Issue 7 by The Amherst Student

THE INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER OF AMHERST COLLEGE SINCE 1868

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Homecoming 2013

Olivia Tarantino â&#x20AC;&#x2122;15 Photography Editor

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Table of Contents Alumni Profiles

Olivia Tarantino ’15

Dave Jauss ’80 Sonya Clark ’89 Lauren Groff ’01 Peggy Shinn’85 Paul M. Smith ’76 Jenny Rosenstrach ’93 Debby Applegate ’89 Kirk Johnson ’82 Jeffrey Wright ’87 Mark Jones ’81

4 5 6 7 8 9 12 13 14 15

Pratt Field Special

Sports

Men’s Soccer, Golf, Volleyball Cross Country, Field Hockey Women’s Soccer, Tennis Football

Olivia Tarantino ’15 Olivia Tarantino ’15

17 18 19 20

Letters Policy The opinion pages of The Amherst Student are intended as an open forum for the Amherst community. 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 e-mail account (astudent@amherst.edu) by 12 p.m. on Sunday, after which they will not be accepted. The editors reserve the right to edit any letters exceeding the 450-word limit or to withhold any letter because of considerations of space or content. Letters must bear the names of all contributors and a phone number where the author or authors may be reached. Letters and columns may be edited for clarity and Student style. The Student will not print personal or group defamation.

Publication Standards Editor-in-Chief Alissa Rothman Homecoming Editors Brian Beaty, Karl Greenblatt, Brendan Hsu, Andrew Kim, Andrew Knox, James Liu, Meghan McCullough, Julia Milmed, Sophie Murguia, Annalise Nurme, Brianda Reyes, Olivia Tarantino, Elaine Vilorio Homecoming Writers Jessie Kaliski, David Kang, Brittanie Lewis, Ashley Montgomery, Jake Walters

The Amherst Student is published weekly except during College vacations. The subscription rate is $75 per year or $40 per semester. Subscription requests and address changes should be sent to: Subscriptions, The Amherst Student; Box 1912, Amherst College: Amherst, MA 01002-5000. The offices of The Student are located on the second floor of the Keefe Campus Center, Amherst College. Phone: (413) 542-2304. All contents copyright © 2011 by The Amherst Student, Inc. All rights reserved. The Amherst Student logo is a trademark of The Amherst Student, Inc. Additionally, The Amherst Student does not discriminate on the basis of gender, race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation or age. All views published do not reflect the views of The Amherst Student staff.

Saturday Events

8:00 a.m. 9 & 10 a.m. Pratt Field Opens Pratt Field

12:45 p.m. Ribbon Cutting and Dedication of Pratt Field Pratt Field

11:00 a.m.

Tours of the Renovated Conversation with Pratt Field Complex President Biddy Martin Pratt Field: Hitchcock Gate Johnson Chapel

1:00 p.m. Amherst Football vs. Wesleyan Pratt Field

Postgame Homecoming Fest 2013 Alumni Gymnasium, Coolidge Cage

Images (left to right) courtesy of Rob Mattson, Rob Mattson, host.madison.com, Rob Mattson, Amherst College, Rob Mattson, Amherst College, Amherst College

12:00 p.m. Homecoming Tailgate Alumni Gymnasium, Coolidge Cage

8:30 p.m. Choral Society Concert Arms Music Hall

Alumni Profile Dave Jauss ’80

Amherst Athlete Destined for the Dugout

A baseball man in the truest sense of the phrase, Dave Jauss has used his wisdom and savvy to work with the game’s biggest names. by Karl Greenblatt ’15 On the baseball field, Dave Jauss ’80 has seen it all. He’s coached the best players in the history of the game, and he’s been a part of magical playoff runs that have captivated the heart and soul of major American cities. Jauss’s journey to becoming the righthand man of the sport’s best minds wasn’t easy, but his tenacity — along with the friends he made and the lessons he learned at Amherst College — helped to make it all possible.

Play Ball! Jauss says he had a “heavy dose of sports growing up” in Chicago, much of which can be attributed to the presence of his father, Bill Jauss, who passed away in 2012. The elder Jauss was a longtime sports writer for the Chicago Tribune as well as a pioneer in television sports talk. His show, Sportswriters on TV, first aired on Chicago’s SportsChannel America Network in 1985. “He and three other guys sat around a table smoking cigars for one hour, yelling and screaming at each other,” Jauss recalled. “It was probably the birth of sports talk shows. If you ever watch SNL where they do those skits of the Bears and Ditka, those are spin-offs of my dad’s show.” At New Trier East High School in Winnetka, Ill., Jauss played baseball and basketball. He caught the eye of legendary Amherst baseball coach Bill Thurston, who recruited him to join what would become a star-studded baseball program in the late 1970s. Jauss was a teammate — and roommate — of Dan Duquette ’80, now a decorated Major League Baseball executive. Tom Bourque ’80, a longtime scout in the Majors, was also one of Jauss’s teammates, as was the late John Cerutti ’81, a major league pitcher who later became a radio and TV commentator for the Toronto Blue Jays. In all, Jauss said, eight of his Amherst teammates ultimately played professional baseball. “I didn’t get drafted,” Jauss explained. “And I had all the good coaching and the other things that those guys had — so lack of talent is my only excuse! But all the athletes at that time, especially the baseball and football guys, were really close. We always hung out together, and many of us were in the same fraternity.”

Finding Guidance Despite his self-proclaimed lack of athletic talent, Jauss identifies Coach Thurston as a key role model and remains grateful for his tutelage. “Thurston is indeed a legend,” Jauss said. “He’s hard-nosed, disciplined, incredibly intelligent and so into the game of baseball. I couldn’t have asked for a better coach. Maybe, when I was playing for him, I sometimes got frustrated with his discipline and straight-laced style, but looking back, he really made me learn the game and appreciate the opportunities I’ve had within it.” At Amherst, Jauss also found role models off the field, one being the

now-retired Mathematics Professor Norton Starr. “I wasn’t a very good writer [when I came to college], but I was pretty good with numbers, so I wanted to be a math major for about three and a half weeks,” Jauss said. “That was until Professor Starr looked at me and said, ‘David, you’re in way over your head. You spend too much time in the gym and on the field to do this. We get about two math majors a year — and there are 25 kids in your class smarter than you are!’ I just said, ‘OK, thanks.’ He became a really good friend of mine, and he directed me towards psychology [Jauss’s ultimate major]. At the time, it was a much easier major for me to handle. The more I stayed in coaching and teaching — and, of course, being a dad — psychology became very helpful.” As a psychology major, Jauss says he quickly became aware of his desire to teach and coach after college. “[After] Amherst, a lot of guys were going to [New England] prep schools first [to teach and coach], so I was talking to a lot of coaches and professors about going to one of those. I probably didn’t take as much time as I should have thinking about what I was going to do after I graduated,” Jauss said. Nevertheless, he sought the College’s Hitchcock Fellowship, which was available following his senior year. “A bunch of the coaches told me I should do it,” Jauss said, “and I got really good recommendations from Bill [Thurston] and [current men’s basketball coach] Dave Hixon ’75. Other than spelling ‘athlete’ wrong on the entire application essay, it went over pretty well!”

Climbing the Ladder After his four years at Amherst, Jauss obtained a Masters’ Degree in Sports Management from UMass Amherst. That, combined with his service as the Hitchcock Fellow, provided Jauss with the springboard he needed to begin working his way up through the coaching ranks. From 1982 to 1984, Jauss was the head baseball coach at Westfield State College in Westfield, Mass. At age 25, he was the youngest head college baseball coach in the nation. He served for two years as the head coach at Atlantic Christian College in Wilson, N.C. as well, where he was the Assistant Athletic Director and also started the Sports Management graduate program. It was there that Jauss met his wife, Billie, who was a student at the time. “It took me a while to get to pro ball,” Jauss said. “I coached six-plus years in college, in Canada, in the Cape Cod League, working camps … just trying to get my name out there. Everyone kept trying to push me into the front office or into scouting because of my limited playing background. But I liked being on the field.” Jauss’s “big break” came with the help of his friend and former teammate Duquette, who took

over as the Montreal Expos’ Director of Player Development in 1988. Under Duquette, Jauss was hired as a manager in the Expos’ farm system. He bounced around, but his baseball acumen was constantly on display: in 1994, at the helm of the Double-A Harrisburg Senators, Jauss was named the Eastern League Manager of the Year. After a one-year tenure as the field coordinator of player development for the Baltimore Orioles — another step up — Jauss again found himself in Duquette’s organization, this time the Boston Red Sox. Initially, Jauss was in a scouting role for the Red Sox, but, before long, he was promoted to first base coach for the big club in 1997. “In itself, being in the dugout [with the Red Sox] for the first time was not a big deal — I had coached before — but, at the same time, I had always wanted to coach at the highest level. To get that opportunity was great,” Jauss said.

Dirty Water Under manager Jimy Williams, Jauss and the Red Sox reached the playoffs in 1998 and 1999. A mere two years later, however, in August of 2001, Williams found himself fired in mid-season. At the end of that season Duquette, too, was dismissed. “In Jimy’s case, Boston’s a very tough place to be if you’re at all characterized as simple or not intelligent — you take a hit,” Jauss said. “But Jimy, what a good man. He treated me really well, and I learned a lot from him.” In 2004, of course, the Red Sox won their first World Series title in 86 years. Many gave credit to the new wave of Red Sox executives, including Theo Epstein, Larry Lucchino and John Henry, for this breakthrough. Jauss, however — who was still with the Red Sox as an advance scout in 2004 — never lost sight of the role that Williams and Duquette played in setting the foundation for that success. “Jimy was on the ground floor of a lot of the things that the Henry/ Epstein/Lucchino regime did,” Jauss said. “So was [Duquette] in the front office. People didn’t realize it because Dan never promoted himself, but he was a much more innovative thinker and baseball man than people were aware of.” During his stay in Boston, Jauss also became friends with another manager whose name, perhaps unfairly, would become etched in the annals of Boston sports infamy: Grady Little. “I talk to him every couple of months,” Jauss said. “In fact, I talked to him just the other day. He’s doing great!”

Best of the Best When Little became the manager of the Dodgers in 2006, Jauss came with him, serving as the bench coach in Los Angeles for two years. He went on to become the bench coach for the Baltimore Orioles from 2008 to 2009 under Dave Trembley, and he filled the same role with the New York Mets in 2010 under Jerry Manuel. Since then, Jauss has been coaching for the Pittsburgh Pirates in various capacities. So, what is Jauss’s all-time favorite Major League Baseball memory? Given that he was a part of the historic

Photo Courtesy of Dave Jauss

Jauss and his wife, Billie, met at Atlantic Christian College in Wilson, N.C. 2004 season in Boston, the answer might not be what one would expect. Specifically, Jauss points to this year’s National League Wild Card Playoff, in which the Pirates defeated the Cincinnati Reds on their home field. That game marked the Pirates’ first playoff appearance since 1992 after a string of losing seasons. “As much as I enjoyed getting on the field three seconds after Foulke flipped the ball to Mientkiewicz [following Game Four of the 2004 World Series], the game this year against the Reds was as exciting an atmosphere of baseball as I’ve ever been in,” Jauss said. “And that’s hard to say after being in Boston and New York. The futility that the Red Sox had had [before 2004] was only because they had never reached that final goal — but they put together so many good teams, and the fans had always been there.” In Pittsburgh, however, “I got the sense of just how bad the teams had been and how depressed the city was,” Jauss said. “The Pirates people thought the team was sunk, just like the city. That all changed on that Tuesday against the Reds — I really believe that — and that was pretty special.” In addition to being a part of some excellent teams, Jauss has had the chance to witness some elite individual talents take the field. “Pedro Martinez was far and away the most fun pitcher to watch. My boys who play wear number 45 [Martinez’s uniform number with the Red Sox],” Jauss said. “Manny Ramirez was the best hitter I got to be with, and Jason Varitek was the smartest overall player I’ve seen behind the plate. Omar Vizquel…I marvel at the things he did on defense and on the bases. But it would take 20 issues of The Student to rattle off all the names of my favorite players!”

THE AMHERST STUDENT: HOMECOMING EDITION

Off the Field These days, Jauss resides in Naples, Fla. during the off-season, where his main focus is his family, with whom he admits he wishes he were able to spend more time. With Billie, Jauss has raised three sons. His oldest, 23-year-old D.J., completed his undergraduate studies at East Carolina Univ., and, by enrolling in the Sports Management graduate program at UMass, has followed in his father’s footsteps. He is also a professional baseball prospect as a pitcher whose fastball reaches the low 90s. His middle son, Charley, is a pre-medical undergraduate at East Carolina, and his youngest, Will, is a junior in high school who also intends to play college baseball. Jauss, who says he has stayed in touch with his New England-area Amherst friends “really well,” acknowledges he has only been back to the Pioneer Valley a handful of times since his graduation. Still, even after a three-decade career at the highest level of professional sports — and though he may have been an athlete first during his time at Amherst — he has no doubts about the importance of the College in preparing him for the world beyond. “I now see Amherst through much more mature eyes,” Jauss said, “Rather than with the negativity we all have when we’re 18 to 22 years old and think everything needs to change. It was a really special time for me, and I don’t say that too often. Really influential, mainly because of the people I met. I was an 18-year-old punk, and although I had lived in the city, I still wasn’t very cultured. I wouldn’t have been able to live in society without going to Amherst College … I really believe that! Even for someone like you now … your time here is what will develop you into the person you want to be.”

OCTOBER 18, 2013

Sonya Clark ’89 Alumni Profile

An Artist Who Lives and Breathes Her Art Sonya Clark ’89 is an award-winning artist and chair of the Department of Craft/Material studies at VCU. by Meghan McCullough ’15 Sonya Clark ’89, award-winning artist and designer, is always making art. As the current chair of the Department of Craft/Material Studies at Virginia Commonwealth Univ., Clark finds that everyday conversations with both students and colleagues, whether or not they concern art specifically, contribute significantly to her artwork. Clark’s work has been exhibited in museums and galleries all over the world, and over the years she has been awarded the Pollock-Krasner Award, a Rockefeller Foundation Residency in Italy, a Red Gate Residency in China and, most recently, a United States Artists Fellowship, among various other honors. After leaving Amherst College, she earned her BFA from the Art Institute of Chicago and her MFA from the Cranbook Academy of Art. Throughout the entirety of her career as an artist, Clark has hung on to her experiences at Amherst and implements what she learned here in her approach to crafting her artwork.

Life At Amherst Clark didn’t take any studio art classes when she was at Amherst. She was a psychology major. “My Amherst education was absolutely essential to how I practice as an artist now,” Clark said. She found the critical thought and reflection that Amherst students employ daily both in and out of the classroom essential to her initial

Darryl Harper ’90, who also attended Amherst, (he currently works at VCU as well, as the chair of the Music Department) would say the same thing about his music practice. Prior to attending Amherst, Clark attended high school at the Sidwell Friends School in Washington, D.C., which she says was good preparation for Amherst because it also encouraged deep critical thinking. It was at Amherst where Clark took many Black Studies classes alongside her psychology major, and she began to think about the psychological and cultural meanings of the objects people make. Under the guidance of Professors Andrea Rushing and Rowland Biodun, both of whom still teach in the Black Studies department and of whom she speaks very fondly, Clark “became interested in the things that people make and what that indicates about their culture.” Now, she says, those ideas would be organized under something along the lines of “material studies,” but there were no fields like that when she was in school. Clark was an active member of the Black Student Union while at Amherst, and also became the Residential Counselor (RC) of Drew House. Her involvement in campus life resulted in her having friends from all over campus, and she remarks that there were “certainly a lot of Amherst people” at her wedding. Although Clark did not take studio art classes while at Am-

Photo Courtesy of Taylor Dabney

Collaborative studio time can be, for Clark, one of the most productive moments in the creating process. development as an artist. Amherst equipped her with the “ability to think critically and to think connectively,” and because of that, she “can’t imagine only having gone to art school.” When she speaks with colleagues and students at VCU today, Clark remarks that she sounds “like someone who went to a liberal arts school,” and that the liberal arts way of thinking is “at the root” of the way she approaches issues. She thinks that her husband,

OCTOBER 18, 2013

herst or think of herself as an artist in the professional sense of the word at the time, she did utilize her position as an RC to foster the artistic community at the College. She organized art projects like group quilt making in Drew, and also held art shows. In this way, art permeated her life and her way of thinking while at Amherst, despite her academic focus on psychology. Clark’s parents rewarded her with an arts-studies trip to South Africa

upon her graduation from Amherst College. She spent six weeks on the Ivory Coast and was hooked before she came back home. The trip was “all about making work, understanding culture and studying with artists and craftspeople who were engaged in making things for and about their culture.” It was then that she knew she would try to go to art school. “I was good at math,” Clark said. “I think people hoped that I would become a math major or some sort of engineer … it took me a while to listen to my own voice.” Once she received her BFA from the Arts Institute of Chicago, Clark felt that her artistic foundations were solidified, and she began to more seriously embrace her professional identity as an artist.

Clark’s Approach to Art When asked about the routine of her artistic practice today, Clark replied, “I don’t think I’m ever not making art.” Her daily interactions at work, at home or with friends all contribute to the ideas that are constantly developing in her mind. “To me, a lot of the making happens when I’m thinking about something or when I’m in conversation with someone or when I’m reading something,” Clark said. By the time Clark sits down in the studio to actually craft, “the genesis of the idea is probably already there in part.” She also finds that studio assistants (she usually has two other people present assisting her with the materials) can contribute greatly to the development of her creative ideas. The dialogue that they have together in the studio also becomes a part of the art making and can often be the source of “the next generation of ideas” for Clark. Clark’s work has its focal point in Afro-Caribbean heritage, and her trademark has become the use of unorthodox materials such as combs, human hair and beads in order to address themes of race, culture and class. Her exhibit this past summer, “Sonya Clark: Material Reflex,” at the Craft and Folk Art Museum in Los Angeles, Calif., was very well received. Dealing with these very themes, the exhibit included pieces such as “Afro Abe II,” a piece that transforms a five-dollar bill through the application of handwoven hair on Lincoln’s head and “3/5 (Three-Fifths),” in which three long braids are attached to a (presumably white man’s) dress shirt in order to allude to the Great Compromise of 1787 which declared slaves as three-fifths of a person with regards to the voting process.

Material in Clark’s Work Ashley Kistler, Director of the Anderson Gallery at VCU, collaborated with Clark on her Beaded Prayers Project, which came to the Gallery in early 2009. The project, a traveling exhibition comprised of over 5,000 beaded packets made by people from all over the world, was inspired by African traditions involving creating protective amulets that contain powerful objects, like medicines or sacred texts. The Beaded Prayers Project was one that Clark “shepherded for many years,” Kistler said, and it “involved

Photo Courtesy of Nako Wowsugi

Clark believes that everything she does contributes to her art, whether it be working or talking with friends. the participation of people in many communities around the world.” Kistler enjoys working with Clark in the various different contexts that her position as Director of the Anderson Gallery allows and feels that Clark has been “a fantastic addition” to VCUarts. “My work is very concerned with the materials I use,” Clark said. She thinks of making art as “a repository” of the liberal arts “way of thinking,” and, as such, is the way in which she is able to “bring ideas together.” In a piece written by Kistler in the exhibition catalogue that accompanied the presentation of some of Clark’s work at the Southwest School of Art in 2012, Kistler attested that “Clark’s authentic obsession [with the work that she does] springs in part from the potent, multisensory memories of having her hair combed and braided as a child ... the feeling of being literally tethered to that person while her hair was dressed.” Creating art, according to Clark, is her “way of researching things” and further learning about topics and ideas that she is interested in. Clark, and the art that she makes, is “informed by the history” of the materials that she uses; although her materials are always surprising and unusual, when her pieces are on display, one gets the feeling that they could not have been done any other way. Clark believes that artistic failures are like nurse logs; her mistakes can give life to ideas for new and better pieces, much like the way a fallen, dead log in the forest can be the source of moss and other new life forms. “Failure is a great thing to have in my case,” Clark said. “Because it can promote new ideas, if you’re paying attention.” Because of this, “where the artwork begins is hard to say.” Clark doesn’t think of her artistic practice as something that begins when she steps into the studio and ends when she steps

THE AMHERST STUDENT: HOMECOMING EDITION

out of it. It is, rather, a way of thinking, and a way of life.

Working at VCU Clark has been the chair of the Department of Craft/Material Studies at VCU, one of the best art schools in the nation, for the past eight years. VCUarts is ranked as the number one national public university in the arts, and has been ranked, with regards to specific materials, by U.S. News and World Reports as #4 in Fiber, #5 in Glass, #10 in Metals and #12 in Clay. With a student cohort of approximately 30,000, about ten percent are in the School of the Arts. Clark speaks very enthusiastically about her work at VCU, as she feels that the arts department itself is something of “a collaborative artwork.” She very much enjoys the process of figuring out, with her colleagues, who will be granted entry into the department each year, and playfully likens it to choosing who the members of her “band” will be; they need to deliberate on “what kind of music” they are going to play, and “how to keep that music fresh.” Clark’s friend and fellow alumnus, Paul Monroe ’71, claims that both Clark and her husband “have given new energy to both the VCU and the Richmond art scene,” as Clark is “an unfailingly energetic and positive teacher and example for her students.” Monroe’s observations of Clark’s enthusiasm and work ethic as chair at VCU certainly mesh with Clark’s attitude towards her job; she is full of positive things to say. She loves that everyone who she works with “is an artist,” so while they may be “solving what might seem like the most straightforward, administrative of problems,” (she remarks that problems are what they “thrive on”), there is never a dull moment. Clark’s zeal for both her art and her work at VCU — which are, more often than not, one and the same — is sure to propel her towards further great success in the art world, and we will be fortunate to witness the results.

Alumni Profile Lauren Groff ’01

Author Alum Writes Her Way to the Top

From a shy, bookish child to a critically acclaimed writer, Lauren Groff is gracefully handling her newfound success. by Sophie Murguia ’17 Asked to reflect on her most memorable moments at Amherst, writer Lauren Groff ’01 immediately recalled one cold spring morning at crew practice when coach Bill Stekl gave her the motivation she needed to start rowing for the day. “There was this beautiful backlit fog rising off the river, and the banks were just pearly and beautiful, and it felt almost impossible to get our bodies moving in the cold,” Groff said. “And Bill from his boat into his microphone shouts, ‘You can do anything — just do it slowly enough!’ And it’s almost been my motto in life. You can do anything. You just do it slowly enough.” In some ways, this seems an apt description of Groff ’s writing career. Both her critically acclaimed novels, Arcadia and Monsters of Templeton, are the products of years of intensive research, discarded drafts and careful revision, as well as a lifetime of fierce devotion to reading and writing. After college, she worked at a series of what she calls “terrible jobs” — including bartending and telemarketing — before finally being able to devote her life to writing full-time. In other ways, though, Groff ’s success has been anything but slow. After less than a semester of graduate school at the University of WisconsinMadison’s MFA program, she sold a story to the prestigious Atlantic Monthly, and six months after the story was published, she sold her first novel, Monsters of Templeton (2008) — all before her thirtieth birthday. She quickly followed Monsters, a New York Times bestseller, with the story collection Delicate Edible Birds (2009). Last year’s Arcadia, another New York Times bestseller, was declared a best book of 2012 by the New York Times, the Washington Post and NPR, among many other publications.

A Shy Childhood Despite all this critical acclaim, Groff remains modest. “I don’t feel like they’re successful at all,” Groff said of her books. “They always fall short of the mark that I want them to hit.” She rarely reads reviews of her own work, and she says that her main

focus is always on making the next book better. Groff ’s modesty and wariness about publicity reflect characteristics that have been with her since childhood. Her mother, Jeannine Groff, described her as “modest and a little bit shy,” while Groff herself admitted to being “pathologically shy as a kid.” “She was so quiet and introspective as a baby that we had her checked out by a pediatrician,” said Groff ’s father, Gerald. Instead of opening outward, the young Groff cultivated a lively internal world, fueled by her passion for reading whatever she could get her hands on. “Books were far more vivid to me than people,” Groff said. Growing up in Cooperstown, N.Y., she would make daily trips to the library, reading everything from The Hobbit to Jane Austen. “I really read everything, and I didn’t understand most of it,” Groff admitted. “You read Jane Austen when you’re eight, and you’re not going to get the sort of social niceties, but you’re bathed in the precise language and the sensibility, and that’s what matters. I guess it’s the tone that matters at that point.”

The Path to Publication Although on one level she’d always known she wanted to be a writer, “It’s one of those things that takes a lot of courage to say to your family, especially, but also to yourself,” Groff said. After a gap year abroad in Nantes, France, she enrolled at Amherst, where she was excited to discover a deeper style of close reading than she’d been exposed to before. Although at one point she considered a career as a pediatrician, Groff realized that the humanities were her true love, and she went on to become a double major in English and French. She cited French Professor Leah Hewitt’s autobiography class as one of her most influential during her time at the College. “She just seemed delighted to be learning, thinking and imagining,” Professor Hewitt said of Groff. “She brought out from behind a modest demeanor a final project that was wildly playful, critically sophisticated

Photo Courtesy of Lauren Groff

Groff is proud of the child-raising routine she has established with her husband over the years.

and showed a rich literary and artistic imagination that foreshadowed her successful career as a writer.” “I just loved college,” Groff said. “It was just a feeling of being coddled and beloved in a community where people had the same sorts of ideas and goals. I think that I’m always trying to go back to that place.” Groff described community as one of her “obsessions” as a writer, and said she found a similarly nurturing community in graduate school. It took three years of unsatisfying jobs to get there, however. In addition to her stints as a telemarketer and bartender (“I was, like, the world’s worst bartender. I was really horrible,” Groff said), she also spent time working at the Sierra Club and in an administrative position at Stanford. This time in California would eventually provide inspiration for Groff ’s first published novel, Monsters of Templeton. The novel takes place in what Groff describes in the author’s note as a “slantwise version” of her hometown of Cooperstown. She explains that the project grew out of her “wanting to wake up every day in Cooperstown,” a homesickness that developed after many long, lonely days spent working at Stanford. She continued working on Monsters after she enrolled at the MFA program at University of Wisconsin-Madison, sometimes becoming so intensely involved in her work that she would spend eighteen hours a day writing. It was not long after this that her writing career took off, and her Atlantic Monthly story garnered the attention of Bill Clegg, the man who would eventually become her agent. “When her agent first saw a story she wrote for The Atlantic Monthly and asked to represent her, she demurred,” remembered Groff ’s husband, Clay Kallman ’00, whom she met while rowing at Amherst. “He then jumped on a plane and flew out to meet her in person and she still grilled him for hours to be sure he would help sell [the] novel.” Clegg eventually did help Groff to sell Monsters, which was received with critical praise and appeared on multiple bestseller lists.

A “Third Child” Even now, having achieved much greater success, Groff retains the same sense of protectiveness over her work. She says that whatever novel she is working on at the moment feels like a “third child” — her two others are sons, ages two and five. “When I married my husband, I said — I don’t actually necessarily believe in marriage, but I said okay, given these conditions,” Groff said. “One condition is that when we have kids, you’re going to be the primary caregiver to the kids … and the other thing is, I will not have any shame or guilt about my child-raising, because I feel like shame and guilt are the ways that a woman artist keeps herself from actually doing what she needs to do.” Groff and her husband have established a routine wherein Kallman wakes up their sons, feeds them breakfast and takes them to school, while Groff works on her writing. Groff then spends the evening with their sons, and after they go to bed, she takes time to think about what she’s written during the day and what

Photo Courtesy of Lauren Groff

Even now, having achieved much greater success, Groff retains the same sense of protectiveness over her work. she plans to write tomorrow. “I feel like you have to protect this space around your work so fiercely and sort of resist the societal urge to make mothers feel bad for their decisions,” Groff explained. Groff, Kallman and their sons now live in Gainesville, Fla., near Kallman’s family, who help to take care of the children. It was in Gainesville that Groff ’s second novel, Arcadia, was born. The novel begins in the late 1960s and centers on Bit Stone, the first child born in Arcadia, a fictional utopian commune in upstate New York. Groff first got the idea from the novel when she started researching happiness shortly after moving to Gainesville. “I was deeply, deeply depressed in pregnancy,” Groff said. “I guess I just don’t do well with the hormones. The world just felt like it was falling apart. And it may still be, but I guess I’m not paying as much attention.” Part of Groff ’s unhappiness stemmed from her isolation in Gainesville, where she knew no one other than Kallman and his parents. “I started to do research about happiness because I was so deeply sad, and then I started to do research about people who tried to create their own happiness,” Groff said, explaining how this line of inquiry led her to become interested in utopias and intentional communities.

Publicity and Acclaim Ultimately, Arcadia proved even more successful than Groff ’s last two books, winning widespread publicity and numerous critical accolades. For the self-described introvert, one might think all this attention would be hard to take. Indeed, the reviews still make Groff uncomfortable. “You put your baby in the middle of a coliseum, and people have either a rock or a rose in their hand, and

THE AMHERST STUDENT: HOMECOMING EDITION

they can throw the rock or they can throw the rose. And you’re like, ‘It’s my baby, don’t throw anything!’” Groff said, describing the review process, which she calls “painful.” Still, despite her introversion, Groff has another side to her personality; one that her father recalled emerged when she was a teenager. “In adolescence she developed seemingly opposite, contrary forces,” Gerald Groff said. “She grew tall and strong, opinionated, passionate and selectively assertive. The Homecoming Queen, Outward Bound adventurer and exchange student to France appeared to be another person.” “In many respects, she is our yinyang child,” he reflected, discussing a double-sidedness that seems to exist in Groff to this day. Although she knows some writers who have “breakdowns” after a tour, Groff genuinely enjoys herself while she’s promoting a book. “When she is out on tour, a different part of her emerges,” her mother observed. “This public part of her is exciting, funny, smart and charming.” Groff agreed that she seems to transform during book tours. “You put on a nice dress and some makeup and then suddenly you’re a different person,” Groff said. “And you have a glass of wine and go on and you’re fine! You get to the point where it’s just a performance, as opposed to who you are as a person, so it becomes really fun.” In the end, though, despite Groff ’s charismatic stage presence, her mother observes that she seems most in her element when she’s alone at home, writing. Behind the crowdpleasing adult author, it’s still easy to see the shadow of the shy little girl who preferred books to people. “I can’t write when I’m out on tour,” Groff mused. “That’s the most essential part of me, so it’s difficult.”

OCTOBER 18, 2013

Peggy Shinn ’85 Alumni Profile

For the Love of Sports & Fine Journalism From competition to contribution, Peggy Shinn’s enthusiasm for winter sports led to a career enriched in award-winning ski journalism.

by Ashley M. Montgomery ’16 Today, Peggy McKay Shinn ’85 is known for her achievements in journalism and her sports enthusiasm — she is a four-time Harold Hirsch award winner and contributor to publications such as the Wall Street Journal, Mountain Sports and Living and the Boston Globe, just to name a few. During the early eighties, Shinn was like many of us — she enjoyed skiing and rowing crew, has fond memories of studying with her fellow geology majors and was adored by professors and friends alike, especially, to quote retired Professor of Geology Edward Belt, for “her sense of humor.” Her dedication to athletics stunned her roommate Tracy Johnson ’85, who recalls that she “could not believe [Shinn] was always up for” her early morning practices. This dedication continues to stun many of her peers today. There was always some part of Shinn that wanted to be a journalist because she always loved writing, but back then, Shinn was simply an Amherst College student and still a bit unsure of what lay in her future.

A New Kind of Athlete Shinn’s interest in sports led her to the College’s student newspaper, The Amherst Student. “I technically wasn’t on the newspaper staff,” Shinn explained. “I just covered ski races, so I was kind of freelancing for the paper.” Shinn’s older sister and current

rado, Shinn also took up powder skiing and began competing (and winning) in grueling bicycle races like the Leadville 100. Extremely modest, Shinn would simply say she likes bicycling, especially mountain biking, and leave it at that. In 1990, Shinn received her Masters before pursuing another Masters of Science in Environmental Studies at the Colorado School of Mines after realizing she “didn’t like teaching adolescents.” While in grad school, Shinn held various jobs, including waitressing and tutoring. Upon graduation in 1993, Shinn went to Vermont, her home state, and finally began writing.

Revamping Team USA Back in Vermont, Shinn decided to cover skiing events for the local newspaper. The exposure gave rise to positions covering for local magazines and much more. “It was a case of networking,” Shinn recalled. “One of the editors I worked for recommended me to another who was looking for freelance journalists for a new project.” The new project, as it turned out, was innovating the United States’ Olympic Committee’s (USOC) website, TeamUSA.org. In 2008, Shinn and fellow freelancer, Aimee Berg, were asked to write more than just short blurbs and statistics about the competing athletes — they were assigned “actual journalistic profiles,” according to Shinn. Berg recounts

and even to become a contributing editor for Ski Racing Magazine for many years. The Harold Hirsch award, an annual award presented by the North American Snowsports Journalism Association, has been received by Shinn a total of four times for her phenomenal ski writing.

Freedom of Freelance In addition to her many contributions to specialized sports publications, Shinn also pitches ideas to other publications, such as the Wall Street Journal, and completes feature pieces on a monthly basis for TeamUSA.org. Shinn describes herself as a freelance writer, which means she works for herself. She admits that although she enjoys the flexibility and being home after her daughter’s school day is complete, she is not always so keen on the life of a freelance writer. Shinn has to pitch her stories to editors, sometimes ones she is not familiar with, since she is not tied to a staff position at a paper. “It feels like being the ugly girl asking the football player to the prom,” Shinn jokingly explained. Since the journalism industry is becoming more and more competitive, freelancing is a difficult career in which to make a living. The decrease in paper publications and increase in online materials has given consumers more access to such resources, but has also decreased the number of employees needed and the amount that can be paid as salary. “I could write one article for an online company and they would offer me $50, which is no way to support yourself,” Shinn said. “Honestly, I could not be a freelance

Photo Courtesy of Peggy Shinn

After graduation, Shinn headed west, where she took up bicycle racing and mountain biking. bureau chief of the Wall Street Journal in Atlanta, Betsy McKay ’83, was on the paper as well. Deciding not to follow in her sister’s shadow, Shinn focused on competing in college sports, majoring in geology instead of English and discovering her own path. After graduation, Shinn headed west, where she took up bicycle racing and mountain biking. Shinn described her twenties as her “floundering” and “dabbling in grad school.” She headed to Colorado, deciding that it might be nice to teach geology, and began studying for a Masters of Arts in Teaching at Colorado College. While in Colo-

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that the two “hit it off right away.” Even though they filed their articles from separate locations, they covered the 2010 Vancouver and 2012 London Olympics together and remain online pen pals five years later. Although Shinn could not cover the 2008 Beijing Olympic games, she will cover the 2014 Sochi Olympics, making the event the third Olympic games she has covered during her journalism career. The position opened up a wide array of opportunities for Shinn, leading her to cover not only sporting events for TeamUSA.org, but also to contribute to major ski magazines, such as Ski and Skiing,

writer without the support of my husband.” Shinn’s husband, Andrew Shinn, is a fellow Amherst College graduate of the class of 1985.

Eye of the Storm Finances aside, being a freelance writer has still given Shinn more time to delve into side-projects. One such project was the publication of the Hurricane Irene-based book Deluge: Tropical Storm Irene, Vermont. The book focuses on the path of the 2011 Hurricane Irene and the aftermath of its unexpected destruction across little towns in Vermont.

Photo Courtesy of Neil Bainton

Today, Shinn is known for her achievements in journalism and her sports enthusiasm. Shinn’s sister, Betsy McKay, needed reporters to cover the event, since McKay was responsible for the North Carolina coast coverage of the storm. Because Irene’s path was not predicted to travel so far north, and because the wreckage had blocked many of Vermont’s roads, there was no way someone from the outside could get in. Enter Peggy Shinn, whose permanent residence is in Vermont with her husband and daughter. She was the first to inform her sister of the severity of the damage by posting photos to Facebook. “Before she went on Facebook, I know she thought I must have been exaggerating,” Shinn said, laughing. Since Shinn was close enough to the action, she offered to cover the event. She hopped onto her mountain bike to easily navigate through the wreckage on the roads. Though the initial coverage for the WSJ was complete, Shinn looked at the damage as more than a single newspaper piece. Shinn decided that “the government could use much more than an article — this warrants a book.” When asked if the process of writing the book was significantly more difficult than writing articles, Shinn replied that writing the book was like writing “a series of articles,” and expressed gratitude for her editor’s aid. “I was used to telling stories about athletes that were inspiring, so many of the stories [in Deluge] were inspiring but also very sad,” Shinn remarked. “These people lost so much. I felt very self-conscious about taking their time.” Though the book, dedicated to Shinn’s parents, was just recently released this past August, it is already receiving rave reviews. Sue Mintor, Vermont’s Irene Recovery Officer praises Deluge, saying: “Peggy Shinn presents a riveting

THE AMHERST STUDENT: HOMECOMING EDITION

account of Tropical Storm Irene’s devastating toll on Vermont and the heroic response of its people. By weaving together vignettes of the disaster in communities across the state, she deftly portrays the Irene story: the pain of loss; the strength of community; and the fierce determination to rebuild. Shinn’s telling of the tragic yet transformational story of Vermont’s road to recovery presents a valuable lesson in what can happen when a fractured state becomes united by a common purpose.” Shinn has also received glowing reviews from The Burlington Press, San Jose Mercury News and Boston’s online magazine The Arts Fuse. The risks Shinn took in covering the story and in many of her athletic pursuits truly demonstrate her bravery. As her former Amherst classmate, Mark Boryta ’85, remarked about Shinn, “She will go anywhere and do anything for an experience, despite the fact it may terrify her.” The rewards clearly outweigh the process.

Down Time In the midst of monthly articles, book signings and anticipating the 2014 Sochi Olympics, Shinn somehow finds time to relax. However, her version of relaxation is quite different from many of ours. Although she enjoys spending time with her husband and attending her daughter’s soccer games, she also enjoys continuing to learn yoga, walking and “petting my cat,” as she jokes. “I rarely have free time.” It’s hard to imagine how Shinn can stay so active, writing and mountain biking, without burning herself out, but if her impressive list of contributions to journalism is any indication, it seems to work for her.

Alumni Profile Paul Smith ’76

A Lawyer Advocating for Social Justice

Known for his landmark victory in Lawrence v. Texas, Supreme Court Lawyer Paul Smith has a passion for fighting injustice. by Jake Walters ’14 Attending Amherst in the mid 1970s, it likely would have been impossible to hide oneself from the larger political and social issues that gripped the U.S. as a whole. These issues manifested themselves at Amherst as well: the civil rights movement, the feminist movement, the Vietnam War, the Watergate scandal and the rise of the environmental justice movement. However, while many saw and understood these issues, few actively contributed to social justice initiatives. In many ways, the late ‘70s and early ‘80s failed to capitalize on the spirit of change and social justice that emerged in the ‘60s and early ‘70s, changes that Paul Smith ’76 lived through as a child. Few internalized the legal and social implications of these national crises like Smith though, who appreciated government and law not only as a means for personal fulfillment and interest but also for creating the change in society many desperately sought; he was fascinated with it not only as a champion of its values but also a sharp critic of those values. While many Amherst graduates enter law in one form or another, few likely see law as a means of true societal change in the way Smith does. For him, law isn’t merely a means of personal fulfillment; it is a means to national justice and to help convey the voices of those whom society often renders voiceless. And while he is mostly known for a commitment to social justice that revealed itself in Supreme Court cases over the past decade (highlighted by the Lawrence v. Texas decision of 2003 which effectively ended legal discrimination against homosexual intercourse in the U.S.) Smith’s cultivated his commitment to social justice far earlier, while he was attending Amherst College. His commitment is, in many ways, a manifestation of the simultaneous grips of activism and disillusionment on the campus in the mid-‘70s. For Smith, the discomfort with society felt by many in the ‘70s was not an excuse for disillusionment, but a call to arms, a call which he answered and which has led to his commitment to social justice through the legal sphere for the past 30 years.

The Amherst Years At a young age, Smith was well aware of Amherst College. Although he was born in California, where he lived until the age of 11, Smith spent his older childhood years in New York and lower New England. Amherst was a popular school for his friends and fellow students, along with many Ivy League schools, but Smith was dead-set on the intimate, personal school environment that a college like Amherst could afford him. This ultimately led to his applying to Amherst Early Decision, and he was admitted to his first choice school,

something which was no doubt both deeply fulfilling and daunting for Smith. At Amherst he grew attached to the Political Science Department, culminating in a choice to major in that subject, which “wasn’t a surprise” to him or others around him, Smith humorously noted. He recalls numerous classes both in the department and outside of it that influenced his political development, from Professor Earl Latham’s courses on “Constitutional Law,” which had a direct influence on his view of law, to more unexpected influences such as Professor Richard Peine’s French theater classes, which encompassed themes of anarchism. Although Smith was interested in government generally, he was not initially sure which outlet seemed most appealing to him occupationally, considering formal government, journalism and law throughout his Amherst career. In many ways though, Smith’s personal development wasn’t only realized at Amherst. He was not only a careful observer of Amherst but also of the history of larger society, and he was deeply attuned to large-scale shifts in societal norms even at a young age. Arriving at Amherst, he was not blind to how the College was, in many ways, a microcosm of society, and his personal development and academic interests cannot be separated from larger national conversations during the turbulent ‘70s. In middle school and high school, he became attuned to the rise of the civil rights movement on a national level, as African-Americans and other racial minorities fought for rights that had been denied them throughout history. The summer before his freshman year was marked by the eruption of the Watergate scandal. This only added to public feeling that was already rampant with concerns over the Vietnam War and the government. The manifestation of national activism at Amherst was immediately apparent to Smith even before his arrival on campus. He notes that in 1972 some of “the faculty and the President had been arrested for protesting the Vietnam War at a national air-force base in Chicopee, Mass.,” something which had acquired national attention and naturally piqued Smith’s interest due to his burgeoning fascination with national politics and civil rights. He noted that soon afterward, “Watergate, as opposed to war, became the dominant issue” on campus, along with women’s rights issues, which became increasingly public in the early ‘70s. At this time, the College was considering co-education. “Co-education was finally decided in the ‘74-‘75 school year, my junior year, but they were already meeting freshman [1972] year to decide,” Smith said. Astute about national issues and about how Amherst reflected larger society, he was

well aware that the co-education debate at Amherst was merely one battle within a much larger fight for equality in society, which ultimately allowed him a lens through which to connect his personal life and Amherst education to larger civil rights issues in society. Spending the summer of 1974 on Capitol Hill was a formative experience as well, giving him a first-hand account of not only the Nixon trial over Watergate occurring that year but also the more general governmental atmosphere of the time. On this, Smith noted that in addition to grassroots activists, journalists and other figures, nationally, “I saw lawyers as central players in efforts at the time to make the world better.” “I was interested in law as an instrument for making the world freer and better. When I was growing up as a young child, the civil rights movement was in full swing, and by the time I was in college the women’s movement was getting going in a big way. And I wanted to connect my interest to law with social justice,” Smith said. “It seemed as if lawyers were playing a big part in social justice efforts at the time.” It was ultimately this that pushed Smith toward a legal route to social justice. In other words, for him, the decision to enter into law was not simply the result of inward thinking, but a thorough understanding of the conversations going on throughout the nation and at Amherst.

The Call of the Law Upon graduating from Amherst, Smith attended Yale Law School for three years. After this, he went to work as a law clerk in Battleboro, Vt. before moving on to clerk for Lewis Powell on the Supreme Court. At this point, formal government seemed unappealing to Smith, largely due to the control of national government throughout the ‘80s by Reagan conservatives. Due to this, he continued in the legal sphere, eventually working with a “boutique” law firm in the D.C. area that specialized in constitutional law, an interest he had developed at Amherst. In 1994 he went to work for Jenner & Block, a legal firm with a reputation for specializing in First Amendment and civil rights law, two fields of law which reflected Smith’s view of law as a means to social justice and which interested Smith greatly. Although Smith went on to make oral arguments in 14 Supreme Court cases, the one that he acknowledges he will likely be most known for, Lawrence v. Texas, is also the one he considers his greatest personal accomplishment. Although he humbly admits, “I was in the right place at the right time,” Smith was centrally responsible for arguing the 2003 case that not only ended discrimination against sodomy in Texas but also established legal precedent that effectively made homosexual sexual activity legal. Coming on the heels of a lengthy period of gay rights legislation and social activism throughout the US, Smith notes that his work in arguing for this decision would not

Photo Courtesy of Paul Smith

Smith, who has made oral arguments in 14 Supreme Court cases, is a well-known advocate of LGBT rights. have been possible without a larger shift in public demeanor throughout the U.S. around this time. “This was a period in time where gay people were finally being seen as becoming full-fledged citizens. The tide was definitely beginning to change legally,” Smith said, referring to the history of rampant discrimination against LGBT populations throughout the ’80s and ’90s as well as prior. As a gay man himself, he notes that this decision and his work on reaching it meant much for the nation as well as for himself personally.

Defender of Social Justice Although known for his work on LGBT legislation, including serving on the Board for Lambda Legal, an organization dedicated to bringing social injustices related to LGBT rights in the U.S. to court, his legal career covers many other fields as well. He has argued cases related to racial discrimination, noting “in the area of voting rights several of us decided to get involved in cases involving redrawing of voting lines, which can have a big impact on representation of minorities in larger society.” However, he has more recently become nationally known for his breaking new barriers in First Amendment legislation in the case Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association, which effectively established the First Amendment rights of video game producers and marketers, making video games a form of constitutionally protected free speech. Although nominally not similar to his work on Lawrence v. Texas, both cases reflect Smith’s interest in protecting the legal right to engage in actions with which many in society disagree. They also

THE AMHERST STUDENT: HOMECOMING EDITION

reflect the more general peculiarity of the legal sphere to inform changing social tides in the U.S. The Entertainment Merchants decision, which came in 2011, arrived at a time when video games were striving to be considered viable and legitimate art, and will help further developments in the field as developers explore greater artistry in game development. On using law as a means to achieve social justice in larger society, Smith noted, “It’s the kind of thing I really care about. Even if it’s free work on the side.” This passion and care for changing the world manifesting professionally “can make the practice a lot more exciting.” Almost as if he were unable to remove himself from the courtroom, he does significant volunteer and pro-bono work for clients whose liberties have been restricted but cannot afford representation otherwise, primarily through serving on the board for the American Constitution Society. Expressing a desire to continue doing so even if he retires from paid legal work, Smith shows little sign of reducing his commitment to social justice anytime soon. And for Smith again, it’s as personal as it is political. His colleague Susan Kohlmann said, “It also probably goes without saying that he has accomplished so much as an advocate and leader because he is always prepared and incredibly hardworking with a great sense of humor. But the secret ingredient to Paul’s success is that he is a genuinely nice guy — and with all the rest, that is what makes him a rare breed,” and someone who cares deeply about enacting the change he wants to see in the world around him.

OCTOBER 18, 2013

Jenny Rosenstrach ’93 Alumni Profile

Food Writer Spices Up the Family Dinner Creator of the blog-turned-book “Dinner: A Love Story,” Jenny Rosenstrach is finding a context for dinner, one ingredient at a time. by Jessie Kaliski ’15 Jenny Rosenstrach’s day usually begins at 7 a.m., as she drops off her two daughters at the bus stop to leave for school. For the next seven to eight hours, Jenny attempts to respond to the overload of emails in her inbox, finish a blog post — which, for yesterday, was “15 Recipes Every Parent Should Know,” including “The Elixir” (chicken orzo soup) and “The Holiday Hallmark” (homemade franks and beans) — perhaps squeeze in a run or a trip to her children’s in-school book fair and retest a recipe, figuring out how many eggs to replace for the usual cream in the her rendition of Greek chicken soup. Rosenstrach is the creator of Dinner: A Love Story, a website that offers advice, recipes, tips and stories on how to cook a family dinner for families of all sizes, all types of eaters and for all kinds of schedules and events. In July 2012, Rosenstrach turned her website into a book, “Dinner: A Love Story: It all begins at the family table.” Rosenstrach’s book was a featured book on Amherst Reads, an online book club that connects Amherst alumni, students, faculty members, parents and friends.

College: A Love Story Growing up, Rosenstrach was in awe of her mother, who seemed to have accomplished an impossible task: she was a full-time mother and a full-time student (she went back to law school), yet was still able to find time to make Rosenstrach, her twin brother and her older sister dinner every night. At that time, Rosenstrach “did not even think to question” her mother’s ability to juggle all these tasks. It wasn’t until she herself was a parent that Rosenstrach began to see how her mother was truly her hero. Rosenstrach arrived at Amherst in 1989, obtaining a bachelor’s degree in English as well as participating on the tennis and squash teams. Speaking highly of Coach Jackie Bagwell and her team, Rosenstrach remarks that “the team was like a family and we had lots of family dinners together.” Coach Bagwell recalls how Jenny and one of her good friends, Jennifer Pohl, both of whom were captains their senior year, “loved to write poems and read them to the team before big matches.” In Pohl’s poem to Rosenstrach, before their match against Tufts, Pohl wrote, “For if there’s ever a need to pull out a game, clearly J.R.’s the one we would name. An incredible winning season; four years in a row; this cute, little thing sure puts on a show!” In fact, Pohl was one of Rosenstrach’s first friends at Amherst. “It was probably the first or second night of school when we spent hours sitting on Memorial Hill filling each other in on all aspects of our first 18 years,” said Pohl. “Having myself come from a long line of Amherst alumni, I came to Amherst with an idea of what made a place like Amherst special. I instinctively and immediately recognized these characteristics in Jenny:

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substance, honest and real intelligence, unique creativity and multifaceted talent.” Coming into Amherst, Rosenstrach thought she knew how to write; however, she said, “I really learned to write [at Amherst College]. The intensity of writing there was such an amazing thing.” Rosenstrach remembers one of her favorite classes at Amherst, a creative writing class taught by a visiting professor and author, Caryl Phillips. “His class liberated me a bit and made me see how much I really loved working with that style of writing,” Rosenstrach said. However, it was an LJST class taught by Professor Lawrence Douglass that truly challenged her, “precisely because he was so scary,” Rosenstrach recalled. “There wasn’t a day when he didn’t call on me and I didn’t humiliate myself.” Little did Rosenstrach realize that her college experience would imitate her book, “Dinner: A Love Story.” Amherst College was a literal love story for Rosenstrach: she met her husband, Andy, when she was a junior and he a sophomore.

Finding Balance After graduating from Amherst College in 1993, Rosenstrach took a job in financial research. “It was the recession and everyone was like, ‘If you get a job, then take the job!’ I panicked and did not really think it through,” Rosenstrach said. Although it wasn’t the best decision for Rosenstrach, she does not regret it. “That job provided me with an opportunity to decide that I wanted to do something else. When I was that age, I did not realize you could try something and if it didn’t work out you could move on; it wasn’t an all or nothing proposal,” Rosenstrach said. Soon, Rosenstrach was working for A&E, and later she was the features director at Cookie magazine and special projects editor at Real Simple. She continued to contribute to various websites and magazines, including Bon Appétit, Martha Stewart Living, Cookie (which, unfortunately, no longer exists) and Real Simple. It was here that Rosenstrach “learned how to edit, how to write, how to conceptualize stories and how to deal with the industry people.” Although her English background from Amherst College helped to create a foundation for Rosenstrach, “I had to kind of unlearn [what Amherst taught me] when I went into publishing. Academic writing is very different than writing for a magazine or a newspaper. I had to evolve, and I am still evolving in certain ways every day.” After working as a full-time parent and worker for eight years, Rosenstrach realized that she would only continue to pursue her career if she could put a meal on the table for her family nearly every night. “I decided I wanted to have more balance in my life and be home more with my kids; yet I did not want to stop working,” Rosenstrach said.

To this day, Rosenstrach’s and her husband’s parenting philosophy is: “If we eat together every night and fight hard against The Death of Anticipation [the phenomenon of kids wanting and getting everything instantly], our kids will turn out just fine.” What was the result of Rosenstrach’s new decision? She started a blog.

Which Came First? For Rosenstrach, her question was which came first — the writing or the cooking? Until she was 18, Rosenstrach lived under the impression that cooking from scratch included using Betty Crocker mix, adding water and eggs and throwing it into the oven. “I always liked to cook and I did not really realize you could write about cooking,” Rosenstrach said. During her time spent editing and writing for food magazines, she described herself as the “concept” or “word” person, not the “food” person. She would be the one to say it would be great to do a story on the “top five ‘x’ type of dinners you should make,” not the one actually coming up with the recipes. This, however, all changed. “For the longest time I thought I had no business writing about recipes,” Rosenstrach said. “Then finally I decided ‘I know how to do this,’ and then I started to write.” “Jenny was not exactly the culinary expert in our room group,” remarked Ingrid Katz, friend and teammate of Rosenstrach at Amherst College. “She was always doing really creative, funny things but was always self-effacing about it.”

Cooking with Context Since February 22, 1998, Rosenstrach has kept a diary of what she ate for dinner almost every night. “Eventually, it became an obsessive thing. I am still doing it now, fifteen years later!” Rosenstrach said. Her blog is based on that very diary, and her book, “Dinner: A Love Story,” is based on the blog. What strings the diary, the blog and the book together? Her family. Her blog’s goal is to help parents figure out how to get family dinner on the table — in a very personable, entertaining and witty manner, intermingled with stories, photos and recipes. “A lot of people take cooking super seriously,” Rosenstrach said. “I think it might be a byproduct of the fact that parents are intimidated by cooking and check every label on every box — is it sustainable, is it grass-fed, is it gluten free?” However, Rosenstrach attempts to break down the intimidation involved in cooking and instead see it as an opportunity to not only cook for her family, but also to spend time with her husband and two daughters at the dinner table. The importance of family dinners has always been a part of Rosenstrach’s life, from the homemade dinners her mom would prepare for her as a child to the dinners she shared with her tennis team at Amherst. For Rosenstrach, different circumstances in life call for different forms of meals. “If you just graduated and are living alone, you are cooking pretty basic things,” Rosenstrach said. “Then you

Photo Courtesy of Jenny Rosenstrach

Rosenstrach recently published “Dinner: A Love Story,” a book based on her cooking blog of the same name. get married and realize you should probably eat siting down and be civilized. And then the kids come along and it’s like a bomb and you have to figure out how to cook and that can be really hard!” “The six of us, are still ambitious women,” Katz said of her roommates. “We all have gone on to have different careers, done different things with our lives. All of us have kids, and all are working through this struggle. [Rosenstrach] is very honest about how hard that struggle is, which is just refreshing.”

The Evolving Family Dinner On Rosenstrach’s blog, you will not find straight up recipes; rather, she tries to fuse each meal within a context. “As a parent, you are trying to fit dinner into your schedule. You might have a kid who plays soccer and doesn’t get home till 7:30 p.m,” Rosenstrach explained. It is important to have a meal that fits that context, such as Rosenstrach’s “Last Night’s Dinner” post under the “Quick” section of her blog. She describes “The Order of Events” of the night from 5:30 (leaving for Phoebe’s last lacrosse game of the season) to 6:30 - 7:30 (“a total nail-biter” of a game) to 8:05 (“Milk poured. Pasta twirled. Picture snapped. Dinner served.”). For this sort of situation, Rosenstrach recommends spaghetti with mint-pea pesto — pasta with a blended, creamy pea mixture, freshly grated Parmesan and “some torn mint leaves if you’re feeling fancy.” Rosenstrach has found that cooking for a family is an ever-evolving process. “Eventually the kids will grow up, not shout at each other and eat at the table and partake in our conversation. For those kids, you can be a little more adventurous,” Rosenstrach said. Right now, Rosenstrach’s new task is to cook for two athletes, and although they might be eating at different times, the family dinner is still a “grounding ritual.” “Our family dinner is now one kid eating while two parents are sitting at the table with a glass of wine and the other kid is doing homework,” Rosenstrach said. Yet, there is still a meaningful connection to this dinner; it is just slightly redefined.

THE AMHERST STUDENT: HOMECOMING EDITION

“You can go a whole day without having a meaningful interaction — driving your kids to and from school, sports events, a friend’s house — and so when you sit down at dinner, you should downshift. A family dinner is a time that everyone can come to that table and say whatever they want,” Rosenstrach said. And now, Rosenstrach has taken her blog beyond cooking. She incorporates her children’s favorite books into her blog, for books are a major conversation starter at family dinners, as well as a new “Friday Round Up” section that includes news articles, YouTube videos, parenting tips and random tidbits from the Rosenstrach family.

Words of Wisdom “When you graduate, learn to cook for yourself and you will save money and be healthier. And if it happens that your life includes someone else, that person will be very appreciative that you know how to cook,” Rosenstrach said, laughing. Want to take your first steps into the world of cooking? Rosenstrach has created a section just for you! Go to the “First Time Here?” section and read up. Rosenstrach recommends looking at Bullet Point 8, her favorite posts by Andy (a man whom she consults before publishing anything and whom she admits is a better cook than herself), as well as Andy’s favorite posts by her. Among these include, “Anything Plus Broccoli” (where Andy discusses “The Transformative (and Self-Justifying) Law of Retroactive Nutritousness;” that is “_______ + Side of Broccoli = Healthy Enough”) or “One Size Fits All” (Rosenstrach’s way of making one meal fit into the taste palettes of four different individuals, two of which are “green-fearing, sauce-o-phobic, generally annoying children”). “Jenny’s book truly taught me (an un-culinary mother of a two year old) how to cook,” said Lee Boudreaux, one of Rosenstrach’s first roommates in New York City and editor of her book. “[Her book resonates with so many people] because Jenny delivers the goods — great food, terrific advice and the wit and world-view to make you wish she was your next-door neighbor, prone to wandering into your kitchen day or night and adding in that pinch of salt you just forgot.”

A FRESH NEW LOOK A

This weekend, the College is offering tours of the newly renovated field to introduce members of the community to all its new features. Tours will be held at 3 p.m. today and both at 9 a.m. and 10 a.m. tomorrow. There will also be a reception at the field house hosted by Friends of Amherst Athletics tonight from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Finally, there will be a ribbon cutting and dedication ceremony for the field at 12:45 p.m. tomorrow, where President Carolyn “Biddy” Martin and Director of Athletics Suzanne Coffey will speak.

At 121 years old, Pratt Field is the thirdoldest football field in the United States.

In the fall of 2012, private donors provided the College with the means to renovate the renowned landmark. The renovation of Pratt Field began last winter, after the football team completed its season. The revamped field made its debut on Sept. 28, when the Lord Jeffs beat Bowdoin in a decisive 2711 victory. The project includes the construction of a new 15,000-square foot field house. “We designed the field house to accommodate Amherst teams and to accommodate visiting teams during their halftime meetings,” said Coffey. “Visitors are lockered in Alumni Gym or in Orr Rink.” The new field house is designed for use by Amherst’s football, field hockey, track, lacrosse and softball teams. The building also includes locker rooms for coaches and referees.

Pratt Field House now houses coaches’, referees’ and team locker rooms; a new medical facility (which includes exam, taping and treatment rooms); an equipment/laundry room; a meeting space; a video room; and a room wherein alumni can gather to access the sightlines of Gooding and Pratt Fields.

THE AMHERST STUDENT: HOMECOMING EDITION

OCTOBER 18, 2013

AT PRATT FIELD

Additional external features include a new press box and artificial turf. The new press box will house all media broadcasts. Correspondingly, the artificial turf eases practices for all field sports teams, especially the football team. Prior to the renovation of Pratt field, the College had only one turfed space, namely, Gooding Field. The football team had to practice on three different fields in the span of a single practice due to scheduling conflicts with other sports programs (particularly, rugby and lacrosse). However, with a second artificial turf field, all sports teams can practice on state-ofthe-art surfaces without scheduling conflicts. The football team, for example, now has the ability to practice on one field (Pratt Field) every day, thereby increasing its efficiency.

The completion of the renovation took almost 400 people, about 140,000 hours and 250,000 bricks.

Amherst has not been able to host championship-level track meets since 1996. However, thanks to a newly rebuilt Neuhoff-Lumley Track that complies with International Association of Athletics Federations regulations, the College will finally be able to host such meets once again.

In an effort to preserve historic features pertinent to Pratt Field, a 100-year-old Camperdown Elm was left along the northwest side of the track. Analogously, the original bleachers were recovered and reused, in addition to the scoreboard.

Photo courtesy of bowiegridley.com OCTOBER 18, 2013

THE AMHERST STUDENT: HOMECOMING EDITION

Alumni Profile Debby Applegate ’89

Exploring the Life of a Fellow Amherst Alum Captivated by the life of Henry Ward Beecher, Debby Applegate wrote an award-winning biography of the fellow Amherst alum. by Elaine Vilorio ’17 Debby Applegate ’89 began her relationship with fellow Amherst College alum Henry Ward Beecher as a student employee in Frost Library’s Archives & Special Collections Department. It was love at first sight: a love, in fact, that would span more than 20 years. Applegate recalls, “Henry was so open-minded and so open-hearted … He was funny and lovable, an example of an average American who rose to fame.” And, although their age difference was quite large (Beecher was a graduate of the class of 1834), Applegate made it work, winning the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Biography in the process. At this point, you might gather that Beecher is in no way romantically affiliated with Applegate, although her husband Bruce Tulgan ’89 jokingly refers to him as “the other man.” Beecher, a Calvinist minister and abolitionist, became the subject of Applegate’s renowned first book The Most Famous Man in America: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher, which, along with being a recipient of the Pulitzer Prize, was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award, among other accolades. Despite her success, Applegate is completely unfazed, saying, “I can’t help but feel abashed because I’m the same I was before I published the book.” A quintessential Amherst graduate who fuses accomplishment with humility, Applegate’s story is an inspiration to the greater College community.

Passion for American Studies Applegate grew up in rural Oregon, an area that was just giving rise to widespread suburbs and the biggest shopping mall of the Northwest. Her eclectic religious upbringing (one parent was Irish Catholic and the other Mormon) came to influence her role as a biographer. “Having a mixed religious environment made me more questioning, but it also made me very curious about human nature and how it comes to its decisions,” Applegate said. “I became really curious about how people explain themselves and rationalize their beliefs.” When considering colleges, Applegate knew she wanted to go to a selective school in New England and study American Studies. Having participated in an American Studies program in high school, Applegate was hooked on the subject. Considering Amherst had the oldest continuous American Studies department in the United States, Applegate found her college choice fitting. Not only looking for strong academics, Applegate also sought a network of lively intellectuals. When she thinks back on the people she interacted with at Amherst, Applegate does so with zeal. “[Amherst] was where all the bookish people were, and it was where all the people who liked to debate and learn were. Of all the

things I discovered in my grown up life, one is that Amherst people are some of the most interesting and intellectually engaging individuals, and that remains true in all walks of life,” Applegate said. During her time at Amherst, Applegate proved herself a superb student, graduating summa cum laude. Tulgan commented, “Debby was a very diligent student, although she would probably say she was not diligent enough. She holds herself to a very high standard. Because she is such a voracious reader, the number one task of a student at Amherst being reading, she never thought she was working. She was just always reading. As any Amherst student can understand, if you are always reading, you are doing ‘the work.’ I don’t think it is an accident that she won the American Studies Prize and graduated summa cum laude — her thesis was a couple of hundred pages long.” E. Dwight Salmon Professor of History and American Studies Frank G. Couvares, one of Applegate’s past professors, echoed Tulgan’s thoughts. “Debbie always came across in class as smart and savvy. As her later career amply demonstrated, she insisted on making historical materials speak clearly to present concerns,” Couvares said. “And she had fun doing it!” American Studies appealed to Applegate because, according to her, it studies “how people make small decisions that have big impacts and the intersection between literature and culture and literature and history.” Applegate spent her non-academic time working at Frost, doing theater and being with friends. Tulgan confirms that one of his fondest college memories was seeing Applegate perform in Kirby Memorial Theater in The Conduct of Life. Applegate’s friend and fellow alum Chris Glowacki ’89 recalls discussions held with Applegate and their group of friends. “Dinners in East Dining Room, with Debby and others holding court, could go on for hours,” Glowacki said.

Discovering a Notorious Alum Midway through her time at Amherst, Applegate had to put together an exhibit about notorious alumni as part of her job at Frost. A respected social reformer whose sex scandal made headlines, Henry Ward Beecher made the exhibit. Applegate was immediately captivated, as Beecher was a man of many passions, namely: slavery, entertainment, consumer spending and religion. He went on to become the topic of her senior thesis. Applegate was motivated to do a senior thesis after leafing through theses of alumni, particularly that of David Foster Wallace ’85. Because he double majored in Philosophy and English, Wallace was able to do two theses, but Applegate was especially interested in the one he wrote for English. “I remember sitting one summer and reading one senior thesis of a guy

[David Foster Wallace] who had just published his first book [“The Broom of the System”]. His senior thesis had become his first book. I thought my thesis could also become something more worth reading.” Applegate’s thesis focused on how Christianity and law influenced the personal narratives of those involved in Beecher’s adultery trial. According to her argument, Beecher wasn’t declared guilty, not because of a hung jury, but because of Beecher’s role when compared to more rigid characters in American life. Beecher, for example, contributed to the metamorphosis of religion from a harsh, rigid discipline to a phenomenon of love and mercy. Beecher’s father, a Puritan minister, preached that the laws of God had to be followed; the alternative was a life in Hell. Beecher himself, however, preached about the compassion of God and forgiveness in relation to the afterlife. “Beecher didn’t focus on rules; he just focused on doing good and feeling good, which had a tremendous impact on American culture,” Applegate explained. “Now, many religions preach about love, not law. Cutting the corners was easier with love than with law. This shaped the way people perceived his sex scandal.”

Life After Amherst Applegate spent the year after her college graduation working as an assistant in The College Board’s New York City-based Office of Academics. She went on to become a Sterling Fellow for Yale Univ.’s American Studies graduate program, earning a Ph.D. in 1998. When explaining why she pursued graduate studies, Applegate jokingly said, “It was my nature. I wanted to have a good excuse to keep reading books.” On a more serious note, Applegate describes graduate school as “professional training.” “When you go to grad school, you’re putting in the time and effort to get a job, which is different from getting to explore as an undergraduate at Amherst,” Applegate said. Just like her senior thesis, Applegate’s dissertation featured Henry Ward Beecher. Her dissertation was different from her thesis in the argument it pursued and in its academic presentation. While her thesis sought to make a sustained argument, she describes her dissertation as “a professional quest that would appeal to other historians.” After earning her Ph.D., Applegate taught at Yale Univ. and Wesleyan Univ. for a brief period of time. She found teaching wasn’t her passion, saying, “What I liked best was sitting in the archives with all of the dead people. I found people liked to read biographies to learn about history. That’s how I got into the biography genre. And now I just sit in the library with all the dead people and try to bring them back to life.”

Becoming a Biographer Although they all focused on the same subject, Applegate’s senior thesis, dissertation and biography were very different. While her thesis and dissertation, for example, found more of an audience in academics, Applegate’s book was meant to appeal to the

Photo Courtesy of Debby Applegate

Debby Applegate wrote a thesis, dissertation and biography about Amherst alum Henry Ward Beecher. typical curious reader. The writing process took seven years. As a historian and biographer, Applegate had to consistently put herself in other people’s shoes. “I had to really think about how Henry felt as an abolitionist among so many people who were pro-slavery,” Applegate said. “It took him a while to identify himself as such because he didn’t want to contradict his father and there weren’t many anti-slavery individuals even in the North. As a student at Amherst, he liked to be popular as much as he liked to be principled. In fact, if you look at the archives in Frost, you’ll find he belonged to one of the secret literary societies that later became a fraternity. They had a debate about whether slaves should be shipped back to Africa if they were to be set free. He was actually neutral … That constant exercise of putting yourself in someone else’s shoes cultivates empathy and imagination.” For Applegate, Beecher became almost like a friend, a phenomenon experienced by many biographers. “In researching about Henry, there were times I really enjoyed his company. But there were a lot of times in the post-civil war period where I really thought he was making terrible decisions I didn’t approve of. And it’s really hard to write about these characters when they do things wrong. It’s like having a friend doing something wrong,” Applegate said. When asked how he believed his wife succeeded in writing such a widely-acclaimed book, Tulgan shared, “Debby is successful in the manner that she is because, when it comes to her writing, she is so immensely thorough. She takes nothing for granted. She turns over every stone … She works the text until it conveys the unique perspective she is trying to reveal.”

THE AMHERST STUDENT: HOMECOMING EDITION

Glowacki affirms, “She is a master of her craft.”

A New Project After her first book was published, Applegate swore not to write another book. While writing the book was mostly great, she cites the final push as stressful. However, after the book’s success, she said, “I sort of forgot that I swore I would never write another book.” Applegate is currently finishing up a biography on Polly Adler, a madam in the 1920s whose 1953 autobiography, “A House is Not a Home,” became a bestseller and Hollywood movie. The book will be published next year. Applegate elaborated on her decision to continue as a biographer. “I like to read history because I can go back in time and see what it’s like. I thought, if I’m going to write another book, I’m going to keep writing in biography. But then, where do I go with my time machine? Instantly, I thought of 1920s New York. I researched some of its famous figures and stumbled upon Polly Adler. She’s a fascinating character. Like Henry, she’s a Forrest Gump figure, taking you through big events and teaching you something along the way,” Applegate said.

Words of Advice As a piece of advice to Amherst College students and graduates, Applegate said, “Anyone I know that accomplished something from Amherst didn’t think they couldn’t do it. It makes all the difference in whether or not they’re going to try something. You should think as big as you want … I have had huge failures and huge pitfalls that were embarrassing and you just have to be able to pick yourself up. You have to have the confidence to play as a big a game as you possibly can as long as you get up to keep doing it.”

OCTOBER 18, 2013

Kirk Johnson ’82 Alumni Profile

A Passion for Discovery: Digging Up the Past Paleontologist and Sant Director of the Smithsonian’s Natural History Museum Kirk Johnson ’82 has a love for unearthing the mysteries that lie beneath the ground. by Brittanie Lewis ’17 For many Americans, trips to the local museums constitute fond childhood memories. The well-organized exhibits, the seemingly endless array of artifacts, specimens or original artwork and the pursuit of new knowledge all combine to create unforgettable, treasured experiences for many. For Kirk Johnson ’82, a love of museums endowed him early on with a sense of the trajectory he wanted his life to follow. He soon realized, upon coming to Amherst College, that his appreciation of the natural history exhibits of his youth and his love of collecting could both be used to shape the career path that he would so successfully navigate after graduation. Now a successful paleontologist and the recently-appointed Sant Director of the Smithsonian’s Natural History Museum, Johnson continues to pursue with relentless passion the interests that initiated a professional life characterized by unremitting discovery.

Life at Amherst Johnson grew up in Seattle, Wash., the son of a psychiatrist father and photographer mother. Growing up, he recalled spending numerous hours in the University of Washington’s museum and on the cold Washington beaches collecting fossils. An appreciation for geology and a love of art (inspired by an artist friend with whom Johnson would regularly hang out) persisted throughout his high school experience, which he described as being “really solid.” His solid high school experience and unquestionable success afforded him the opportunity to visit Brown Univ. and Amherst College as potential college choices. When asked how he made the decision to attend Amherst, Johnson replied, “I hung out in the museum a lot. It’s called Beneski now, but the old

coalmines in North Dakota; the topic was about a collection of 64-million year-old fossil plants that he had unearthed. Upon being questioned about the title of his thesis, Johnson responded, “Oh my god, it’s been so long. I know it was something long and boring.” He was well-involved in extracurricular activities, playing soccer and rugby until his sophomore year when he injured his knees. “I couldn’t play anymore, so I started coaching rugby for Mount Holyoke. A friend and I actually started the rugby program over there and it’s still going on today,” Johnson said. This experience with leadership proved crucial to Johnson’s later successes, and, in fact, he deemed leadership skills and the ability to organize among the most important things he learned in college. “It was much more about learning how to be around people, how to organize. I learned a lot about being on teams, cooperation and leadership,” Johnson said. “Looking back, my college years are when I learned how to coordinate with groups of people and get things done.” His experience at Amherst equipped Johnson with characterizing strengths that would prove indispensable after graduation.

recalled. “I got to be the guy in charge right out of school. It was a totally lucky kind of thing.” Johnson worked with the Geological Survey for nine months, until the summer of 1983, during which he had several memorable experiences, such as a scientific cruise to the Bering Sea, among many others. These expeditions would be the start of a career defined by incredible journeys to every last corner of the globe in search of fossils and other geologic specimens. After receiving a somewhat unexpected phone call from a professor he was acquainted with at the Univ. of Pennsylvania, Johnson agreed, on the professor’s insistence, to attend graduate school and continue his studies there. Johnson spent a few years at the university and earned a master’s degree in paleobotany and geology before eventually deciding that Yale Univ. offered him a better program of study. He received a Ph.D in geology and geophysics from Yale in 1989. Only two years later, Johnson joined the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, where he would dedicatedly work for the next 22 years, moving up in the ranks to eventually become a vice president and the chief curator. During his time in Denver, which he calls “the fossil center of the American West,” Johnson estimates that he visited over 1400 different fossil sites during about 500 unique expeditions. These scientific excursions took place on every continent, and he fondly remembers visiting places such as Antarctica, the Sahara and Gobi deserts and Mongolia, to name a few.

Unforeseeable Opportunities

On to Bigger Things

Admittedly, Johnson wasn’t sure about what he was going to do after graduation. Besides knowing that he “liked doing fossils and art and geology,” he “didn’t really have a clue.” Luckily for him, however, he received a job offer that very summer in 1982 and was off to Menlo Park, Calif. to begin work with the U.S. Geological Survey. Here was Johnson’s first chance

Johnson is currently the director of the Smithsonian’s Natural History Museum, which sees about eight million visitors a year, houses over 126 million unique specimens and boasts an entire scientific staff of over five hundred individuals. Needless to say, Johnson’s responsibilities as the director of this massive scientific enterprise are endless. He has held the position for 11 months

Photo Courtesy of Kirk Johnson

Johnson has had a career defined by incredible journeys to every corner of the globe in search of fossils and other geologic specimens. natural history museum was actually up near the quad, in the southeast corner. It was such a cool museum. I got a chance to talk with one of the heads there and he said that if I came to Amherst he would give me a job at the museum. You make your decisions on simple things.” While at Amherst, Johnson double majored in geology and fine art. He wrote a thesis after spending the summer before his senior year exploring

OCTOBER 18, 2013

to put to use the leadership skills he had acquired at Amherst to use in the context of an amazing, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for a student so fresh out of college. “The guy that hired me left before I got there. There was just left a note saying ‘I’m done, you have to do this job now.’ He left me with a budget and a task and it was an amazing thing because he basically just pitched to me this fabulous opportunity,” Johnson

now and doesn’t seem to be slowing down; his sense of urgency instead seems more prominent than ever as the dynamic of the museum’s visitor base continues to change with the times. His responsibilities include, but are not limited to, managing the museum’s budget, making executive decisions about what the museum will exhibit, helping to raise millions of dollars in yearly fundraising campaigns to support museum programs and acting as

Photo Courtesy of Forrest Gibson

Johnson is the recently-appointed Sant Director of the Smithsonian’s Natural History Museum. the museum’s public spokesperson. About his relatively new position, Johnson said, “It’s very much a leadership and management kind of position. I help keep a vision of what the museum wants to do and why we do what we do and choose which exhibits and programs we do. It’s a complicated job but it’s totally fun and so interesting. There’s always something fascinating happening.” Perhaps what is most poignant about Johnson’s work is his appreciation of the individuals who partake of everything the Natural History Museum has to offer. When asked what his favorite part of his job was, Johnson responded, “It’s the diversity of people you interact with — all of my staff and all of the volunteers, Congressional people, board members and visitors. Every day it’s some amazing new person, whether a member of the board is visiting to assess how things are going or Michele Obama comes by to visit, it’s never the same thing. In eleven months I’ve met probably 2000 people.” The federal government shutdown proved quite frustrating for Johnson, who lamented the incredible amounts of money “being wasted like mad” each day the Smithsonian stayed closed. It is an interesting point on the museum’s developmental timeline, but judging by his solid track record of demonstrated capability, passion for what he does and leadership abilities, Johnson will no doubt facilitate the Natural History Museum’s resilient return to normal operation. Interestingly enough, Johnson didn’t concretely envision himself ending up in the specific field of work that he is in today. However, his early love of museums and natural history eventually landed him a career that arguably represents the fruition of his greatest passions in life. “The fact that I’m running the museum now is kind of similar to what I thought I might end up doing, but I never would have thought that I would be the director of the national museum in a million years,” Johnson said. “I

THE AMHERST STUDENT: HOMECOMING EDITION

came to Amherst because I liked museums. There’s definitely some connections between those two things.”

A Life Fully Realized Katie Fretwell ’81, Amherst College’s current Dean of Admission and devoted member of the College’s staff since 1989, is a good friend of Johnson’s and recalled fondly their time spent together at Amherst. “He was a class behind me but we shared a number of classes together, usually in the geology department. I recall our preparing for a paleontology exam together, and reflective of Kirk’s current professional duties as an educator, he made our three-hour study prep a fun and interactive experience. His trademark passions for people, the natural world, art, rugby and any opportunity to share raucous laughter make ‘Mad Dog’ a truly special and unique friend,” Fretwell said. Johnson has been married for nine years to a Hampshire alumna and likes to take his two-year-old niece and nephew on trips to the playground; amusingly enough, he called to be interviewed from a park in Manhattan as the two played within sight. He said that his primary hobby is actually his job, collecting fossils, and that he loves traveling to “wild places” and reading. Johnson acknowledges Amherst College’s stayed presence throughout his life. “I actually went back to the same place in North Dakota and did my Ph.D there. It all looped back,” Johnson said. “It’s one of those things where opportunity at Amherst looped back; it got me into Penn and got me to Alaska and got me into Yale.” The doors that Amherst opened for Johnson were numerous and impressive and, undoubtedly, were responsible for the incredible success he has experienced. He eagerly offered words of advice for current Amherst students. “Just do what you want to do. I think the thing is that it’s really clear that the world is changing much faster than when I was here, so just be nimble.”

Alumni Profile Jeffrey Wright ’87

An Actor With a Passion for Giving Back

Jeffrey Wright ’87, actor alum, who grew up during the Civil Rights Movement, has a passion for acting and for philanthropy. by David Kang ’16 “I’ve just finished filming my work on the next ‘Hunger Games,’” Jeffrey Wright, class of ’87, casually said. Starring in big name films is nothing new for Wright, who’s played roles in dozens of high budget commercial films. Indeed, this Emmy, Golden Globe, and AFI Award-winning actor — appearing on big screens worldwide — is an exceptional member of Amherst College’s already impressive list of alumni.

Growing Up in D.C. Wright was born on Dec. 7, 1965 in southeast D.C. to two AfricanAmerican parents. His father passed away when he was only one year old, so Wright was raised by his mother and his aunt. Both women were strong and independent; his mother was a lawyer for the U.S. customs service while his aunt was a nurse at the D.C. General Hospital. As he calls it, he had a “middle-class upbringing by two tough, professional AfricanAmerican women from Virginia”. Being brought up in D.C. in the 1960s and 1970s, Wright experienced first hand many of the iconic movements that we college students have only read about. Having matured during the Civil Rights Movement, the Watergate years and the Vietnam War, he was subject to what he called a very “politicized environment” and, having traveled around in D.C. every day, he was “granted exposure from a variety of perspectives” which was very meaningful in shaping what would eventually become his political views. As a result of this, Wright admits to have done a lot of “talking and debating with peers” during his early teenage years. Wright also had a number of other interests, mainly anything to do with a ball. He recalls fondly that if he wasn’t doing something academic he would “be playing football, something with a ball, some type of sport with a ball — I always had a ball in my hand.”

Athlete, Activist and Actor Naturally, it makes sense for his childhood experiences to culminate into activities and interests at college. Accordingly, Wright was a lacrosse

player for Amherst and a good one, too. The team went undefeated his senior year and many of his classmates went on to become lacrosse All-Americans. As for his political interests, Wright translated these into a Political Science major, using his first-hand knowledge of political events to supplement his didactic experiences here at Amherst and push for political change even while on campus. “I was involved in the divestment of Amherst funds from companies supporting apartheid in South Africa,” Wright said. “It helped me focus on ideas that continued to develop and shape my ideologies.” But while these two passions took up much of his time and energy at Amherst, Wright also found a new calling: acting. Wright started acting late in his junior year, taking part in the college theater group. “My first play was actually a set of dramatic readings. It was a monologue by a student named Kevin Fraser, in the perspective of veterans of the Vietnam War,” Wright recalled. Naturally, his political passions and his newfound passion for acting went hand in hand, especially when he could act in such powerful and meaningful plays. “From an early stage, I perceived acting to be testifying,” Wright said. “It was expressing creative urges, but more importantly expressing the ideas of the playwright or author.” On the other hand, lacrosse and acting often came into conflict for Wright. “I remember being chastised on both sides by the play directors and by my coaches. The directors would chastise me for coming in with bruises and without energy, while my coaches would chastise me for spending less and less time on lacrosse. I suppose I felt that acting was the bohemian side of the fence and I regret not reconciling those two interests. Now that I look at it, they’re actually quite similar things,” Wright said.

Pursuing His Passion After graduating from Amherst, Wright went on to enroll in the

theater department at New York Univ. (NYU). As a testament to his acting abilities, Wright was able to win an acting scholarship to stay at NYU. However, after two months he decided to drop out and take on the world as a professional. In 1994, he had his breakout performance in Tony Kushner’s awardwinning Broadway drama, “Angels in America.” Wright won a Tony award for “Best Feature Actor in a Play” for his outstanding portrayal of Belize, a gay nurse taking care of the homophobic Roy Cohn. “My true coming-of-age play was ‘Angels in America.’ Working with Tony Kushner on such a deep and thoughtful play — I think it might’ve spoiled me to the idea that acting could always have something meaningful and relevant,” Wright said. In 2003, he was again cast as Belize, but in HBO’s miniseries adaptation of “Angels in America.” For his performance, he won an Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a TV Miniseries or Movie and a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television.

Present Success Wright has been acting in a mélange of roles, receiving critical acclaim for virtually every role he’s played. “He is such a chameleon as an actor, playing everything from Basquiat to Martin Luther King,” said Terence Winter, Emmy Award winning writer and executive producer of “The Sopranos.” Over the years, Wright has received nine awards and 17 nominations from varying organizations for his exceptional acting in theater and on film. For one of his most recent roles, Wright is playing Dr. Valentin Narcisse in the fourth season of Winter’s drama series “Boardwalk Empire.” “I will never forget the first time I heard him speak Dr. Narcisse’s dialogue aloud at a cast table read. When I heard him say those words, I thought to myself, ‘So that’s who Dr. Narcisse is,” Winter said. “He is a magnificent actor and a wonderful collaborator who brings so much to the overall process.”

Giving Back Beyond the acting, Wright is also an avid philanthropist, working to bring about social and economic jus-

Jeffrey Wright

Wright learned how to surf last year while filming on the North Shore of Oahu, Hawaii.

Photo courtesy of Jeffrey Wright

It was at Amherst that Wright found his passion for acting and philanthropy. tice to Africa. In 2003, Wright, along with a number of retired military generals, co-founded a company by the name of Taia LLC. According to Wright, there are two aspects to the company; the first being a mining exploration company and the second being a peace foundation to bring about social justice using parts of the profit created by the first. The mining portion of the company describes itself as “a junior precious metal and mineral exploration company in Sierra Leone which aims to achieve the highest sustainable profits and shareholder value through the implementation of a commercially viable, ethical and sustainable business model.” The peace portion of the company seeks “to understand the factors inhibiting economic growth and social cohesion and support community-partnered projects to counteract them.” “It is a pragmatic, western response to economic and social injustice in Africa. Places in Africa have been impoverished by manipulation by outsiders. We want to see the strengths in Africa. I want to redirect the narrative toward root causes to better contextualize our understanding of what’s happening on the ground to reshape the ways we think as outsiders,” Wright said. Fred Leigh, a retired Major General with the U.S. Army and one of the cofounders of the Taia Peace Foundation, recalled meeting Wright. “I met Jeffrey in late 2002, early 2003. I met him because he needed help with strategic planning in Sierra Leone for his foundation,” Leigh said. “What struck me about Jeffrey is that Jeffrey has a different business model. He brought a new way of creating wealth as a business/creating wealth in the country. I was very impressed with his sincerity … He wants to break the cycle of outsiders coming and exploiting the Africans.”

THE AMHERST STUDENT: HOMECOMING EDITION

As part of his philanthropic work in Africa, Wright helped restore an 18-mile road that had once connected the chiefdom of Penguia to the rest of Sierra Leone. Without that road, the villagers of Penguia were virtually isolated. As a gesture of thanks for his work, Wright and Leigh were made honorary members of the tribe. “They made Jeffrey an honorary paramount chief, which is the highest level of chief. Then, the town, section and paramount chiefs all gathered below the stage in prayer and gestured for Jeffrey to join them. And he did; it was a very powerful moment to watch,” Leigh reminisced.

Life as He Knows It When asked to describe a typical day in the life of Jeffrey Wright, Wright simply laughed and said, “I’m happy to say there is none. Right now, I’m in a hotel at Atlanta, having finished my work on the next Hunger Games.” He then somewhat jokingly added, “On a typical day, I’m at some point dreaming of surfing the North Shore of Oahu!” in reference to his experience learning how to surf last year while filming in Hawaii. “I have a creative lifestyle, so there’s no typical lifestyle for me, and I absolutely enjoy that,” Wright said. “Amherst allowed me the exploration of creativity, which has given me the gift of not having typical days, of not living my life in a predetermined way.” To Amherst students, Wright says: “Use your considerable hours to fire up curiosity about things unknown. Be less dependent on precedent and more dependent on your abilities to reimagine each day.” Political activist, lacrosse player, actor, philanthropist, creative mind, aspiring surfer, Amherst alumnus: that’s Jeffrey Wright.

OCTOBER 18, 2013

Mark Jones ’81 Alumni Profile

Service Design, Years Ahead of its Time Mark Jones is an award-winning designer at IDEO, shaping new services on the cutting edge of user experience. by Annalise Nurme ’15 What’s the first image that pops into your head when you hear the word “design”? Do you see Ferraris? Curtain catalogues? Starving hipsters? Or do you imagine an open-concept industrial warehouse where professionals from the full range of intelligences work simultaneously to turn forward-thinking insights into real-life consumer products and services that likely have improved your own life? Mark Jones ’81 is a service design professional and leader of a fairly recent global design firm called IDEO that has revolutionized humancentered design. Jones co-leads their Chicago branch — one of ten located in major cities throughout the world. IDEO focuses on “design thinking,” where a design team aims to combine what is desired from a human point of view with what is technologically feasible and economically viable. Jones’s liberal arts education and extensive range of strengths and interests led him through many of the more commonly stereotyped “design” careers before he began his now 13-year career at IDEO. In everything from best-selling wind chime earrings to an ongoing initiative to help major libraries achieve youth-centric, contemporary appeal, Jones has always been ahead of the game in anticipating and shaping new products and services that will prove most valuable for both companies and consumers.

Early Aptitudes Jones grew up in Baltimore, Md., with his father, brother and sister. Though his mother, an interior designer, passed away when he was only six years old, Jones credits her for his creative genes. “I would say I was a nerdy, artistic sort of kid, not too sporty,” Jones said. The only surviving evidence of his early artistic pursuits is an “odd, ceramic piggy bank that looks like an egg.” Jones’s other main passion was the outdoors, where he loved to fish, sail and go crabbing. Unlike his brother, who is now a real estate appraiser, Jones was never one for consistency. “I’m always looking for change,” Jones said. Jones is also living proof that being artistic does not cancel out an aptitude for quantitative skills. “Math and science were the subjects that came easiest to me in high school,” Jones said. In fact, he was so strong in these subjects that he applied to Amherst specifically because, at the time, the college had the highest acceptance rate for getting into medical school. “I applied Early Decision, so Amherst was my first choice.” Jones said. “I just loved the whole feeling of the campus … I went with some friends from high school and had such a great time — it really had a great sense of community.” During his visit, Jones experienced firsthand the College’s most archetypal pastime. “There happened to be a snow-

OCTOBER 18, 2012

storm, and people were ‘traying’ down Memorial Hill. It was this big campus scenario of people having a great time,” Jones said. At Amherst, Jones continued to take mainly math, science and art courses. The open curriculum was not one of the aspects that attracted him to Amherst, but, being a true liberal arts student, he ended up taking classes in every discipline. His favorite professor was a talented painter, Lorraine Shemesh. “She was fabulous. She was the best critic I’ve ever seen, frankly, in my life. She had the ability to teach people at any level and make them better,” Jones said. Jones became so taken with his artistic pursuits that he soon decided to focus on what had formerly been a hobby. “I spent more and more time in the studio, and eventually had to switch my major,” Jones said. Jones had a very positive experience at Amherst. “I was one of those people who never left campus … I never felt a reason to go away on weekends,” Jones said. Another reason why Jones spent so much time on campus might have been his major musical involvements with the choir, early music group, madrigals and several operas. “There was one point in my art career where I remember Lorraine saying, ‘You’re spending as much time singing as you are in art, and you’re going to make a choice here,’” Jones said.

Service Skills After graduating, Jones started teaching at The Tobe-Coburn School for Fashion Careers to support himself while he pursued painting. He taught color theory, window dressing and business communications. He also helped out an acrylic jewelry designer. Jones soon decided to join the fashion world full-time, and he started a special two-semester degree for college graduates from the Fashion Institute of Technology. While there, he learned the full range of fashion skills, such as drawing fashion sketches, draping dummies with muslin, making patterns, sewing and fabric science. After graduating, Jones was hired by Macy’s to design menswear. Soon after that, he joined a friend with an outerwear catalogue, where he enjoyed using his knowledge of fabric science to make jackets and other outdoor garments. Following that, he decided to start his own jewelry company. “It was cast metal and stones. I had a necklace in the Smithsonian catalogue that ran for a long time … I made most of my money out of several catalogues,” Jones said. After his years in fashion, Jones noticed that he was at risk of losing his “fresh eyes,” and was also yearning for a more intellectual environment. “I had a wind chime earring that put me through grad school,” Jones said.

Jones pursued a graduate degree in Chicago at the Illinois Institute of Technology while remotely managing a booming business that spawned from this single, musical design. “It took me no more than four hours a week,” Jones said. At the IIT, Jones pursued strategic design. The school’s philosophy was based around human-centered design, a concept that would eventually lead him to IDEO. “It was all about understanding what people need while observing them in the houses, or a hospital … we were creating a reason or rationale for why things should be designed,” Jones said. Jones graduated in 1995 and found an internship opportunity with another recent IIT graduate at a management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company called Accenture. He worked in a research lab of around thirty people, and was one of three human-centered service designers. “It was mostly people with Ph.D.s in computer science, and what they were looking for was someone to help inform them in what they should be designing,” said Jones. “It was a very exciting place to be, because it was the heyday of research. We had an awful lot of freedom in terms of what we could do for up to a year at a time. We’d do a two-to-three page brief which would be approved and we’d go do it.” The internship turned into a fulltime job, and Jones spent five years there on the cutting edge. “This was in 1998. We were thinking, what kind of services would people use in their cars when they’re connected to the Internet?” Jones said. The research lab was used to looking seven years in the future. “We asked, what would location based services be in a car, what would real time services be? You know, we were actually pretty darn close to the types of things that people are using in their cars now,” Jones said. “It was really cool looking far ahead.” While Jones enjoyed his work there, he began to become frustrated that, unlike in the fashion world, nothing he designed was close to going into the marketplace. He started to look for other opportunities, and found that his thesis advisor at IIT was working in the Chicago office of IDEO. The branch was looking for a researcher, and hired him in 2000. Jones’s first big research projects involved envisioning what the world would be like once the Internet transitioned from dial-up to broadband. Jones built several major prototypes related to a predicted movement into a digital world — for example, phone companies were realizing that they would abandon Yellow Pages in favor of digital searches. One early service design that ended up being widespread involved redesigning 1st Source Bank’s entire service experience. “They moved from a traditional bank teller situation with this big sort of barrier to this whole side-by-side banking where the customer sits right next to the tellers, and they look at a shared screen,” Jones said. Walking into a bank today, anyone can see for his or herself that this concept has spread like wildfire. Some of his more recent projects

Photo courtesy of Mark Jones

Mark Jones spent his twenties in the fashion industry. involve an online banking system for younger people called Virtual Wallet, where users can get a reading on their money with a calendar and another device called Money Bar. It was voted four years in a row for Best Online Experience. Another up-and-coming project, which will soon be rolled out to over 700 Walgreens, are newer, more personable pharmacies called “wellness stores.” IDEO was the first company to combine design and engineering simultaneously, later incorporating a design research firm. Jones’ own branch in Chicago reflects this core dynamic. His offices are housed in an old manufacturing building, with a huge kitchen as a congregation space, and with ten project spaces where teams will work for around three months on a specific project. A core team of an engineer, an industrial designer, an interaction designer and a researcher will call upon other workers of various disciplines, such as copy writers and architects, to help them along the way. Apart from being the managing director of the Chicago branch, Jones is currently working with the Chicago Public Library and another in Denmark on a project to help them be more innovative, the work for which will eventually be published as a toolkit to be used by libraries around the globe. Elizabeth Spenko, who co-leads the service design group at the Chicago location, described one of Jones’ most valuable aptitudes. “Mark has a rare ability to help teams turn the corner from research to design during what IDEO refers to as the synthesis phase. He can walk into a project space, absorb a vast amount of information from user stories to client capabilities to competitive threats, and create a simple framework that unites the team and our clients around a future direction,” Spenko said. Jones believes that companies looking to win long-term customer loyalty should provide a service that meets the mindset of the customer, based on their emotional needs and the efficiency of the service provider’s operational needs. “A really important part of business is a very tightly aligned team that makes decisions quickly and finally across all parts of the organization so

THE AMHERST STUDENT: HOMECOMING EDITION

that they can move along and make things happen,” Jones said. “What really works is when they trust their instincts. Companies that only base their decisions on market research tend to move slowly.”

Artfully Unplugging Jones has since moved on from his artistic practices toward activities that get him outdoors. He loves to garden, play tennis, and will cook “anything vaguely Italian,” because he finds that he’s able to be most inventive and creative with that cuisine. “I often don’t follow a recipe — I just see what’s good at the farmer’s market,” Jones said. Jones has a wife, Lynne, as well as two 15-year-olds and an 11-year-old. They have a 10-acre farm in Michigan that they visit whenever possible. “It’s a screen free zone: no electronics, no phone, no TV, no iPads,” Jones said. Their land includes a barn and a stream, and Jones loves to do things together with his family and friends such as chopping wood, building bridges and making campfires. While he loves his time far away from the big city, he appreciates the community of the suburb of Evanston, voted one of the best ten neighborhoods in the country. Lynne recalls searching for their house together. “The house looked like a total dump, with holes in the walls, peeling paint, a yard overgrown with thorny bushes, dead mice, and asbestos in the basement. I was skeptical, to say the least,” she said. “But, Mark had a vision. After much renovation to our house, which turned out to be a historic landmark, I can’t imagine living anywhere else. I’m glad he’s so good at seeing past the obvious and at getting the big picture!” Spenko also attested to Mark’s reliably visionary schemes. “Being a great systemic thinker who can pull pieces of a complex story together is only part of what makes him effective. His humor, optimism and desire to build off others has made him one of the most influential people I’ve worked with at IDEO,” Spenko said. “Through observing him, I’ve learned to be a better guide. Instead of providing the solution, he’s taught me that helping teams uncover an insight or opportunity is more rewarding and impactful.”

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OCTOBER 18, 2013

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Menâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Soccer Grabs Two Wins in Maine, Stays In First Jeffs Stand At 9-0-2, Unbeaten In Their Last 31 Games

Megan Robertson â&#x20AC;&#x2122;15 Public Affairs Office 8JUI UXP SPBE XJOT PWFS UIF XFFLFOE UIF +FGGT SFNBJO BUPQ UIF /&4$"$ TUBOEJOHT IFBEJOH JOUP UIF TUSFUDI SVO +BTPO 4UFJO Sports Section Edtior This past weekend, Amherst Menâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Soccer travelled to Maine and notched back-to-back victories to extend their unbeaten streak to 31 games and improve their record to 9-0-2 (7-0-2 in the NESAC) on the season. On Saturday, Oct. 12, the Jeffs

faced a Colby team that was winless in the NESCAC entering play but had just come off a tough 1-0 loss in double overtime to Wesleyan and a dominant 5-0 victory in a non-conference matchup against Maine-Farmington in the week prior to the Jeffs-Mules game. Amherst struck first during the game with less than ten minutes re-

maining in the first half, as forward Christopher Martin â&#x20AC;&#x2122;17 scored off a diving header sent in to the box on a cross from senior Julien Aoyama. Martinâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s scoring was not finished, however. Early in the second half, Martin added a goal to put the Jeffs ahead 2-0. Martinâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s goal was assisted by first-year defenseman Rohan Sood, who evaded a Mules defender before making a crisp pass to Martin. Upon scoring two goals on the day, Martin had earned his second multi-goal game of his young career, as the first-year also collected two goals in the season opener against New England College, a 4-1 victory for the Jeffs. Sophomore midfielder Tommy Haskel scored the first goal of his Amherst career in the 70th minute of action. Haskel put one in the back of the net off a pass from first-year midfielder Andrew Orozco, who earned his second assist of the season on the goal. In the 83th minute, the Mules responded, as Colby sophomore defender Tim Stanton scored on a penalty kick. The goal off the penalty kick would be all the Mules could muster, resulting in a 3-1 victory for the Jeffs. In the contest, the Jeffs held a 16-7 shot advantage, and a slight 5-4 edge in corner kicks. The following afternoon, Amherst took on Husson Univ. in a non-

conference game. The Jeffs proved to be too much for Husson to handle, as Amherst jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first half and never looked back, as the Jeffs maintained their edge for the rest of the game. Picking up from where he left the previous afternoon, Martin found the back of the net in the 20th minute of action to give the Jeffs the lead. At this juncture, after 11 games, Martin leads the team in goals (five), assists (four), and points (14). In the 33rd minute, defender Bubba Van Wie â&#x20AC;&#x2122;15 played the ball up the left side of the field and crossed the ball ahead of sophomore attacker Greg Singer, who finished the play to give the Jeffs a 2-0 lead. On the score, Singer picked up his fourth goal on the season, while Van Wie grabbed his third assist of the year, both of which are good for second on the team (behind Martin) in their respective categories. Seconds later, Van Wie further contributed by scoring his second goal of the season after a powerful strike with his left foot. Amherst would not score again in the game, despite the numerous shot attempts they put on goal, forcing Husson goalkeeper Brian Potter to make 16 saves. In the 3-0 win, Amherst goalkeepers Thomas Bull â&#x20AC;&#x2122;16 and Matt Tower â&#x20AC;&#x2122;15 split action and helped give the

Jeffs their fifth shutout of the season. Overall this weekend, head coach Justin Serpone was pleased with the strong effort and contributions from his reserve players. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We had a good weekend up in Maine,â&#x20AC;? Coach Serpone said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I was especially proud of some reserves, such as Tommy Haskel and Bubba Van Wie, who stepped up and played important minutes and made big plays this weekend.â&#x20AC;? Tomorrow, as part of Homecoming weekend, Amherst will host the Wesleyan Cardinals (5-4-1 overall and 4-2 in the NESCAC) on Hitchcock Field at 2:30 p.m. in their final regular season home game of the 2013 season. While Amherst continues to sit atop the NESCAC standings and has the highest overall conference winning percentage (.875), Wesleyan closely follows with the second highest NESCAC winning percentage (.667). Regarding the game against Wesleyan, Coach Serpone said, â&#x20AC;&#x153;I am looking forward to an electric atmosphere with all of our families, friends and alumni in attendance.â&#x20AC;? With the season winding down, every remaining game is crucial for the Jeffs. â&#x20AC;&#x153;At this time of year, every minute of every game is important,â&#x20AC;? Serpone said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Good teams have a way to be their best at this point in the season.â&#x20AC;?

Volleyball Rolls To Sweeps, Golf Teams Finish Fall Seasons Strong Ups Win Streak To Five Matches %PSJ "ULJOT Sports Section Editor Men In their last tournament of the fall season, the Jeffs placed ninth at the ECAC New England Division III Championships last weekend. Although not their best result, the team still put forth a strong showing. First-year Liam Fine led the Jeffs and has been a consistent force on the team throughout the season. Fine finished with a two round score of 161, allowing him to place ninth overall. â&#x20AC;&#x153;While I would have loved to break 80 both days, I was generally pleased with the way I played,â&#x20AC;? Fine said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The course was set up in a way that frequently rewarded good shots, but often led to some unfortunate breaks. But as a freshman, placing ninth individually was a great way to end the fall season. I canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t wait to tee it up again in the spring.â&#x20AC;? Harrison Marick â&#x20AC;&#x2122;17, Brandon Brown â&#x20AC;&#x2122;15 and Erik Hansen â&#x20AC;&#x2122;14 all cut significant strokes off their dayone scores, helping the team to a better finish. Most significant was co-captain Hansen, who reduced his day-two score by 17 strokes. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Although we didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t play especially well at the ECAC Championships, we are very happy with our progress this fall,â&#x20AC;? Hansen said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We look forward to competing in the spring in preparation for the NESCAC Championships.â&#x20AC;? The Jeffs are looking forward to building off the promise this season showed in the spring.

Women The womenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s golf team finished their fall season last weekend with a strong showing at the Ann S. Batchelder Invitational, hosted by Wellesley College. The Jeffs posted a two-day score of 649, placing second behind rival Williams who took first. Leading the Jeffs was senior cocaptain Sooji Choi, who finished in a tie for fourth individually. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The players reached their team target score with solid play from every player earning us a second place finish,â&#x20AC;? said Coach Michelle Morgan. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I am delighted that Sooji peaked with her best two rounds 81-77 to finish fourth overall.â&#x20AC;? Jamie Gracie â&#x20AC;&#x2122;17 finished two strokes higher than Choi to tie for sixth place overall. Kristen Lee â&#x20AC;&#x2122;14, Devyn Gardner â&#x20AC;&#x2122;16 and Sarah Ressler â&#x20AC;&#x2122;16 each placed in the top 20 individually, helping the team to the impressive result. This was the teamâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s best collective showing this season, having found some difficulty putting together consistent two-day scores in earlier tournaments. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We have struggled all season putting together two consecutive rounds individually and collectively so this effort was very satisfying as we end our fall season,â&#x20AC;? Coach Morgan said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The neat thing is that the result demonstrated improvement from our very first day of practice, which is a good measure of our success.â&#x20AC;? Having concluded this season on a high note, the Jeffs now await the spring season.

"OEZ ,OPY Managing Sports Editor Ever since losing to archrival Williams College in late September, the Firedogs have been playing exceptional volleyball, winning five matches in row. Amherst has been so dominant that they have only lost one game during that stretch of matches to go 15-1 in games. The Firedogs fired on all cylinders last week led by first-year Maggie Danner. She was named NESCAC player of the week and led Amherst with a .407 hitting percentage during their sweep of last weekâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s opponents. â&#x20AC;&#x153;This past weekend I felt like everything was going right and our team was playing so well together which allowed me to get into a great rhythm, especially in the Middlebury game,â&#x20AC;? Danner said. The Firedogs started their week by cruising past Westfield State 3-0 (25-7, 25-15, 25-9) in a non-league contest. Amherst played outstanding defense and held the Owls to a -.011 hitting percentage for the match. The Firedogs played efficient offense led by Danner and captain Lauren Antion â&#x20AC;&#x2122;15, with 13 and 12 kills, respectively. Amherst then traveled to Vermont to play the Middlebury Panthers in an important match in NESCAC play. Middlebury entered the match tied for second in the NESCAC, with only a single loss on the season to Wesleyan. The Panthers were also undefeated at home, but the Firedogs were determined to change that. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We are all really focused on the task at hand and took advantage of all of the opportunities presented. We were all fired up from the start, and it was a really fun match to play in,â&#x20AC;? Gould said. Amherst set the pace and quickly jumped out to a 9-2 lead in the first game and didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t look back. Continuing their strong offensive effort from their last match against Westfield, the Firedogs took the first set 25-16 on the back of great team offense. However, after hitting .478 in the first set, the offense cooled off. The Firedogs relied on tremendous defense to lead them to victory the rest of the way. Amherst limited Middlebury to a .085 hitting percentage on the match and tallied 11 blocks. Five Firedogs recorded a block on the match and were able to last weekâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s player of the week Megan Jarchow ineffective. Although she contributed 11

kills on the match, she was held to .029 hitting percentage. â&#x20AC;&#x153;One strength for us was our defense which allowed us to set up a great offense and really frustrate Middlebury,â&#x20AC;? Danner said. Nicole Carter â&#x20AC;&#x2122;16 continued to play extremely well and led the team with 29 kills on the evening. Danner led the team in both kills and digs on the match, notching 14 of each. With the win (25-16, 25-17, 25-20), Amherst moved to 12-5 and Middlebury fell to 13-2. After a big win against the Panthers, the Firedogs were determined not to have a let down against Hamilton. The Continentals havenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t won a NESCAC contest yet this season and have only won two matches overall, but Amherst didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t want to give Hamilton their first NESCAC victory. The Firedogs continued their trend of jumping out early in the first game and did so again Saturday. Amherst hit .409 en route to an easy win, 25-10. The Continentals did a much better job containing the Amherst attack the next two games but were simply overmatched. The Firedogs held Hamilton to a .110 hitting percentage on the match and were able to smother the Continentalâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s attack. Hamilton failed to have a hitter with double-digit kills, while Amherst had two such players. Antion and Danner both notched double digit kills with 12 and 11 respectively. Carter paced the offense with 35 assists on the match. With the victory over Hamilton, the Firedogs moved to 13-5 on the season with a 5-2 mark in league play. Hamilton fell to 3-14 overall and an 0-6 record in the NESCAC. Amherst now looks to extend their win streak to six matches, as they face a league contest against the Colby Mules this Friday Oct. 18 at 8 p.m. in LeFrak Gymnasium. Colby is 6-9 on the season, but canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be overlooked as each NESCAC competition becomes more and more important heading into the NESCAC tournament. The Firedogs will then travel to Clark College on Saturday to play a double header against Simmons College and Clark College. Simmons and Clark both enter with losing records at 8-18 and 9-12 respectively. Amherst will look to maintain their momentum as they head into the Hall of Fame Tournament the following week.

18 Sports

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Schedule FRIDAY 10/18 Volleyball @ Colby, 8 p.m. Women’s Tennis @ Newitt, All Day SATURDAY 10/19 Women’s Soccer vs. Wesleyan, 12 p.m. Field Hockey vs. Wesleyan, 12 p.m. Football vs. Wesleyan, 1 p.m. Volleyball vs. Simmons @ Clark, 1 p.m. Men’s and Women’s Cross Country @ Little III Championships, 1 p.m. Men’s Soccer vs. Wesleyan, 2:30 p.m. Volleyball @ Clark, 3 p.m. Women’s Tennis

SUNDAY 10/20 Women’s Tennis @ Newitt, All Day TUESDAY 10/22 Field Hockey vs. Conn. College, 7 p.m. WEDNESDAY 10/23 Women’s Soccer vs. Conn. College, 7 p.m. THURSDAY 10/24 Field Hockey vs. Smith, 4 p.m. FRIDAY 10/25 Volleyball vs. TBD @ HOF Tournament, 5 p.m.

Field Hockey Wins Tough Contest at Colby

Lauren Tuiskula ’17 Staff Writer The No. 10-ranked Amherst field hockey team travelled to Waterville, Maine on Saturday, Oct. 12 to take on Colby in an important NESCAC battle. The Jeffs extended their winning streak to eight games and improved their overall record to 8-2 and 6-1 in NESCAC play as they defeated the Mules 1-0. Prior to the meeting, Colby had not surrendered a single goal on their home turf all season. Coach Carol Knerr commented on the team’s knowledge of this statistic and how they were able to overcome it. “Colby is a much improved team and we knew it would be a challenge to go to their home field and get the win,” Kerr said. “Our team played a composed game and was able to control the momentum.” Forward Sara Culhane ’17 scored the lone goal of the match, which was her seventh of the season. It came with just under five minutes remaining in the first half, as she corralled the rebound off a hard shot by Kristi Zsitvay ’14 that the Colby goalkeeper could not swallow up. Culhane

players of the week

@ Newitt, All Day

leads all first-year players for the Jeffs with seven goals, while she is third overall on the squad in goals scored, behind sophomore forward Katie Paolano (nine goals) and junior forward Madeline Tank (eight goals). Zsitvay, Tank, and midfielder Alex Philie ’14 each had five attempts on goal for the Jeffs, leading them to a 19-7 advantage over Colby. Amherst dominated in penalty corners, taking 11 to Colby’s three. First-year Emily Horwitz made her first start in net and earned the shutout, turning away four Colby shots. “It was my first full game and I was pretty nervous going into it,” Horwitz said. “The team was super positive and encouraging with me leading up to the game, so it ended up going well.” Knerr also noted Horwitz’s outstanding play in her first start. “Our first-year goalie did a great job stepping up and fulfilling a new role in a late season, important game,” Kerr said. The Jeffs remain tied for the top spot in the NESCAC with an 8-2 overall record. They will play host to the Cardinals of Wesleyan (4-5) for the Homecoming match on Saturday, Oct. 19 at noon.

Megan Robertson ’15 Public Affairs Office Kristi Zsitvay ’17 blasts a shot on goal during the Jeffs 1-0 win over the Mules.

Chris Martin ’17

Sara Culhane ’17

Favorite Team Memory: Beating Williams in double OT this season If you didn’t play soccer, which sport would you want to play?: Basketball or volleyball Pet Peeve: When drivers don’t use turn signals Celebrity Crush: Jennifer Aniston Favorite Movie: “Love Actually” Favorite Book: Eragon

Favorite Team Memory: Ropes Course Wall If you didn’t play field hockey, which sport would you want to play?: Squash Pet Peeve: Phones going off Celebrity Crush: Taylor Kitsch Favorite Movie: “Miracle” Favorite Book: Pride and Prejudice Favorite Food: Tacos Favorite Thing About Amherst: Being on two sports teams

Favorite Food: Sushi Favorite Thing About Amherst: Team Hug

Fussell, Briskin Pace Jeffs’ XC at NEICAAA’s Holly Burwick ’16 Staff Writer Men The Amherst Men’s Cross Country team traveled to Boston this past weekend for the NEICAAA Championships. Coming into the competition with 556 points, the Jeffs ranked 21st overall and sixth among the Division III schools at the meet. Central Conn. State took first in the event with 74 points, followed by Northeastern with 120 points. Dartmouth rounded out the top three with 133 points. KC Fussell ’15 led the Jeffs, taking 60th in the 279-person field, crossing the finish line with a time of 25:43. Fussell was closely contested by Dan Crowley ’16, who finished 68th overall with a time of 25:45. Also performing well for the Jeffs were Charlie Reighard ’14, Alvaro Morales ’14 and Jeff Seelaus ’16 with times of 26:19, 26:36 and 26:40 respectively. The Jeffs faced a large field of runners on Saturday, especially compared to the much thinner field they will face next weekend at the Little Three Championship. “Little Three’s it is much smaller and you have a good sense of where you are, and where you need to be,” said Coach Erik Nedeau. Because of the fiercer competition with many Division 1 teams in attendance, Nedeau believes that Saturday’s meet did not give a fair indication of the team’s potential. “I am pretty confident we are a better team than what the results would say. We got out a little too conservative in relation to other teams. We should have been battling and when we needed to move hard to make up that ground we weren’t able to,” Nedeau said. In a field so large, he added, “you can get lost in the masses.” Nedeau, like most of the runners, is hopeful that the Jeffs will discover their true potential next weekend against archrivals Williams and Wesleyan. Women The Amherst Women’s Cross Country team finished 25th at the NEICAAA Championships this past Saturday among 43 Division I, II and III teams. The team competed in both the varsity and sub-varsity races with fields of 283 and 299 runners, respectively. Coach Cassie Funke-Harris expects the larger sized field to pay dividends for the Jeffs as the

season progresses. “I think the benefit of a race like New England’s is that it replicates bigger races like regionals and nationals in a way that a smaller championship meet like NESCACs doesn’t. It’s great to have that experience mid-way through the season so that team isn’t surprised by the congestion and excitement when they get to regions in November. We talked a lot about that ahead of time, and I was really impressed with how well the team, even the freshmen who are new to this at the collegiate level, kept themselves calm and used the energy and excitement as a positive rather than allowing it to be a distraction,” Funke-Harris said. Lizzy Briskin ’15 led the way for the Jeffs in the varsity race with a time of 19:10. Crossing the finish line seconds later with a time of 19:18 was Sophie Currin ’17. Other top finishers for the Jeffs in the closely contested race included Catherine Lowdon ’17 (19:23), Amy Dao ’14 (19:25), Jessie Kaliski ’15 (19:32), Savanna Gornisiewicz ’17 (19:36) and Betsy Black ’16 (19:40). In the sub-varsity race Caroline Rose ’16 led the way for the Jeffs finishing 31st overall with a time of 19:38. Lisa Walker ’14 also had a strong finish, completing the race with a time of 19:44. The sub-varsity top-five for the Jeffs also included Hannah Herrera ’17 (19:51), Olivia Tarantino ’15 (20:03) and Sarah Foster ’16 (20:10). As for the top finishers amongst the whole field, Boston University’s Rosa Moriello won the varsity race with a time of 17:13 and New Hampshire’s Sarah Keiran finished in 18:24 to lead the pack in the sub-varsity race. New Hampshire took home the title with 57 points. Uconn and Yale rounded out the top three with 167 and 180 points, respectively. The Jeffs will return to action at the Little Three Championships next Saturday. “It’s our last meet with the entire team racing together, so I’m excited to see our women make the most of that,” Funke-Harris said. Following the Little Three Championships this weekend, the Jeffs will run in the NESCAC Championships on Saturday, Nov. 2. “It was a good opportunity to see how we stack up with the other schools I expect we will finish around at the NESCAC meet … I think our women are really fired up to have a third crack at [Colby] in a couple of weeks. The NESCAC and our region are exceptionally strong this year, but I’m encouraged by the upward trajectory we are on right now,” Funke-Harris said.

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Women’s Soccer Sweeps Weekend Matches Chris Rigas ’16 Staff Writer The Amherst women’s soccer team is continuing to find a rhythm, picking up three more wins in the past few days to run their winning streak to six games. The streak came on the heels of the Jeffs’ defeat at the hands of Tufts, their only loss of the year, and has included five road victories. Amherst secured the only home victory of the streak last Tuesday, when they beat Eastern Conn. State 4-1. The Jeffs dominated the game, holding an overwhelming 30-6 advantage in shots. Megan Kim ’16 scored twice, and Sarah Duffy ’14 and Hannah Cooper ’14 added tallies. After missing a chance of her own in the opening minutes, Maggie Belnap ’15 helped Amherst take an early lead when she assisted on Kim’s first goal. In the 14th minute, Belnap played a ball across the goal to the far post, where Kim was waiting to hit it into the top of the net. Just four minutes later, a great pass from Kate Sisk ’14 put Duffy in a one-on-one situation with Chelsea Santos, the Eastern Conn. goalkeeper. Duffy managed to dribble around Santos and finish easily in the open net. The Jeffs added their third goal when a Chloe McKenzie ’14 cross bounced across the box to Hannah Cooper, who struck a powerful volley past Santos. Kim closed the scoring for Amherst at the 74:44 mark when she volleyed Cooper’s cross into the net from about ten yards out. Eastern Conn. picked up a consolation in the dying minutes when a Blair Church corner bounced off an Amherst player and in for an own goal. On Saturday the Jeffs visited Colby for a NESCAC battle. The Mules carried a 1-4 conference

record into the contest, but they had won their last three, including a win over NESCAC foe Wesleyan. Amherst brought Colby’s streak to an end and extended their own to five games with a 3-1 win. The visitors struck first when Sisk converted a steal into an unassisted goal in the ninth minute. Despite controlling the game and firing 13 other shots in the first half, the Jeffs were unable to extend their lead before the break. Seven minutes into the second half, however, Belnap benefitted from some nifty passing between Cooper and Ariana Twomey ’15 when she knocked Cooper’s pass into the net from close range. Colby responded quickly, with a 56th minute goal from Annie Papadellis, but Belnap closed the flurry of goals, scoring just three minutes later on a Duffy assist. The Jeffs’ Tuesday opponent, Keene State, owned an 11-2 overall record before the game, but Amherst used goals from three different players to dispatch the Owls 3-1. Kim opened the scoring quickly, scoring her team-leading eighth goal in the ninth minute. After a McKenzie goal at 40:58, Amherst looked like they would make it to the half with a comfortable lead, but Alex Haley cut the deficit in half in the 45th minute . Cooper’s 49th minute goal returned Amherst to a safe lead. The last 40 minutes passed mostly without incident, although the Jeffs’ Twomey and the Owls’ Kelsie Bailey both picked up yellow cards in the last 15 minutes. With the wins, the Amherst moved to 8-12 overall and 4-1-2 in the NESCAC, which puts them in third place. The Jeffs also entered this week’s Division III rankings at the 23rd spot, and will look to continue their streak against Wesleyan this Saturday.

Men’s Tennis Gets Revenge against Hopkins, Carnegie Mellon Nicole Yang ’16 Managing Sports Editor The Amherst men’s tennis team had a busy yet extremely successful fall break weekend. The Jeff split squads with one playing two dual matches against Johns Hopkins and Carnegie Mellon and the other played at Bates in the Wallach Invitational. Going into Saturday, the Jeffs knew they were going to face some tough competition. After doubles play, the team was extremely satisfied with their results, and it proved to be the difference in the match. The Jeffs won by an overall match score of 5-4. Sophomore duo Michael Solimano and Aaron Revzin continued their great play together as the number two doubles team and defeated their Blue Jay opponents, 8-4. In the third spot, Andrew Yaraghi ’16 and Anton Zykov ’17 knocked off juniors Edward Corty and Erik Lim with ease by a score of 8-2. Unfortunately, the number one doubles team, Joey Fritz ’14 and Justin Reindel ’14, fell 8-4, to their first-year opponents, Michael Buxbaum and Emerson Walsh. The 2-1 lead from the doubles matches proved to be the deciding factor in the match as the teams evenly split the singles matches. Solimano had little trouble against his opponent, beating Nicholas Garcia 6-2, 6-0, to give the Jeffs a 3-1 lead. However, Michael Buxbaum answered with a win against Yaraghi 6-4, 6-2, to bring the Blue Jays within one. Jeremy Dublin followed with a win against Revzin to bring the score to an even 3-3. With the score tied, Zykov gave Amherst an edge by defeating Erik Lim in a highly contested match, 6-1, 4-6, 6-4. Captain Fritz was also able to come out victorious from his extremely competitive match, 7-5, 5-7, 6-1, to clinch the win for Amherst. In the remaining match, Reindel went the distance to three sets, but he was unable to top

Sam Weissler, losing 6-4, 4-6, 6-3. The next day, Amherst traveled to Carnegie Mellon to finish their fall season by defeating a previously undefeated Tartans team 5-4, to finish their fall season undefeated. The Jeffs got off to another 2-1 start from the doubles matches. Carnegie Mellon got off to a fast start by winning the first doubles match, 8-4, over Fritz and Reindel. However, Solimano and Revzin earned another win, defeating Yuvraj Kumar and Bryce Beisswanger, 8-6, in a well-played match. Yaraghi and Zykov defeated a pair of first-year Tartans, 8-6, in another display of talented play. Christian Hearney-Secord brought his team back to even with a decisive 6-1, 6- 1 win over Yaraghi in the second singles spot. Fritz gave the Jeffs the edge with a 6-4, 6-3 victory in the first singles spot against first-year Abhishek Alla. Zykov fell in the third singles spot, 6-2, 6-4, while Reindel handled his opponent, 6-4, 6-2, in the fifth singles spot. Revzin then lost his match, 7-5, 6-3, in the sixth singles spot. With the match at a stalemate, 4-4, the deciding match fell in the hands of Solimano in the fourth singles spot. After losing the first set 4-6, Solimano bounced back to win the second and third set 6-2, 6-4 respectively to seal the victory. A second group of Jeffs traveled north to Bates. Highlights of the invitational include two championship victories. Chris Dale ’14 defeated Trinity’s Rutendo Matingo in the ‘C’ singles bracket, while Carlos de Bracamonte ’16 defeated fellow teammate Phillip Qu ’16 in the ‘D’ singles bracket, 6-3, 6-3. When asked to reflect upon the weekend, de Bracamonte remarked, “Last year, we lost both matches against Johns Hopkins and Carnegie Mellon, so it was nice to win both of those matches this year”. The Jeffs close their 2013 fall season with much more success compared to their 2012 fall season, as they went undefeated this fall.

Sports 19

Mass. Hysteria

The Green Monster Karl Greenblatt ’15

“Being a Boston sports fan is like being in a cult,” Karl says. “Outsiders just don’t get it — and, really, why should they?” With the Patriots and the Red Sox both succeeding again, he reminisces about his experiences as a fan in the weirdest and most enigmatic sports market in America.

Sunday, Oct. 13, 2013 wasn’t a day for the record books. Well, actually, it was — the Red Sox became the first team to be no-hit through five innings in consecutive playoff games. Even with that dubious footnote in sports history, however, that Sunday became a day unlike any other. It started around 7:30 p.m., when the banged-up Patriots, who had been battling the unbeaten Saints all afternoon long, got the ball for the last time. They were trailing by four with just over a minute to go. With renewed focus, Tom Brady marched the offense down the field and into the red zone. The game clock ran down to six or eight seconds; Brady had time to take two more shots across the goal line, but he ended up only needing one. He found rookie Kenbrell Thompkins in the back corner of the end zone on a perfectly executed throw, and, just like that, the Patriots had themselves a 30-27 win. Besides Brady, the Patriots basically had none of their best players on the field in the second half (Vince Wilfork and Rob Gronkowski were already sidelined and Aqib Talib and Danny Amendola were both knocked out with injuries in the third quarter). It was an improbable victory against one of the toughest teams on their schedule. When it comes to improbability, however, almost nothing I’ve ever seen beats Game 2 of the ALCS. The night before, in Game 1, the Red Sox were shut out and didn’t manage a hit until Daniel Nava’s bloop single in the ninth inning. On Sunday, Max Scherzer again kept the Boston bats hitless through five, setting the record to which I referred earlier. With a seemingly insurmountable 5-1 lead, Scherzer yielded in the eighth to a bullpen that had shut down the Red Sox for three innings in Game 1. The hometown team looked dead in the water, and the prospect of facing Justin Verlander in Detroit while down two games to none didn’t help things much. But it would never come to that. After two singles and a walk, up stepped the dangerous David Ortiz — many times over a hero in postseasons past — with the bases loaded and two outs in the bottom of the eighth. He took the first pitch from Tigers’ closer Joaquin Benoit, a hanging splitter, deep to right-center. Torii Hunter disappeared over the short outfield wall. A bullpen cop became an instant celebrity. And you know the rest of the story. The following inning, a rare Jose Iglesias error and a Jarrod Saltalamacchia single sealed a win for the ages. Now, regardless of Thursday night’s outcome, the series is heading back to Fenway over the weekend. And we’ve certainly seen our fair share of Fenway magic over the years. To me, Sunday served as a reminder of the privilege of growing up in a city whose teams are consistently competitive. In most sports markets, the presence teams that not only perform so well but also are so exciting to watch would certainly satisfy the fans. So would having three of the city’s four major teams — the Patriots, Red Sox and Bruins — make their respective league championship series in the same year. Come to think of it, so would winning seven championships (three for the Patriots, two for the Red Sox, one for the Bruins and one for the Celtics) in a ten-year span. But — only in Boston — it usually doesn’t. Even with the Red Sox on the brink of glory, talk radio hosts and callers still lament their every weakness, seeming to savor postulating what’s most likely to go wrong in that night’s game. And you should have heard them in 2012, when the Red Sox were, uncharacteristically, legitimately bad — I won’t even go there. On those same shows, you are likely to hear

an argument that Tom Brady is overrated and that his two Super Bowl losses disqualify him from the list of top all-time quarterbacks. A Celtics’ winning season is called a “rebuilding year.” The Bruins are referred to as being “overmatched” in the 2013 Stanley Cup Finals. And, again, this rabid negativity comes after the most successful sports decade any city has ever had. Can you imagine how it was before 2004, when the Red Sox broke “the curse,” when anything that could go wrong did? I wasn’t old enough to follow much sports media back then, but, unfortunately, I can imagine exactly how it was. It’s true that, right around 2007 and 2008, the doom and gloom vanished for a fleeting second. The Celtics had just put together an exhilarating championship run, and the Red Sox had just won their second Series title, again featuring a brilliant ALCS comeback along the way. Even the Patriots’ stunning Super Bowl loss in February of 2008 was momentarily brushed aside as an aberration. So was the Red Sox’ heartbreaking sevengame loss to the Rays in the 2008 ALCS. For an instant there, the fan base’s attitude actually seemed to reflect the accomplishments of their teams, and, for the first time in forever, the Boston faithful actually carried an air of invincibility about it. It didn’t last long. It may have been the agonizing September collapse of the Red Sox in 2011 that tipped the scales, or it may have been a second Super Bowl loss for the Patriots five months later, but the balance was precarious to begin with. In any event, that pre-2004 attitude seems to have returned with a vengeance. And, in my opinion, it’s unique among the major sports markets. Sure, New York and Philadelphia are plenty rabid; if you don’t win there, it’s off with your head. But New York and Philadelphia fans also have a swagger about them, and, even in the midst of some down years, they never hesitate to remind others — especially us Bostonians — who’s really the best. Almost ten years after the fact, I’ve still had Yankee fans mockingly ask me, “Oh, and how many Series did the Red Sox win before ’04? That’s right — none!” There’s a resilience there that is largely absent from pessimistic, self-deprecating Boston. I’ve often described being a Boston sports fan as similar to being in a cult. Outsiders just don’t get it — and, really, why should they? After Game Four of the 2007 ALCS, with the Red Sox down, 3-1, Manny Ramirez told the press, “If we don’t win tomorrow, it’s not the end of the world.” There was a vicious backlash. The Red Sox did, in fact, win the next day, and then they won two more, followed by four straight in the World Series. Halfway through the next season, with the Red Sox back in a pennant chase, Manny was traded to the Dodgers. Carefree attitudes, even when they bring good results, are frowned upon in the Hub. Ask Adrian Gonzalez, one of the best hitters and first basemen in baseball, about that. Anyone who’s heard me talk about the Patriots or the Red Sox knows that “carefree” is probably tough for me to attain. As I have gotten older, however, I have realized that, if we don’t win tomorrow, it is, indeed, not the end of the world. It’s been a long road, but the agony of watching Boston sports I used to feel has started to turn into [gasp] genuine fun. No matter how the ALCS ends this weekend, and no matter whether the Patriots’ season ends in January or February, I have spent yet another year watching championship contenders. And it’s been fun.

Sports

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Footballâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Offense Comes Alive Late In Win at Colby After 14-10 Victory, Jeffs Look Ahead to Formidable Cardinals

Varun Iyengar â&#x20AC;&#x2122;14 Senior Staff Writer Behind an impressive fourth quarter effort, Amherst football (4-0) escaped Colby with their fourth win of the season on Saturday. After struggling for much of three quarters, the Jeffs offense finally came alive when it mattered most, putting together two scoring drives to erase a seven-point fourth quarter deficit and earn a 14-10 victory. In the wake of three relatively easy wins to begin the season, this was the Jeffsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; first true test, and the team came through in the clutch. On the afternoon, the Jeffs were led by a quarterback tandem of Max Lippe â&#x20AC;&#x2122;15 and Alex Berluti â&#x20AC;&#x2122;17. In his first real action of the season, Berluti was impressive, completing four of six attempts for 90 yards. The first-year also connected with senior wideout Jake Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Malley for a 72-yard touchdown that tied the game early in the fourth quarter. The veteran, Lippe, was just as solid. The junior threw for 165 yards on 28 attempts and engineered the game-winning drive in the waning moments of the fourth quarter. However, the game did not begin so smoothly for him. Instead, Amherst hit a wall on their opening possession. Lippe could find no seams in the air, and first-year running back Myles Gaines was similarly stuffed as he tried to find room along the ground. The Jeffs were forced into a three-and-out, setting the tone for the remainder of the half. Amherstâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s second drive of the game came to a similarly abrupt halt. Although Lippe seemed to be finding his rhythm, connecting with Gene Garay â&#x20AC;&#x2122;15 and Brian Ragone â&#x20AC;&#x2122;16

on consecutive passes, that momentum was quickly stuffed by an interception. Colby defensive back Zach Padula read a screen pass perfectly, jumping in front of the intended receiver to snag his second pick of the season. Looking to take advantage of that interception, Colby quarterback Justin Ciero wasted no time in leading the Mules inside the Amherst red zone. However, with their backs against the wall, the Jeffsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; defense stepped up, forcing the Mules into a third-and-long situation. Ciero tried to find a receiver, but his errant pass instead ended up in the hands of a diving Steven Jellison â&#x20AC;&#x2122;14. It was the seniorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s first interception of his career and gave the ball back to the Jeffs at their 18-yard line. Even with the momentum swinging back in Amherstâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s direction, however, the Jeffsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; offense still could find no traction. Amherst sputtered to yet another empty possession and continued to struggle throughout the second quarter. Fortunately for Amherst, Colby was suffering through its own set of problems. The offense threatened to score multiple times, marching inside the Amherst red zone twice, but failed to take advantage of each of those opportunities. A missed field goal and an Amherst interception halted both drives and kept the game in a scoreless deadlock heading into the intermission. The Mules, though, broke through in the third quarter. To their credit, their offense stuck to the passing game, even after two interceptions, and that confidence was rewarded. Ciero came through with two impressive completions, including a touchdown strike to Luke Duncklee, and Colby finally took the lead 7-0. That touchdown finally woke the Amherst

offense. Facing a second-half deficit for the first time all season, Amherst needed to score quickly to keep the game within reach. In only his second series of the game, Bertuli came on and did just that. From inside Amherstâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s two-yard line, Bertuli strung together two first downs to get the offense rolling. Then, selling a play action beautifully, Berluti found Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Malley wide open and hit the senior in stride for a 72-yard touchdown. The completion marked Berlutiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s first touchdown of the season and could not have come at a better time, tying the contest at 7-7. The Mules would not go down easily, however. Responding to Amherstâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s challenge, Colby engineered an impressive 10-play, 28-yard drive of their own. That effort put the Mules inside the Amherst red zone once again, and this time Scheepers did not disappoint. The Colby kicker put the field goal directly through the uprights, allowing the Mules to regain the lead, 10-7. With less than four minutes remaining in the game, Amherst faced a tall task as they retook possession at their own 25-yard line. However, a big third-down completion between Bertuli and Garay got the chains moving and pushed the Jeffs up to the 39-yard line. Coming in for Bertuli, Lippe kept the momentum rolling with consecutive passes to Kenny Adinkra â&#x20AC;&#x2122;16 and Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Malley. Finally clicking in the air, Lippe found Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Malley with two more passes before looking to Garay for a nineyard strike that got Amherst into the red zone for the first time all afternoon. Wasting no time, Lippe looked to Wade McNamara â&#x20AC;&#x2122;14 on the ensuing play, finding the senior just inside the right pylon for the go-ahead score. With only 33 seconds to play,

Colby was unable to respond, allowing the Jeffs to sneak away with the 14-10 win. With the victory, Amherst extended their dominance of Colby by winning their seventeenth consecutive matchup against the Mules. The Jeffs now lead the all-time series 32-4-1. On Saturday, Amherst draws Wesleyan for their first Homecoming tilt on the new Pratt Field. In the past decade, the Jeffs have had little trouble with the Cardinals; in fact, Amherst has taken ten straight decisions against Wesleyan. Last year, though they found themselves in a tight battle on the road, the Jeffs were able to prevail by a slim 17-9 margin. This weekendâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Wesleyan matchup, however, promises to be tougher than those in years past. Wesleyan boasts one of their stronger squads in recent memory, and, so far, they have yet to be given a serious test. All four of their wins have come in emphatic fashion, including a 52-point offensive attack against Tufts and a 41-0 throttling of Colby. The Cardinals have two almost equally dangerous threats out of the backfield, LaDarius Drew and Kyle Gibson, each of whom has already amassed multiple 100-yard performances. Helped by his teamâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s punishing ground game, Jesse Warren has also been solid as the Cardinalsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; quarterback. Defensively, outside linebacker Myers Beaird has two interceptions, but the rest of the corps has been equally stingy, allowing a total of just 22 points in four games. The Amherst defense has already proven that it can shut down an elite passer (Middleburyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s McCallum Foote). It will need to show that it can do the same against an elite ground attack. Still, the Jeffs will undoubtedly present the Cardinals with their stiffest test of the year thus far.