 2017 10:24 p.m., Campus Grounds An officer located a lost cat and delivered it to its owner. >>August 18, 2017 11:48 a.m., Converse Hall An officer investigated a report of a man tampering with a UPS drop box near Converse Hall. The man was identified as an employee of a company that repairs the boxes. >>August 21, 2017 6:30 a.m., Alumni House Officers investigated a smashed window and discovered someone had thrown a walnut through it.

8:29 a.m., Wilson Admission Center An officer investigated a fire alarm and found it was caused by cooking smoke. >>August 28, 2017 7:31 a.m., 40 Dickinson Street Officers and the fire department responded to reports of a fire in a dumpster truck.

Thoughts on Theses Department of Biology

Natalie Sun ’18 is a biology major, and her thesis examines parasitism in fledgling tree sparrows. Her thesis advisor is Ethan Clotfelter, professor of biology and environmental studies and dean of the class of 2020.

Q: Could you tell me about your thesis?

A: My thesis is looking at how parasitism, in particular blowfly larvae that suck blood, affects wild tree sparrows in a wildlife sanctuary, and more specifically how they affect fledgeling dynamics, so when and how they leave the nest, [and] how they move after they leave the nest.

Q: What inspired you to study that topic?

A: I mean, for [the biology] major, typically your thesis kind of follows what your advisor does and is heavily influenced by what they want to look at as well. So I can’t say that I had a huge choice in terms of this — but I did have a choice in choosing to work with Professor Clotfelter or not. And I guess I really wanted to work with animals. I’m really not a fan of lab or bench work, so a lot of the molecular-level stuff, although really interesting, is not really my cup of tea. But I prioritized really working with organisms on a more wholesome level, and since Professor Clotfelter worked with tree swallows, it really suited my interest. I had worked on tree swallows with him before as a SURF (Summer Science Undergraduate Research Fellow) student, so I kind of knew what research was going to be like … Those were kind of my motivations.

Q: So how far are you in the process — what have you accomplished so far?

A: Let’s see — all of my research, I think, has been collected … My data has been collected because all the research happens within a few short months, during May to late July … That’s the timing in which the tree swallows are actually in the fly-by sanctuary, and how we collect the data is we kind of go out every day in the field and we check on the nests, see how they’re doing, whether there are eggs, if those eggs have hatched … So a lot of the measurements and the data collection are directly on the bird itself. And they leave around late June, mid July, and once they leave, that’s kind of the end for the most part.

But for my project, I think there’s one last little bit of data we have to collect, and that has to do with radio tagging. We radio tagged some birds to gauge their movement, so there are a bunch of towers that are set up … and whenever they kind of get within range of a tower, they’ll ping, so we want those pings … That’s the last data we’re really waiting on. We’ll be collecting those until — I want to say early September? And that data gets sent to a company in Canada that then converts the data into something that’s more readable and analyzable for us. So that’s where I am in terms of data collection.

Q: What’s the next step, once you have all of your data? Where are you going to go from there?

A: I need to find a way to analyze it. Professor Clotfelter hasn’t really done this before. There’s very little research and literature on fledgelings and fledgeling movements. Typically a lot of the fledgeling literature that’s out there … is all about survival rates. So they kind of just gauge — you know, if a tag hasn’t been moving for a certain amount of time they go look at it, … [and] find it was eaten by a hawk or something. But we’re kind of hoping with this data that we can gauge where they go, and because we have data on how parasitized the nests that they came from were,

we’re hoping to compare kind of how they move depending on how parasitized they were.

So that’s one thing we have to do. I haven’t analyzed most of my results … We have a bunch of variables that we’ll need to control for, and [we’ll need to] compare metabolism data that we collected. The metabolism data, if I may explain — we stuck birds in this respirometry, which is basically this enclosed box where there’s a machine that pushes air through, and then it measures how much oxygen the bird has consumed, how much carbon dioxide it has exhaled, and that kind of allows for a base rate of their metabolism.

I need to find a way to integrate that into the larger picture of fledgeling dynamics, and I think that part might be a little challenging.

Q: Have there been any highlights in this process so far — any really good memories or moments from your research this summer?

A: I’m pre-vet, so working with wildlife is really exciting. And it’s an opportunity that I think I did not hold as dear when I was a freshman because I didn’t know … what it took to work with wildlife, whether you’re allowed to, and after working in clinics, working with birds has become a lot more valuable and just such a great experience for me.

Every day in the field is really fun. It might get a little long because, depending on the day, we might have like 20 nests to go through, and each nest might have five or six nestlings ... But I actually think the best moment was the longest day.

It was kind of a crazy day — we started around 8:30 a.m. outside, it was blazing hot, and I was out with one of the SURF students … trying to finish up the remaining nests. We were half delirious because it was really hot and we were really tired, but we were having so much fun. We were naming the birds, and I think the more tired we got, the more ridiculous the names got … We were out there for so long, and we were laughing, and it was a great moment.

Q: Do you have any advice for any thesis writers or people who are considering writing a thesis?

A: I haven’t gone through the crunch time yet, so I’m sure there’s better advice to give later on … I think the first piece of advice I’d give is probably to stick to deadlines. I have the privilege of being one of the few who have to collect all my data during a set period of time, so I have a lot more time to think things through, write my thesis, but even then, I think without the deadlines I personally have set, or my advisor has set for me, I can imagine it snowballing really, really hard and really fast, into something where in December you don’t really have anything together.

Another piece of advice I’d give is to approach it — the thesis — in a more optimistic way. I know a lot of people who sign up for theses who [think] ... “It’s going to be so much work … My life is going to be really hard.” But I think if you just change your mentality towards it — like, it’s going to be work, but it’s going to be really, really cool because we get this opportunity to work really closely with faculty, and which a lot of colleges and universities don’t offer. The range of topics that they offer is really cool as well. I guess the short version is to view it in an optimistic way — it’ll make your life a lot more enjoyable and easy.

— Kathleen Maeder ’19

The Amherst Student • September 1, 2017

News

3

New Programs Seek to Bolster First-Year Orientation Week Continued from Page 1 logue while creating community.”

Many students’ families accompanied them to campus to participate in orientation programming on Tuesday that was designed with guests in mind. President Biddy Martin addressed students and families in an all-new “President’s Welcome” event.

Receptions for guests and families in Spanish, Mandarin and Korean were also held on the first day. The Korean and Mandarin-language receptions were new this year.

López initiated the first such event for Spanish-speaking family members three years ago. “The session proved to be such a hit … This year we looked at our student body to think about whether we can extend the program to other languages,” he said. “We found that the two other languages that are most commonly spoken in students’ homes are Korean and Mandarin.”

According to López, these language-specific receptions featuring faculty, students and staff were designed following students’ feedback that some parents and family members could feel more welcome and better support their students after attending an informational session in the language most comfortable to them.

At the end of the first day of orientation, students were able to spend time with their families prior to their departure in a twohour “Family Block” time that was incorporated into the schedule.

On Friday, students departed from campus for Learn, Explore, Activate and Par-

ticipate (LEAP) programs, which focus on a specific topic or field of exploration with the added goal of bringing students closer together in small groups. In addition to longtime programs such as First-Year Outdoor Orientation Trips (FOOT) and Community Engagement Orientation Trips (CEOT), this year had a new addition — “Discover The Distant Past by Land, Sea and Air” — designed to introduce students to the region’s natural history.

On Sunday, students will return from LEAP. Convocation and the annual student organizations’ involvement fair will take place on Labor Day, and Tuesday will mark the first day of classes.

Photos courtesy of Sarah Wishloff ’19

New students moved in on Tuesday and dove into a full week of programming lasting through Sunday evening.

Programs at Folger Library Explore Collaboration in Research Continued from Page 1 regularly conduct research at the Folger, but a fellowship exists for students as well. “In addition to Amherst faculty doing research at the Folger, there is also a fellowship for students. We partner with Amherst on an annual two-week guided fellowship for Amherst undergraduates,” Lynch said. “Each student brings a research project of their own to the program, and they have two weeks to pursue that project in consultation with Folger staff, in discussions among themselves, and above all, in explorations in the library’s collections.”

In January 2018, these fellows will learn more about the research collaborative on their annual trip to the Folger in Washington

D.C. For now, Lynch has said the focus will mainly assess the collaborative aspects of the project and how this different model might contribute to the research.

“This initiative is about taking on a new experiment and achieving a better understanding of how these forms of collaboration succeed and where they don’t, but it’s not just about that,” Lynch said. “It’s a gamble that we will come out with a richly multifaceted understanding of the food cultures and food pathways in the early modern period in such a way as to genuinely learn from the discussions across disciplines and to learn, as well, from work that will have public outcomes as goals as well as more traditional scholarly outcomes.”

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Amherst faculty and students partner with the Folger Library in Washington, D.C.

Survey Reveals Students’ Frustration with Financial Aid Continued from Page 1 time.”

The survey also focused on the accessibility of financial aid documents, especially for low-income families and families of people of color, Cho said. According to Cho, a big gap is caused by a lack of support for languages other than English.

“For a lot of families where parents aren’t fluent in English, students are really the ones filling out forms on behalf of their parents,” she said.

Dean of Financial Aid Gail Holt emailed Cho about four days after the survey was publicized.

Cho said that Holt “shared my desire to make this information transparent and accessible on campus” and asked for an in-person meeting. Cho plans to meet with Holt in the fall after speaking to a few trusted administrators and mentors.

As responses rolled in, Cho made slight changes to the survey, including adding a section on loans. According to Cho, the Office of Financial Aid does not include loans in its financial aid packages, and almost 50 percent of the survey responses said students have taken out loans in order to meet the expected family contribution.

The amount of loans that respondents have had to take out range from approximately $2,500 to $25,000, said Cho. “Even if your expected family contribution

might be a lot higher than your family can afford to give in a certain semester, you’ll have to go out and find loans by yourself, and Amherst will only link to certain loans,” Cho said. “A lot of people felt frustrated that there was this hidden extra step to afford an education at Amherst.”

Cho said 60 percent of survey responses have contacted Financial Aid to appeal the decisions on aid packages. When asked if they felt like their appeal was processed in a timely manner, nearly 35 percent of those respondents said “a clear no,” and 98 percent supported the addition of an appeals process webpage that would outline who to contact for an appeal, what would qualify for an appeal and what deadlines to meet.

“Even when you’re in contact, they’ll be like, ‘Oh, we’re still not getting to appeals yet’ or will give a generic response,” she said. “There may be some circumstances where you don’t qualify for an appeal and you should know that before you go through all this challenge trying to get an appeal.

It actually takes a long time, and they don’t really get to it until July or August.”

For example, one student told Cho that her appeals process only officially ended in the beginning of August. Financial Aid sent a “generic worded letter” that stated the student didn’t qualify for more aid, but ayment for fall semester’s tuition was due Aug. 11. As a result, students have to

“scramble to get their loans out,” Cho said.

Eighty-three percent of survey respondents also supported a four-year estimate for their education, Cho said.

“It shows you how many people have been probably blindsided by how much their four-year education might cost at Amherst College,” Cho said. “The fact that Amherst College is sort of known for its generous financial aid means that that rhetoric might not always fall in line with what’s reality.”

When contacted, Holt wrote in an email that “we always welcome conversations with students and parents about how the financial aid process at Amherst works and their experience navigating it so that we can learn and continually try to improve.”

“The college awards more than $51 million each year in grant assistance to nearly 60 percent of the student body, and 75 percent of Amherst graduates are able to graduate debt-free,” she added.

Converse Hall houses the Office of Financial Aid on the basement level.

Opinion

THE AMHERST

STUDENT

You Belong at Amherst College

E X E C U T I V E B OA R D

Editorial When arriving at any new place, unfamiliarity and disorientation are expected. These feelings are both imagined and physical. Here you are, with unfamiliar thoughts, hallways and buildings. There’s a nervousness that comes with the mystery, but also a thrill. There’s an implicit promise that the corners will unfold themselves and that this place will lose its mystique and become a home.

Many people might concern themselves with your sense of belonging here at Amherst. Parents, friends, professors and administrators may ask you about how you are fitting in and whether you feel comfortable yet. Though posed with the best of intentions, this questioning can sometimes become overwhelming. This article itself is overly preoccupied with your belonging, though hopefully it can also draw you away from individual rumination to consider a broader view.

Whether we are seniors or first years, we often continue to experience an ongoing process of adjustment to our college. It is helpful to remember that most of us — if not all — still feel like we haven’t quite figured it out. You’ll likely hear many stories from people about how they met their best friend during an orientation event or on their first-year floor. But it’s comforting to know that this is not true for everyone and that orientation is not the be-all and end-all of establishing your roots. Take your time and don’t worry if your college experience doesn’t look or feel like a fairytale or Animal House.

Full-time adults who attended college often discuss it with a sense of yearning or nostalgia, perhaps claiming that these are “the best four years of our lives.” Perhaps this raw partial adulthood may make first-year fall feel steeped in invisibility and scrutiny as you gain your bearings. Maybe your home environment has grown, maybe it has shrunk, but the indefinite intimacy and the pressure of these years that should be the most fun and experimental are not always easy.

In fact, it is critical to resist this kind of nostalgic imagination because it can be restrictive or single-minded. The American

imagination of “college student” has shifted drastically in recent history, but there are lapses and delays in progress. It can be difficult for some — first-generation students or students of color, for instance — to feel as if they belong, because of a history of their absence. To feel absent can lead to attempting to assimilate or code-switch into the body of the ideal, embodied student as portrayed in popular film, advertisements or old class photos. We are all vulnerable to the single story, the desire to fit neatly into life or to fit others neatly into their lives. We all need to resist this tendency.

Given Amherst’s historical and present-day context, you may run into problems here — including systematic ones. Know that it is fair to be critical of Amherst. It is okay to still desire to belong and succeed here while also holding tenuous or difficult opinions about Amherst. It is healthy to be able to view the college with a critical lens — which is arguably better for this school, anyway.

Uncritical support for anything or anyone will fail to generate any productive ideas. The structure of criticism is more intimate by virtue of its honesty.

In that vein, learn to challenge your beliefs and others. Be wary of advice that appears seemingly polished and finished.

There is no easy or secret way to do Amherst. While adapting to the school, make it yours and not someone else’s.

Our homes are not our homes because we love them, but because we know them. For the class of 2021, this marks the beginning of your time learning about Amherst. By the end of your time here, you are sure to know this place in great detail.

You’ll know the corners of your first-year dorm room, the most efficient shortcuts across campus, your favorite food in town, certain rooftops, favorite professors and close friends. These memories and relationships — the literal and metaphorical paths you trace through campus — are what will make Amherst your home.

Hopefully, as you get to know Amherst, you will come to love it. But love should not be an obligation, and it always takes time.

A Letter to First Years on Friendship Phillip Yan ’18 Contributing Writer

When I fell on hard times over the summer, I turned to writing. I wrote down my thoughts and feelings. I poured my heart out.

Then, when I was finished, I shared the story with my friends online. I confided, and in doing so, relinquished ownership of my story.

My history — my life — was no longer just mine. It was now also the readers’. Through surrender, I had achieved catharsis. I felt as if a weight had been lifted off my shoulders, and I could finally breathe.

Almost immediately, I received a call from a friend asking if I was all right. I was taken aback — I had never received such a phone call. Most of the time, people reach out to me through email or online messages.

More surprising than the call, though, was the influx of support and well-wishes that came out over the next few days. In three days, I received more messages from different people than I had in the previous year. All of a sudden, I was surrounded by friends and people who knew me.

But I realized something. Many of the messages came from unexpected sources ... Many

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prefaced themselves by saying: “I know we’re not close, but I want you to know that I care …” I was lucky to be surrounded by so many wonderful people that I had met at Amherst.

But the scary thing is — had I been in a different place, or a little less lucky, or had these folks been a little less wonderful, I would have likely endured alone.

After all, I had few close friends growing up. I moved around a lot during middle and high school. During junior year of high school, I transferred to three different schools. My life was so unpredictable that I didn’t even know if it was worth it to remember the names of my classmates in homeroom.

Friendships were hard to come by, and those I had were even harder to maintain. When I went to college, I tried to keep in touch with the few high school friends I had. But messages were time-consuming, and I always had to initiate them. I found myself wanting to initiate messages less and less, which naturally led to fewer and fewer close friends. I felt that absence, but I didn’t recognize the vacuum until I fell on hard times.

My story is not unique. The 2005 General Social Survey reports that the adults surveyed reported having no one with whom they talk

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about important matters three times more often than respondents to a 1985 study. “Zero” was the most common response when people wereasked how many confidants they have.

Loneliness, it seems, follows our generation.

Caroline Beaton opines in an article on Forbes that loneliness follows millennials because of two reasons: 1) It has reached a critical proportion where its contagiousness now snowballs and affects a greater number of people, and 2) The advent of the internet has worsened our ability to maintain social relationships.

It seems counterintuitive. Why is it that we are drifting further apart when surrounded by technology that makes it possible to speak with any person, at any time, anywhere in the world?

Friendship isn’t something you have. It’s something you work constantly to maintain and renew. It requires constant care and attention.

Technology is supposed to help us with that. It increases the ways we can communicate with someone, but also leads us to a false sense of complacency. When we know for a

Continued on Page 5

Email squong18@ amherst.edu

Editors-in-Chief Drew Kiley Jingwen Zhang Managing News Shawna Chen, Emma Swislow Managing Opinion Kelly Chian, Spencer Quong Managing Arts and Living Julia Pretsfelder, Paola Garcia-Prieto, Alida Mitau Managing Sports Nathaniel Quigley Managing Design Justin Barry S TA F F Head Publisher Emily Ratte Design Editors Zehra Madhavan, Isabel Park, Zavi Sheldon, Sivian Yu

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The Student will print letters under 450 words in length if they are submitted to The Student offices in the Campus Center or to the paper’s email account (astudent@amherst.edu) by noon on Sunday, after which they will not be accepted.

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Letters and columns may be edited for clarity and Student style.

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The Amherst Student • September 1, 2017

Opinion

5

Shared Lives: The Lasting Friendships of College Continued from Page 4 fact that we can always reach out to one another over the internet, we are less inclined to actually come through. The knowledge that we can is enough. Before that certainty, our lack of communication options created a distance that gave value to each and every interaction. We had fewer options that required more effort, so we worked harder in each and every interaction. That distance made every communication all the more precious. When the internet came, we lost our appreciation of communication as it became cheaper, more plentiful and easier. The Internet cheapened

our letters, so we forgot the sense of working hard just to communicate. At a certain point, for me, I was satisfied with just knowing that I could reach out to my high school friends. I stopped putting work into maintaining those relationship and so I lost those friends.

But I’m still lucky. As mentioned previously, I am surrounded by wonderful people I met at Amherst College — people who, despite some not even knowing me too well, offered me overwhelming support, care, love and compassion. Were I in a less special place, I would have had no one, and I would have trudged through my hardship alone. So, it is my fortune to be surrounded by everyday he-

roes like them.

But I am not naïve. My luck won’t last forever. Hard work will. Friendships require working towards a destination. It is a constant journey — an adventure you take together. Like any adventure, it will have its ups and downs, and it will most certainly require legwork.

So, this year my resolution is to put more work into my friendships and to appreciate these relationships. I want to be more proactive about hanging out with friends and being a pillar for them when times are difficult. I didn’t before, and so I found myself lacking in close friends when times were tough.

I realized that many of my friends may also

be experiencing a similar isolation, and so I want to be there for them. I was saved by my great luck. But I’m a senior now, and I don’t want my friendships to end at college. I want them to be a journey through that great odyssey of life. I want to have people by my side and be at their side as we embark towards that frontier, together. It is a little late for me to realize this, which is why I am telling you what I wish I told my younger self.

Incoming first years: You will meet lifelong friends during your time at college, but only if you continually work and put love, care and appreciation into every friend. That is what it takes to form lasting friendships.

away the mask of shame that they ought to be wearing and made it morally acceptable to be an Adolf Eichmann or David Duke in public.

We might go even further: Trump didn’t simply make it acceptable, but he made it even more desirable, more commodifiable, to be violent on screen than it has been for time immemorial in America. And the media hasn’t helped.

While CNN and Vice have soaring viewerships and stream videos that depict violence as a TV special, the racists gain a consumptive audience rather than facing an indignant resistance.

If we accept the idea that Trump took off a mask rather than planting a seed, we must also accept a serious implication. It means that violent racism is a constitutive part of these peoples’ identities. But Barack Obama’s tweet, the most liked in history at 2.1 million, states, “No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin or his background or his religion ...” Surely he is right. But the problem is that we do not see eight-year-olds at these rallies: we see adults whose worldviews are largely formed and likely calcified. I don’t see much hope that they will change. I don’t feel that they will learn to respect, to see the lives they are seeking to destroy.

What, then, can anyone do? What, if anything, will prevent a raging racist from acting on his terrifying desires?

Perhaps the same two things that often spur such hatred and anger: fear and shame. If it is

beyond hope to change these peoples’ minds, then perhaps we must mobilize the emotions that, for a brief period of time under Obama, kept them glued somewhat to their televisions rather than acting out, killing and destroying.

How does one evoke fear and shame, however, without being actively violent? There is, as I see it, only one way, and that is through letting them know that they no longer form part of the United States. Through letting them know that what they are doing makes them untouchable, unlovable and undesirable. Through letting them know that they are no longer part of us or associated with us. And that, in five years, in 10 years, in 20 years, we will replay these clips, and we will remember.

These must no longer be what Gore Vidal called the “United States of Amnesia.”

Let us return to the argument of many Americans: white folks have been neglected, left out, displaced and forgotten. The sentiment underlying this argument might have some validity. As many have pointed out, people in the Rust Belt and throughout the South have lost jobs upon which they rightfully relied. This might be true.

But it is beside the point. Even if these folks were “neglected,” the fact remains: no one can care for a neglected person if they are acting violently.

The larger point is this: perhaps it is only once we let the supremacists know that the country

Mask On, Mask Off Jacob Pagano ’18 Contributing Writer In “Between the World and Me,” Ta-Nehisi Coates claims that America was “built on looting and violence.” If this is indeed the case, then the nation has returned to its roots.

When we watch videos from Charlottesville and see white supremacists in militant formations, a few questions come to mind: Do they know who Hitler was, and what he did? Have they always lived their lives with a sense of immunity?

But the most important questions are perhaps historical, for they might contextualize what is happening. We might ask: For how long have they been harboring their rage? Why are

these riots occurring now?

Surely President Trump has something to do with it. But his role is not clear. On the one hand, it appears that Trump has enkindled and catalyzed racist aggressors who, for whatever reason, had not garnered this kind of national attention until now. On the other hand, it might appear that Trump has actively created terror that, though always prevalent in America, had been ameliorated under Obama and his song of Hope.

I think most of us, and Coates himself, would side with the former view. Violent racists have always existed, and continued to exist, every single moment in this country — under Nixon, under Clinton, under Obama. Trump didn’t mold the brains of racists; he stripped

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Arts&Living

Photos courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Off the 1,000 acres of campus, the Pioneer Valley abounds with oppurtunities accessible to students by walking or taking public transit.

Tips for First Years: How to Get Off Campus and Where to Go Paola Garcia-Prieto ’18 Managing Arts and Living Editor An important part of keeping one’s sanity while at Amherst is remembering to get away from everything every once in a while. It’s easy to get consumed in the “Amherst Bubble,” especially in your first year. While the Office of Student Life and our plethora of student groups do provide many fun activities to do on weekends, there’s a lot of other options provided by the Five College Consortium as well as the Pioneer Valley in general. After three years at Amherst, here are some of the places I’ve frequented and some general advice on how to adventure outside of campus: The PVTA Bus System As you’ve hopefully learned already, your Amherst College ID will give you access to any of the PVTA bus lines. All you have to do is show it to the driver and he’ll beep you in. Some of the bus lines, such as the 38, are exclusively shuttles between the colleges and therefore don’t require money from anyone. Personally, I’m never sure which ones are which so sometimes there will just be awkward moments where I show the bus driver my ID and he stares at me like an idiot.

Usually choosing the public transit option of Google Maps will let me know which bus line to take to get where I want to go. However, in my experience the times google maps will tell you on when the bus comes aren’t the same as the bus schedule. Either way, don’t expect the PVTA to arrive on time. Although guaranteed to be punctual the day you’re only a minute late and watch it drive away as you run to the stop, the PVTA is not very different from any other bus system that way. Make sure you check the bus time charts, despite their inaccuracy, before trying to catch one, and take note that the weekday and weekend schedules are different. The Amherst College App (if no one’s told you about that yet, you’re welcome) will have links to the bus line schedules, which can also be found on the “My Amherst” page of the website.

The bus line I’ve used most frequently, and which is probably the most frequented by Amherst and UMass students, is the B43. This bus will pick you up at the Amherst College bus stop and take you through UMass, to the Hampshire Mall and even down to Smith College in Northampton, the latter two of which are some of my most frequented places.

Hampshire Mall Located down Route 9 about half a mile away

from campus, is a pretty bare bones mall containing a Target, JCPenney and a movie theatre along with some smaller stores. The bus from campus to the mall bus stop takes around 2030 minutes and goes through UMass both ways.

There may not be much shopping to be done in this mall, but I guarantee you will end up going on no less than a dozen Target runs by the end of your junior year. The bigger appeal to the Hampshire mall is the fun non-mall things to do, such as the brand new go-cart course, the roller-skating rink, the laser tag place and even an escape room. You may run into a 12-year-old’s birthday party while there but it’s important to live like a kid every once in a while.

From the mall’s bus stop, you’re walking distance from the other shopping center with the Walmart, Wholefoods and Bed Bath N Beyond, but those are a bit more out of the way. If you manage to cross Route 9, a challenging but not impossible feat, you can access all the fast food restaurants you want with Chipotle, McDonalds and Wendy’s. Fair warning, it’s extra treacherous to do this in the winter when the snow is piled up on the sidewalks and you’re forced to walk in the street. If you can get a hold of a car (more info on that later), do it.

Northampton If you stay on the B43 after passing the mall you’ll reach my favorite area in the Pioneer Valley, the city of Northampton. Here you will find Smith College’s historic campus as well as many great restaurants and shops to peruse. Even if you don’t want to buy anything, walking around the city and popping into the little boutiques is a refreshing change of pace. Everyone I’ve met from Northhampton is extremely kind, and the town is known to be very active on social justice issues. Last January I marched in Northampton’s Women’s March with thousands of people from the area, and it was an amazing experience. They also have a cool music scene and have hosted popular artists such as Jenny Louis, The Mountain Goats and Daughters. Tickets are usually fairly cheap and easy to obtain. To stay updated on artists coming to the area check out the Northampton box office website and sign up for their newsletter. I could write a whole other article on places to visit, eat and shop in Northampton but for now here’s some of my favorites: Faces is a classic novelty store to peruse for dorm décor as well as other fun knick-knacks.

Harold’s ice cream is a staple of any Northampton trip, located in the mini mall inside of the city. My favorite place to grab brunch is Jake’s or the vegetarian Hay Market Café, which is a café

on the first floor and a restaurant in the basement. There’s also Local Burger, a popular gourmet burger dive. And for the over-21 crowd, Tunnel Bar is a must do if you like cocktails. I can’t say I’ve been to all the restaurants and bars in Northampton simply because there are so many, but it’s definitely worth exploring one weekend before it gets too cold to stroll outside comfortably.

Another place you can get to on the bus is the Mount Holyoke mall. It’s a lot farther than the Hampshire mall and takes about 25 minutes to get there by car, but if you want a real mall with all the traditional stores you can take the R29 from the Amherst town bus stop and take an hour ride to Holyoke.

One more popular location that’s surprisingly accessible by bus through Route 31 is Puffer’s Pond, a small lake that’s fun to visit on a warm day.

How to get a car Obviously the easiest way to get around the expansive Pioneer Valley is by car. But if you’re obeying the first-year car ban or simply do not have a car of your own like most of us, there is a way to get in a car, provided you’re a licensed driver. As soon as you get on campus, register to drive the AAS vans. It’s completely free and a deal too good to be true. As long as you reserve the car in advance, you can take one of the vans for any club activity. They even come with a gas card so you don’t have to pay a cent.

For a bit more flexibility you can register for Zipcar, an on-demand car rental service that has its own lot across the street from the Amherst College Police station, where the AAS vans are also parked. If you’re registered with Zipcar, then you have a special card that can get you into any of these cars, which you reserve on your phone.

The card unlocks and locks these cars, and the keys are already inside. There is a monthly charge for the subscription as well as an hourly charge for when you have the car, but when you want to make a spontaneous food run and your one friend with a car is unavailable, Zipcar comes in handy. So if you have a license and the money for it, do it and you won’t regret it. Just maybe don’t tell a lot of people you have it because they will start asking for rides.

Once you have your hands on a car you’re free to go anywhere. We’re only two hours away from Boston and three from New York. But a fun time doesn’t have to involve a day trip to a whole new city. Here are a couple of popular favorites that are pretty much only accessible by car: The Montague Book Mill, located in Mon-

tague Mass., is a good place to go when you need to get away from Amherst, but you still have a lot of work to do. This unique book store offers a relaxing environment for you to unwind. On your way back you can swing by Flayvors ice cream in Hadley, not too far from campus. At this ice cream shop you can sample from tons of flavors and meet the cows that produce your ice cream up close and personal. It’s the sort small town experience you can’t find in a city. Similarly, in the fall you can make your way down to the apple orchards and pick apples. A lot of freshman dorms organize trips to do this as well so keep an eye out for that.

There are also a lot of independent diners in the area such as the Route 9 diner (which you could also get to from the B43) or Whately diner in Whately, Mass. I also recommend Quarters, an old-style arcade/bar in Hadley that allows underage people to go before midnight.

Another must do, in my opinion, is to see “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” at the South Hadley Tower Theatre by Mount Holyoke College. If you’ve never seen the movie, or been to a show of it, find someone who has in order to prepare you for the ordeal. But if you love people being silly on a stage and yelling at a movie screen, I’d give “Rocky Horror” a try. And if you’re interested in being a part of it, they have open casting year round.

Disclaimer: These are all one Californian senior’s findings around Amherst. If you ask any professor or staff member (the librarians are especially kind and knowledgeable people) for recommendations on things to do in the area, they will have much more information. Hopefully this article just gives you a taste of what the world outside of Amherst College contains.

Keep an eye out for posters about community events from the five colleges and the town of Amherst. Many events hosted by one of the other five colleges, such as parties and plays, will be either free or discounted for five college students, just remember to bring your ID. The town of Amherst also has community events that college students are welcome to attend, such as dessert crawls and parties. These Amherst town events may not always be advertised on campus, but take a look at the community board next time you’re at the Starbucks or Subway in town.

It’s important to take advantage of all the options we have here in the Pioneer Valley that our rival schools do not. Whenever it feels like we’re in the middle of nowhere, just remember that our version of off-campus Friday night fun doesn’t involve cow tipping.

The Amherst Student • September 1, 2017

Arts & Living 7

Breezy Comedy “Girls Trip” Outshines Tired Action Blockbusters

Photo courtesy of vanndigital.com

“Girls Trip” showcases the talents of a black female ensemble cast.

Brandon Medina ’19 Staff Writer When I walked into a Santa Monica AMC to see the new comedy “Girls Trip,” I had just come off a long day at work at my internship in the area. I wasn’t in the mood for explosions, saving-the-world plots or quippy lines from bored, veteran movie stars clearly wishing they were somewhere else. The movie industry flooded this summer with particularly disappointing big-budget blockbusters with thin stories and little to offer besides attractive white faces and muddled CGI vomit. Given the success of “Girls Trip,” Hollywood should recognize that a simple, breezy comedy with

a modest budget can both attract an equally large audience and bring in new fans. This is especially true when that comedy features representation that’s long overdue and that Hollywood continuously insists doesn’t sell: black talent in front of and behind the camera making a story for that audience.

Directed by Malcolm D. Lee (“The Best Man,” “Barbershop: The Next Cut”) and written by Kenya Barris and Tracy Oliver, the film follows four friends from college, known as the “Flossy Posse,” as they go on a trip to New Orleans for the Essence Music Festival in order to reconnect. Along the way, they rediscover their wild party sides, reassess their relationships — both with each other and other people in their lives — and partake in many hookups, stunts and confrontations, exposing their vulnerability.

The perfectly cast set of characters include Ryan Pierce (Regina Hall), a world-famous self-help author in a seemingly ideal marriage with star athlete Stewart (Mike Colter), Sasha Franklin (Queen Latifah), a celebrity gossip columnist yearning for a more meaningful journalistic career, Lisa Cooper (Jada PinkettSmith), a recently divorced super-mom of two, and Dina (the scene-stealing Tiffany Haddish), a promiscuous, reckless party girl and passionate friend seemingly unchanged from her college days.

I was more excited for “Girls Trip” than any other movie this summer, and possibly this year. Despite being a 20-year-old black college kid on a modest budget in L.A., I was determined to see “Girls Trip” in theaters in order to play a small part in convincing Hollywood that a summer movie headlined by a black woman ensemble cast could garner substantial support. I saw the film in a packed theater of mostly black people. Sitting next to a family with two teenage boys, I felt like I was at the best family outing ever. The movie’s four black

women reminded me so much of my cousins, and I felt invigorated watching them find joy, personal growth and hard life lessons through their unbreakable friendship.

Each girl goes through her own personal troubles throughout the movie. Ryan discovers that her husband has been cheating on her and has to decide whether to leave him and risk her public image or stay with him and keep projecting the image of a black woman who has it together. Sasha struggles with guilt over the lasting hurt her celebrity gossip blog causes but depends on it to stay financially stable. Lisa struggles to rediscover her adventurous side after years of domestic life, and Dina struggles with how her temper and lifestyle land her and others in sticky situations.

Ryan’s struggle resonated with me the most, perhaps because it is so relevant right now. She knows that Stewart has cheated in the past but has swallowed his weak apologies in order to keep her fans’ perfect image of her alive. Despite her college friends’ insistence she dump Stewart, Ryan remains conflicted. In an era when black women are pressured to project an image of strength and power, a film that recognizes that they can be messy, confused and vulnerable is refreshing. I doubt this would have happened had the script not been written by Tracy Oliver, a black woman, and drawn from her and her friends’ own adventures from college. At its heart, this is a film about four black women who have each others’ backs, something that is regrettably revolutionary for Hollywood.

But this movie would be nothing if it were not for one simple fact: it is the most creatively funny movie this year. This is partially due to Haddish’s standout performance as Dina. Her mastery of physical comedy, pitch-perfect line deliveries that at times seem like ad-libs and charmingly familiar personality for any friend group with a wild one makes every moment

when she’s onscreen a blast. One scene involving a grapefruit had me almost on the floor laughing. I was disappointed that I had never heard of Haddish before this movie, and she’s now one of my favorite personalities in Hollywood right now.

As this is a film about four women who rediscover their wild side, their adventures at the Essence Music Festival make this film a crowd-pleaser. “Girls Trip” brings this foremost festival for black music to life, as well as the entire city of New Orleans, through extended scenes involving the posse simply having a good time. They partake in casual hookups, go to costumed dance-offs and meet old flames. One particular standout scene involves them zip-lining between two buildings, until one of them gets stuck and ends up (SPOILER ALERT) peeing on the crowd below. A lesser R-rated comedy would not have had a proper build-up to this, instead inserting the grossness where it is completely out of place. But this film’s breezy pace keeps up the posse’s carefree party energy, making these jokes all the more hilarious, grounded in a carefree energy that we are either familiar with or we crave.

“Girls Trip” left me with a warm feeling after I left the theater. I felt proud of myself, even though I personally hadn’t done anything.

Finding myself in proximity with black excellence has a way of making my day even if everything else gone poorly. A film like this that normalizes the messy, layered and unbreakable friendship of black women should not be the exception in pop culture. Films about black women not centered around racism, oppression or a white savior should be commonplace.

The next day, I won’t deny I felt a bit of anger in knowing that if this movie had failed, Hollywood would never consider doing a film like this again. If this movie gets a sequel, which is likely given its box office performance, I will definitely be pre-ordering my ticket.

Latin American Music from Artists Who Aren’t Justin Bieber

Photo courtesy of coveralia.com

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Photo courtesy of Argentina Ministry of Culture

Photo courtesy of GFCnewyork

Latin American artists including Karol G, Violeta Parra, Miss Bolivia, and A.Chal, provide a mix of classic and modern musical styles to listen to as summer ends.

Julia Pretsfelder ’18, Managing Arts and Living Editor Rojas Oliva ’19, Contributing Writer Here is an article showcasing Latin American language music that isn’t about “Despacito.” Call it North American artists exploiting Latin American sounds in yet another industry or call it cultural exchange, but these questions undoubtedly surround incredibly important issues, and for that we recommend you read Remezcla’s “A Conversation About Despacito, Justin Bieber, and the Exploitation of Latinos in the Music Industry” or Popcast’s “Latin Pop Thrives, No Bieber Required.” To center artists from across Latin, we give you a mixture of classics and new sounds in a belated summer playlist.

“Campamocha,” Caloncho (Mexico) RO: I think a tiny baby bird wrote this song.

Its delicate textures could only have been blended by a creature open to higher levels of tenderness than humans. Yet, the minimalist production manages to create a rich world populated by dead grandpas, memories of fixing trucks, flightless birds and love sent to heaven. Caloncho’s discography is full of love songs, and here even death is countered with a whisper of love to the departed.

“Ahora Me Llama,” Karol G (Colombia) feat. Bad Bunny (Puerto Rico) JP: Colombiana Karol G’s “Ahora Me Llama” somehow made me wish I were having a more drama-filled summer, so that I could vibe harder to her nonchalant lyrics and endlessly danceable tracks. I am definitely projecting, but she sing-speaks in a way that demonstrates how she can be tough while still expressing her emotions, which is endlessly loveable from any female artist and from a reggeatonera. She perfectly balances the harshness of someone turned cynical after heartbreak while celebrating “saliendo con su propia esquad” (going out with her squad), alternately rapping and singing in dryer, huskier tones that she showcased on “Muñeco De Lego.” Bad Bunny’s sad boy trap (Latin trap is also a good genre to look into) meshes with her in this song beautifully. They’re over romance, and even if they’re not — they’re better off. Check out “Casi Nada,” “A Ella” and “Mayores” for more party vibes.

“Maldigo El Alto Cielo,” Violeta Parra (Chile) RO: In the biopic “Violeta se Fue a Los Cielos,” the committed communist and pioneer of the Nueva Cancion Chilean movement Violeta del Carmen Parra Sandoval damns the world

entire with this song during a raging storm.

It’s an intensely raw song for fighting storms and the brutal, sparse film captures her hopeless fury beautifully.

“María, María,” Miss Bolivia (Argentina) JP: ¡Cumbia! I will always remember when one of my first friends at Amherst decided to teach me how to be a proper Cono Sur (Southern Cone) party chick because my abuelos only listened to folk music. “Reggaeton sounds more like boom-boo-boomboo-boom,” my friend said during a first-year pregame, “And cumbia is more like tss-tss-tsstss.” Miss Bolivia, named after Calle Bolivia in their neighborhood growing up in Buenos Aires, is a modern cumbia master in my gringa opinion. Her music has the inimitable combination of political references and a “tss-tsstss” beat that, as cliché as this sounds, makes you want to move your feet. I know everyone hates Argentineans potentially more than Argentineans love themselves, but, at least for this track, please accept pronouncing “ll” as “jj” and using “vos” instead of “tú.” I love how “María, María” communicates the complicated pride you have for your home and your neighborhood, almost chanting, “María, María viene con pan y rosas, cumbia y alegría” (María brings bread and roses, cumbia and

happiness). I find that a lot of Southern Cone cumbia can be corny, but there are a number of queer Buenos Aires-based artists such as Miss Bolivia and BIFE that draw from regional Latin American genres like chacarera, tango and bossa to modernize the repertoire.

“Farolito,” Agustin Lara (Mexico) RO: Turns out it just takes a man who got his writing chops playing in the brothels of Mexico City to capture the loneliness of wandering a city in heartbreak. The man behind the song it is a bit of a legend: His full name reads Ángel Agustín María Carlos Fausto Mariano Alfonso del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús Lara y Aguirre del Pino. Fans refer to him as El Flaco De Oro. He was briefly and explosively married to the national darling actress Maria Felix. He’s been covered by everyone from Pedro Infante to Nat King Cole. Yet all the accolades and stories fall away with the opening piano melody, and we’re left alone on a barely lit street with nothing but a song.

Not all North American Latinxs speak Spanish! If you don’t speak Spanish either, I recommend checking out Princess Nokia, A. Chal and Rubby. Plenty of their music is in English or Spanglish, and it is both up and coming and wonderful. Enjoy the tunes!

Arts & Living

The Amherst Student • September 1, 2017

Study spots in Amherst Kellogg Ave

6

The Works

N Pleasant St

8

Share Coffee

7

Starbucks

Downtown Amherst has no shortage of cozy study spots for when you need to escape Frost. Here’s a map of some popular offcampus locations where you can get a bite, work on a group project or find some peace.

5

Glazed

Amity St 3

Limered

4

Amherst Coffee

Boltwood Ave

S Pleasant St

Main St 2

Black Sheep

Spring St 1

The Lord Jeff

The Amherst Student • September 1, 2017

Sports 9

Women’s Tennis, Loaded With Talent, Aims For Strong Fall Campaign Nate Quigley ’19 Managing Sports Editor The Amherst women’s tennis team enters the fall portion of their season on the back of a somewhat disappointing 2016-17 campaign that saw the team eliminated in the first round of the NESCAC tournament and the second round of nationals, a far cry from the team’s recent stretch of dominance.

However, the Mammoths lost few players to graduation and, with the expected jumps in performance by many of the team’s talented sophomores and juniors, there is plenty of excitement around the upcoming campaign.

Head coach Jackie Bagwell, entering her 27th season at Amherst’s helm, will likely hope that several of last year’s underclassmen take it upon themselves to up their games. Among these potential leapers are the first-year duo of Camille Smukler ’20 and Anya Ivenitsky ’20, who played in the first and second singles spots, respectively, in last year’s season-ending NCAA tournament loss to Middlebury.

Going into their second season in Western Massachusetts, both players promise to provide quality production on both the singles and doubles courts, hopefully following in the tradition of past Amherst individual greats.

Juniors Kelsey Chan and Camilla Trapness also return from last year’s core. Like their teammates a year below them, Chen and Trapness were at or near the top of the singles lineup for the duration of the spring campaign, usually slotting into the top four with Smukler and Ivenitsky.

The doubles partnership of Smukler and Chen, in particular, looks like a pairing to watch. After playing consistently on the No. 1 doubles court together last season, the two should be one of the NESCAC’s top pairings once again.

Meanwhile, the two seniors expected to see significant action on the courts are captain Avery Wagman and stud Vickie Ip. Although Ip missed last spring’s season while studying abroad, she was the Mammoths’ unquestioned top singles player last fall, reaching the semifinals of the ITA Regional Championship’s Individual bracket.

Hopefully, the semester abroad won’t have dulled her remarkable tennis acumen, as her presence in the singles lineup alongside Chen, Trapness, Smukler and Ivenitsky looks promising this year.

Meanwhile Wagman provides an unfaltering hand to guide the program throughout the season, as this will be her second season as team captain.

Although she’s slotted into the sixth singles court for each of the past two seasons, Wagman has dominated all comers in that position, providing a near-automatic point each match. Wagman also presents the additional benefit of having formed a strong doubles partnership with Ivenitsky, often playing on the second court. With what should be a promising class of first years and several other rising sophomores, the Amherst roster looks stacked with talent.

The Mammoths play only one true dual match this fall, the annual matchup against

Photo courtesy of Amherst Athletics

Anya Ivenitsky ‘20 had an impresive debut campaign for the Mammoths last spring, often playing on one of the top three singles courts.

Williams, which will be held on Saturday, Sept. 23 at the Ephs’ home courts.

Rather, Amherst will participate in three tournaments that contain both singles and doubles brackets, which will pit the Mammoths against other elite competition from the region.

Having had success in these tournaments

in recent years, Bagwell and assistant Suhasini Ghosh ’16 will likely use these matches to help establish the lineup for the all-important spring season.

Amherst’s first action of the year will be the MIT Invitational on the weekend of Sept.

15-17.

Men’s Cross Country Brings Back Men’s Soccer Looks to Continue Run of Nearly All Top Runners for 2017 Regular Season and Postseason Glory Veronica Rocco ’19 Staff Writer After losing only two of their top-seven runners from 2016, the Mammoths look to have a strong season and return to nationals for the fourth year in a row.

Several experienced members return in 2017, all of whom will help the Mammoths challenge for a NESCAC Championship after placing second to rival Williams the past two years.

The top returner for the Mammoths is Mohamed Hussein ’18, who led the team at every meet he competed in last fall, culminating in a fifth-place finish at both NESCAC Championships and DIII New England Regional Championships, and a 68th-place finish at nationals.

The four-time All-American returns to the trails this fall after battling through injury during both the indoor and outdoor track seasons his junior year.

Junior Cosmo Brossy had a breakout sophomore year, earning All-NESCAC honors with his eighth-place finish at NESCAC Championships and helping the team qualify for nationals for the third straight year. Brossy, who is also one of the team’s captains, had excellent track seasons as well, setting new personal bests in the 3,000, 5,000 and 10,000 meters and placing fifth at NESCAC Championships in the 10k.

Clark Ricciardelli ’20E is a darkhorse for the Mammoths,. The sophomore, who transferred to Amherst in January 2017, has never competed in cross country before. Ricciardelli had a standout season in spring track, leading the team with a 31:02 in the 10,000 meters and a fifth-place finish in the 5K at NESCAC Championships.

Tucker Meijer ’19, the NESCAC Freshman of the Year in 2015, returns with a 15:09 5k personal best set during the indoor season.

The junior is one to watch in 2017 and beyond.

Classmate Kristian Sogaard ’19 competed for the Mammoths at regionals and nationals as the team’s seventh runner, and returns to the trails as an All-American in the 800 meters. The junior had a stellar outdoor track season, placing sixth at the DIII Outdoor Track

& Field National Championships in May and winning the NESCAC Championships in the 800.

Craig Nelson ’18 looks to be another member of the team’s top-seven, as the senior has placed in the top-25 at regionals the past two years to earn All-Region honors. He also helped the Mammoths qualify for nationals each of the last three years and looks to finish out his cross-country career at National Championships.

Adding to the team’s depth will be Spencer Ferguson-Dryden ’20, who had a solid outdoor track season, running the team’s second fastest time in the 1,500 with a personal best of 3:57.

Additionally, captain Justin Barry ’18 returns after battling through injury during the outdoor season, although he did manage to set a new personal best time of 15:25 in the 5,000 meters during the indoor season and competed for the Mammoths at the NESCAC Cross Country Championships last fall.

Both Jack Wesley ’18 and Jacob Silverman ’19 competed at NESCAC Championships last fall, adding to the team’s depth. The team also adds a solid first-year class of five experienced runners.

A completely new coaching staff is leading the squad, led by Stephen Rubin, who comes to Amherst with 25 years of coaching experience.

Rubin spent the last five years as an assistant track and field coach at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.

Rubin left Chapel Hill after leading several Tar Heels to All-American honors, most recently in the 400-meter hurdles at the Division I Track & Field National Championships in June of this year.

Danny Feldman is the new assistant coach for the team, coming to Amherst from the Convent of the Sacred Heart in New York.

Feldman has previously coached at Washington University in St. Louis and Northern Arizona University.

The Mammoths will kick off the season earlier than usual this year when the team makes the short trip to Northampton to run at the Smith Invitation on Saturday, Sept. 9.

Delancey King ’18 Staff Writer With 10 of last year seniors having graduated, seven of whom were starters, the Amherst men’s soccer team will have many new faces in their lineup this year.

Perhaps most notably, the Mammoths will have to find replacements for their entire back line of Jackson Lehnhart ’17, Cameron Bean ’17, Justin Aoyama ’17 and Rohan Sood ’17, the backbone of a dominant defense.

However, despite dramatic turnover, the squad feels confident that it will continue the program’s winning legacy.

“The team is looking forward to the upcoming season,” senior captain Sam Malnik said. “[Our mentality] hasn’t changed from previous years. We are grounded in hard work and commitment to one another. Every player on the roster has the ability to get serious playing time. We can’t wait for the season to begin.”

Leading the squad alongside Malnik are fellow captains Cameron Hardington ’18 and Aziz Khan ’18. The trio looks to help the team improve upon last year’s record of 17-1-2 and their third round appearance in the NCAA tournament.

In addition to the strong leadership of those three, the Mammoths will rely heavily on the returning talents of Weller Hlinomaz ’18, Lee Owen ’18 and Luke Nguyen ’19.

With eight goals last season, Hlinomaz was a key element of Amherst’s offense and is poised wreak havoc on the NESCAC once again this fall.

On the defensive side of the ball, Owen ended last season with an impressive save percentage of 0.849, and Amherst will certainly look to the senior keeper to take command of an inexperienced backline.

Plagued by injuries, Nguyen was only able to play in 10 games last year, but he still managed to record two goals and one assist during his few appearances. A composed central midfielder, Nguyen’s technical skills will undoubtedly be critical for the team.

The team also has a whole new crop of talent to work with, as 11 first years will be

added to this season’s roster.

Like those who came before them, this class is competitive and full of talent, and the Mammoths are eager to see what they will bring to the 2017 squad.

Even as the team hopes to continue the winning legacy of the Amherst men’s soccer program, they also hope to establish the skill and strength specific to this collection of players.

“This season, we’re not worried about repeating the success of [past years],” Owen said. “We’re just focusing on whatever’s right in front of us. Even after graduating so many key guys, this is the most well-rounded and talented group of guys I’ve been with since I’ve played here.”

The Mammoths kick off the 2017 season on Tuesday, Sept. 5, when they will host Eastern Nazarene at 4:30 p.m. in a nonconference tilt. NESCAC play begins on Saturday, Sept.

9, when the team will face Bowdoin College.

Photo courtesy of Amherst Athletics

Weller Hlinomaz ‘18 scored eight goals last year in his first season for Amherst after transferring.

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Sports

The Amherst Student • September 1, 2017

Football Aims to Retake NESCAC Women’s Golf Seeks Repeat Of Last Crown After Season Marred by Injury Season’s Unprecedented Success Nate Quigley ’19 Managing Sports Editor

Photo courtesy of Amherst Athletics

Reece Foy ‘18 makes his return to the field this fall after losing his entire junior year to an ACL tear and will be the centerpiece of the Amherst offense.

Talia Land ’20 Staff Writer The Amherst men’s football team is one of the most successful groups in Division III sports. With six NESCAC titles and seven perfect seasons under their belt, numbers which only the hated Ephs can rival, the team is one of the most successful programs at Amherst.

However, the 2016 season was a somewhat uncharacteristic one for the Mammoths, with the team finishing 4-4 overall. Although it was not a losing season, it was understandably frustrating for a team that had captured the past three NESCAC titles.

The class of 2017 finished their careers with an impressive, 27-5 overall record that included a share of the NESCAC title in 2013 and outright titles in 2014 and 2015 with back-toback 8-0 seasons.

A key piece of any potential success this season is quarterback and captain Reece Foy ’18. After an ACL tear shortly before the 2016 season, Foy’s presence was dearly missed on the field last year. Prior to his injury, Foy appeared in 12 games as QB for the Mammoths across his first two years at the school, including starting every game in Amherst’s perfect 2015 eason. He holds a career 59.4% completion percentage and a 126.1 efficiency rating while averaging 144.5 yards per game through the air.

Not only does Foy make a large impact on the field, he also leaves a lasting impression on others off the field as well.

This past summer he received the honor of being nominated for Allstate AFCA Good Works Team®.

This award is regarded as one of the most prestigious off-the-field honors in college football, as it recognizes a student-athlete’s charitable involvement and community service contributions that have enriched the lives

of others.

In other positions, the Mammoths are hoping rising juniors will step up. Running back Jack Hickey ’19 returns after rushing for a team-high 368 yards last year.

Bo Berluti ’19, meanwhile, leads the crop of returning pass catchers after accumulating 35 receptions in the 2016 season, the thirdbest mark on the team.

On the defensive side of the ball, the team will look to Andrew Yamin ’19. Yamin was one of seven Amherst players who received AllNESCAC honors last season, making the allconference second team after notching teambest marks of five sacks and 18 tackles for loss.

Yamin also posted 60 total tackles in 2016 and broke up two passes.

Additionally, the team adds 25 members from the class of 2021 as well as two transfers, who will look to make an immediate impact.

The captains for the 2017 season are Foy, Bolaji Ekhator ’18, Zach Allen ’19 and Elijah Zabludoff ’18, each of whom have won a NESCAC title and will hope to lead the Mammoths back to the promised land.

The 2017 season is the first year that the NESCAC will play a full round robin schedule, meaning that Amherst will play nine games for the first time in school history.

In the past, there has been a scrimmage between the Mammoths and the one NESCAC foe that wasn’t on the official schedule, but this year the conference elected to change that scrimmage into an official game.

Notable games for Amherst in the newlook schedule include the homecoming matchup on Oct. 21 against Wesleyan, in which the Mammoths will look to avenge last season’s 20-0 loss against the Cardinals, and their final game of the season against archrival Williams on Nov. 11 in Williamstown.

The Mammoths’ season opener is on Saturday, Sept. 16 against Bates on Pratt Field.

After an outstanding 2016-17 season that saw the Mammoths place ninth overall at the Division III National Championships, Amherst women’s golf is poised for continued success after losing only one senior, returning four of the five golfers that competed in May. Further helping the Mammoths’ cause is the return of head coach Elizabeth Davis, who in her first season leading the program last year garnered East Region Coach of the Year honors from the WGCA. Davis’s first recruiting class, the class of 2020, was essential to the team’s deep postseason run, and will once again form much of the Mammoths’ spine. Morgan Yurosek ’20, especially, will hope to further pad her already-impressive resume, which includes a NESCAC Rookie of the Year award and WGCA All-East Region honors.

Meanwhile, Yurosek’s classmate Jessica Jeong ’20 will aim to show that her performance at May’s National Championship, where she posted Amherst’s second-best score, was no fluke. Emily Young ’20, the final first year to compete at nationals last year, will be the third member of the Mammoths’ impressive sophomore triad.

Further boosting Amherst’s hopes for the

fall campaign are the team’s returning upperclassmen, especially junior Kate Weiss, who impressed at nationals, and captain Zoe Wong ’18. These two, along with juniors Maggie Schoeller and Katie Rosenborg, will form the team alongside what will likely be another talented class of first years.

Even with such a well of talent and experience, success for the Mammoths is no guarantee, as the team faces an imposing gauntlet of fall tournaments.

With contests every weekend from Sept.

9-10 through Oct. 7-8, not a single of which will be played on Amherst’s home course, the Mammoths’ mettle will be thoroughly tested.

The nearest thing to a home tournament the team will play is the Mount Holyoke Invitation on Sept. 23 and 24.

However, the toughest test will undoubtedly be the Williams Fall Invitational, the final tournament of the season, which will pit the up-and-coming Amherst team against the perennial powerhouse Ephs in a battle for NESCAC supremacy. This tournament will likely be the best barometer of the Mammoths’ fall season, as it offers an opportunity to showcase Amherst’s talent heading into the spring portion of the season.

The Mammoths will open the season in just over a week when the golfers take part in the St. Lawrence University Invitational on the weekend of Sept. 9-10.

Field Hockey Hopes Talented Group Will Bring Postseason Glory Anew Jenny Mazzella ’20 Staff Writer Entering head coach Carol Knerr’s 17th season, the Amherst field hockey team is looking forward to a strong upcoming season.

Only four members of last year’s squad graduated last spring, which leaves the team with 19 returning players. The team is also expecting six or seven first years to join them on the field this upcoming fall.

Overall, the Mammoths enjoyed a successful season last year. They concluded the 2016 season ranked 14th in the country, finishing with an overall 11-5 record (6-4 NESCAC).

Amherst scored 55 total goals throughout the season, putting the ball in the back of the net on a remarkable 20% of their shots taken and averaging 18.9 shots per game and 3.4 goals per game.

Such solid offense provided the impetus for a run to the quarterfinals of last year’s NESCAC tournament. Unfortunately, thirdseeded Hamilton defeated number six seed Amherst in a tight game, emerging victorious by a 1-0 scoreline.

On the defensive side of the field, Caroline Fiore ’18, Kendall Codey ’19, Gretchen Zungailia ’20 and Olivia Henkoff ’20, the core of last season’s defense, will be back.

Fiore, who garnered First Team All-NESCAC and New England West Region First Team honors last season, will be one of the team’s three captains this year.

Meanwhile, the Mammoths hope that the returns of Caroline Feeley ’18, Sloane Bessey ’18, Elizabeth Turnbull ’18, Shannon Tierney ’19, Megan Shea ’19, Debbie Newmark ’19, Laura Schwartzman ’20 and Elizabeth Sturley ’20 will solidify the midfield, an essential piece of the upcoming campaign.

Feeley and Turnbull, the latter of whom earned Second Team New England West Region recognition last season, are the other two captains for this season.

Mary Grace Cronin ’18, Katie Bergamesca ’18, Emery Sorvino ’19, Yasmeen Saeed ’20 and Heather Brennan ’20 make up the veteran forwards and will be tasked with spearheading the Amherst offense.

Surya Adams ’18 and Emilie Flamme ’20

will duel it out in a battle to be the starting goalkeeper this season.

In late May, the team went on an eight-day training trip in the Netherlands and Germany, one of the global hotspots for field hockey.

The Mammoths played against local club teams, one Dutch and one German, and had the opportunity to practice with European coaches.

In order to make this trip possible, the team fundraised by reaching out to Amherst field hockey alumni, running a local clinic for young children in the town and selling gear.

“The team is extremely optimistic and excited about the upcoming season,” Newmark said. “Everyone put in a lot of hard work this past year and over the summer, and it really shows!”

The Mammoths will open their season with an away game against Mount Holyoke on Thursday, Sept. 7 at 7:15 p.m., while the team’s first home game will take place on Saturday, Sept. 9 at 11 a.m. against NESCAC foe Bowdoin.

Photo courtesy of Peter Connolly ‘18

Mary Grace Cronin ‘18 will hope to lead a prolific Amherst offense.

The Amherst Student • September 1, 2017

Sports

11

Men’s Tennis, Rocked by Departures, Volleyball Prepared to Mount Serious Searches for Consistent Showings Challenge for Postseason Glory Nate Quigley ’19 Managing Sports Editor

Photo courtesy of Amherst Athletics

Zach Bessette ‘19 had an impressive sophomore campaign in 2016-17, often notching wins on both the first singles and doubles courts.

Nate Quigley ’19 Managing Sports Editor Last season, Amherst men’s tennis was frustratingly inconsistent. A roster with talent up and down the lineup played breathtaking tennis at times, nearly knocking off top-ranked Emory and posting both 10- and 11-game win streaks. However, the Mammoths also fell twice to their archrival Williams, with the latter loss ending Amherst’s season in the third round of NCAAs. This fall, Doebbler surely hopes that the team will be able to grow more comfortable playing with each other, an especially important goal as there was enormous turnover from last season to this campaign.

Apart from the graduating class of 2017, which had managed to win a national title in their first year at Amherst and boasted several talented individuals, the Mammoths also lost three of last year’s first years. Josh Marchalik, Oscar Burney and Chris Paradis, each of whom impressed last year, have all departed campus.

The hope for this edition of the Amherst squad is that the play of several returnees, especially Zach Bessette ’19 and Jayson Fung ’20, will lift the team to an even greater level of success. Bessette spent most of last season in the number one singles spot and sported an impressive record, especially given the high level of play seen on the first court.

Fung, meanwhile, took some time to adjust to the college level of play but, by the end of the spring season, he was more than ready,

earning the fourth overall seed in the NCAA doubles bracket alongside Bessette.

Gabe Owens ’20, one of the few members of his class to stay alongside Fung and Nathan Kaplan, will also be leaned upon heavily to replace the production of those who left. Owens does seem prepared, though, as he generally played on one of the top three courts in the spring season, competing on court three in the Mammoths’ NCAA loss to Williams.

However, Amherst has no seniors to look to, as Ben Birkenfeld ’18, the sole member of his class to play on the team, left the program.

For the Mammoths, especially for Doebbler, all these losses aren’t the death knell that they might be for some teams, as the coach has developed a reputation as an incredible recruiter.

Indeed, last year’s first years, his first full recruiting class, held four of the top five slots in the singles lineup if the members who transferred are included. If this year’s incoming class can match the talent and production of their predecessors, the Mammoths will be national contenders.

Only the team’s individual and doubles talents will be tested this fall, though, as Amherst will just participate in three invitationals, each of which will contain both singles and doubles brackets.

The first of these tournaments, which will mark the beginning of the fall season for the Mammoths, is ITA New England Regional Championships, which will be played the weekend of Sept. 29-Oct. 1 on Middlebury’s campus.

Women’s Cross Country Hopes to Overcome Key Losses Nicole Frontero ’20 Staff Writer After sending one runner to the NCAA Division III National Championship race last season, the Amherst women’s cross country team is looking to build on that success and grow stronger as a program for the 2017 season. The young squad graduated seven members of the class of 2017 and welcomed five first years to the class of 2021.

Despite bringing in several new faces, the coaching staff remains the same as Cassie Funke-Harris returns for her sixth season at the helm of the women’s cross country and track and field programs. Alongside her will be a pair of second-year assistant coaches, Bethany Dumas and Victoria Jusme.

The team enjoyed a successful season, placing seventh out of 59 teams at the NCAA Northeast Regional tournament and missing out on nationals by a small margin. However, the Mam-

moths did manage to send one runner, Katherine Treanor ’20, to the NCAA Championship meet in Louisville, Ky., who raced to a 27th-place finish out of 280 runners.

However, Treanor will be missing from the roster this season, as she transferred to Brown.

The team does welcome Nicky Roberts ’18 as the projected top returner and Veronica Rocco ’19 as the second top returner after they finished the season with impressive times. Hopefully, Roberts will be able to recpature her first-year form, when she nearly was named an All-American after a dominant showing at nationals. Although injuries have plagued her past few campaigns, she will be the centerpiece of any success the team will have.

Roberts and Rocco wil serve as captains this season, alongside Helen Clapp ’18 and Lela Walter ’19.

The team will open its season at the annual Smith Invitational in nearby Northampton on Saturday, Sept. 9.

After an up and down 2016 season, the Amherst women’s volleyball team hopes that this campaign will mark a return to the form of two years ago that saw the Firedogs make it to the second round of the NCAA tournament.

With an impressive stable of upperclassmen talent and a wealth of postseason experience, Amherst has the necessary ingredients to make a return to NCAAs. Leading the way for the Firedogs is the fourwoman strong senior class of Annika Reczek, Asha Walker, Marialexa Natsis and Kate Antion.

Natsis will be crucial for the team’s success this season, since she was third on the team in kills last season and Amherst’s top two hitters graduated. With the nearest returner over 70 kills behind Natsis, she will likely have to shoulder much of the offensive load.

Meanwhile, a combination of Walker and junior standout Hayes Honea will command the critical position of defensive specialist.

Honea already has demonstrated her acumen for the position, leading the team with 492 digs last season, well over double the second-place tally on the team and the third most in the NESCAC. Further bolstering Amherst’s chances were the standout seasons put together by Emily Kolsky ’20 and Lauren Reppert ’19 last year.

Each of the two underclassmen outside hitters played in every match and placed fourth and fifth, respectively, on the team in both total kills and kills per set.

Lastly, the sophomore duo of Charlotte Du-

ran and Adelaide Shunk are expected to provide quality production from the setter position, where the duo posted dominant assist numbers last season. Duran especially impressed with a 429 total assists and 4.93 assists per set, both of which tallies led the team.

However, even with the enormous amount of returning talent as detailed above, the Firedogs will no doubt struggle to replace the singular talent of Maggie Danner ’17, who graduated in May as a three-time all-NESCAC First Team selection, a distinction matched by few in the school’s history.

Hopefully, head coach Sue Everden’s recruitment, which has been strong in recent years, will net Amherst a few more sterling contributors to replace the production of Danner and her fellow graduates.

Everden’s incoming Firepups will have quite the demanding schedule facing them, with the team guaranteed to play at least 25 matches in under two months.

The toughest part of Amherst’s schedule, as it usually is, will be the series of matches versus the top NESCAC programs, especially Middlebury, Tufts and Bowdoin, the latter two of which the Firedogs will face in back-to-back home matches on Friday, Oct. 6 and Saturday, Oct. 7.

Amherst then faces archrival Williams on Saturday, Oct. 14, a match that Amherst prevailed in last year after having lost the three previous editions of the rivalry.

Well before the intensity of conference play begins, though, the Firedogs will open their season on the second day of classes, taking on Springfield College in an away match at 7 p.m. on Wedneday, Sept. 6.

Photo courtesy of Amherst Athletics

Senior Marialexa Natsis was third on the team in kills last season, notching 197 total.

Men’s Golf Ready to Outdo 2016-17 Results With Talented Roster Mary Grace Cronin ’18 Staff Writer Heading into this year’s competition, the Amherst men’s golf team has plenty of reason to be optimistic. Following the team’s success in the 2016-17 season, in which the Mammoths qualified for the NESCAC Championships and placed fourth within the conference, this largely veteran group of golfers will look to capitalize on their experience this fall.

With last year’s first years one of the largest recruiting classes in recent memory, the young talent demonstrated an ability to compete with their older peers in both the NESCAC and other conferences. The trio of Cameron Clark ’20, Cole Vissicchio ’20 and Nicholas Kumamoto ’20 was especially impressive, as they all handled the pressure of NESCAC championships with ease, placing within the top-five Amherst competitors at the tournament.

Clark and Kumamoto shot 158 and 161 over two rounds, respectively, while Vissicchio carded a two-day score of 167 to match the recently graduated Liam Fine ’17. Fellow sophomores Jeffrey Herr ’20, Jack Klein ’20, Will Lonnquist ’20 and Nick Sullivan ’20 have also managed to position themselves as positive contributors. Meanwhile, captain Dan Langa ’18, who has been a team leader both on and off the course since his arrival in 2014, hopes to continue to develop the talented group of underclassmen.

“We are excited about how many guys we have returning,” Langa said. “Last year’s first-year class contributed a lot to our success and they are coming back ready to hit the ground running. We are definitely looking for this to be a successful year.”

Langa hopes that his fellow senior captains Sam Procter ’18 and Mateo Weisner ’18 will provide the steady leadership that will ensure this team’s continued improvement. Langa mentioned that one of his favorite highlights last year came during the NESCAC Qualifying tournament last fall, which usually is quite dramatic as it determines which teams make the spring conference tournament.

Last year, the Mammoths qualified with an impressive third-place finish, just edging out Middlebury College behind traditional powers Williams and Trinity.

Clark led the squad with a low score of 139, which nabbed him first-place overall ahead of Trinity’s Will Rosenfield, while Jack Burlison ’19 followed closely to tie for ninth overall with a score of 148. Both Vissicchio and Langa tied for 23rd, with each tallying 154. Additional highlights from last year include a sixth-place finish out of 18 schools in the Williams Fall Invitational at Williams College and a fourth-place tie with Husson University at the Hampton Inn Invitational in the spring.

Men’s golf will start the fall season on the road at the Bill Deitrick Invitational, which will be hosted by Trinity College on Saturday, Sept. 9.

Sports

Photo courtesy of Mark Box

Photos courtesy of Peter Connolly ‘18

Senior captain Hannah Guzzi hopes to close out an illustrious Amherst career, which has seen her notch 33 goals and nine assists, with a strong campaign.

Women’s Soccer Prepares For Defense of NESCAC Championship Belt Katie Bergamesca ’20 Staff Writer Amherst women’s soccer will return to Hitchcock Field this season as the defending NESCAC champions.

The Mammoths had an impressive 2016 season, finishing with a 17-3-1 record and advancing to the third round of the NCAA Championship before falling to William Smith College.

Several stars emerged for the Amherst women in the course of the team’s run of dominance last season, with four Mammoths named to All-NESCAC teams.

Current seniors Hannah Guzzi and Delancey King were both named to the first team, while recent graduate Emily Hester ’17

and Caleigh Plaut ’19 garnered second team honors.

In addition to the all-conference nod, Guzzi racked up several other awards.

The three-year starting forward from Southborough, Mass., was also named a D3soccer.com Second Team All-American, a Second Team NSCAA Scholar All-American and an NSCAA Third Team All-American.

Guzzi will thus start her senior season in the Pioneer Valley as the centerpiece of a potentially lethal offense.

In addition to losing Hester, the Amherst women had to say goodbye to four other graduating seniors at the end of May. While the Mammoths will undoubtedly miss both their talent and the leadership, Coach Jen Hughes has brought in five first

years who are excited to put in the work to help the Amherst women surpass their impressive display from last season.

“We had a good run in 2016 and winning NESCACs was almost surreal, but I know we can go even further,” midfielder and co-captain Meredith Manley ’18 said. “Although we graduated … pretty important players, I’m confident we will be able to fill those holes and take this team all the way to the NCAA finals.”

The Mammoths well of returning talent is incredibly deep, with Guzzi and King leading the offense.

Manley is back in the midfield after being sidelined by a torn ACL last season. With impressive first-year and sophomore campaigns under her belt, Manley should prove to be a key asset for the Mammoths.

TUES WED THU FRI GAME SCHE DULE

Men’s Soccer vs. Eastern Nazarene, 4:30 p.m.

Women’s Volleyball Women’s Soccer Women’s Volleyball @ Springfield, 7 p.m. @ Mount Holyoke, vs. Western New England 7 p.m. @ Smith College, 5 p.m.

Field Hockey @ Mount Holyoke, 7:15 p.m.

Junior Chelsea Cutler will play in net for Amherst once again this season. Last year, which was Cutler’s first as the Mammoths’ starting goalie, she finished with a 0.88 goals against average, good for fifth in the NESCAC. Cutler’s .838 save percentage, meanwhile, was third best in the conference.

Other notable returners include defender Megan Root ’19 and forwards Maeve McNamara ’19 and Sloan Askins ’20.

The Amherst women will open their season with an away game against the Lyons of Mount Holyoke College on Thursday, Sept. 7 at 7:00 p.m. Then, on Saturday, Sept. 9, seniors Guzzi, Manley, King and Alison Neveu will kick off their final season of NESCAC play in the Mammoths’ home-opener against Bowdoin on Hitchcock Field at 12:00 p.m.

SAT Women’s Golf Women’s Cross @ St Lawrence Invitational Country @ Smith Invitational Men’s Golf @ Bill Detrick Invitational Women’s Volleyball @ Emerson, 11 a.m.

Men’s Cross Country Field Hockey @ Smith Invitational vs. Bowdoin, noon

Women’s Soccer vs. Bowdoin, noon Women’s Volleyball vs. Colby @ Emerson, 1 p.m.

Women’s Soccer vs. Bowdoin, 2 p.m.