Issue 9, Homecoming

AMHERST, MASSACHUSETTS

VOLUME CXLVIII HOMECOMING EDITION | FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2018

HOMECOMING 2018 THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF AMHERST COLLEGE SINCE 1868

Photo courtesy of Matai Curzon ’22

Schedule Events of

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 9 - SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 11

FRIDAY

SATURDAY

8:30 a.m.-7 p.m.

Check-In Alumni House

8 a.m.-1:30 p.m.

Check-In Alumni House

1:45 p.m.

Introducing the New Science Center Lipton Lecture Hall (E110), Science Center

10:30 a.m.

Conversation with President Biddy Martin Johnson Chapel

5:30 p.m.

The Amherst Student Alumni Reception The Amherst Student Office, Morrow Hall Basement 7 p.m.

Homecoming Bonfire The Powerhouse

11 a.m.

Men’s Soccer vs.

Bridgewater State University Hitchcock Field 11 a.m.

Women’s Soccer vs.

Lesley University Hitchcock Field

2 | The Amherst Student | November 9, 2018

Noon Amherst Football vs.

Williams Pratt Field

STAFF

2:30 p.m.

Amherst Homecoming Food Truck Fest Tent next to Smith House

HEAD PUBLISHERS Joseph Centeno, Mark Nathin, Emmy Sohn

7:00 p.m.

Choral Society Concert Arms Music Center 9:00 p.m.

Amherst College Jazz Ensemble Arms Music Center

EDITORS-IN-CHIEF Nate Quigley Isabel Tessier

EDITORS Shawna Chen, Kelly Chian, Natalie De Rosa, Olivia Gieger, Connor Haugh, Seoyeon Kim, Diane Lee, Henry Newton, Emma Swislow, Ryan Yu DESIGN Katie Boback, Zehra Madhavan, Dylan Momplaisir, Julia Shea, Anna Smith

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 010025000.

The offices of The Student are located in the basement of Morrow Dormitory, Amherst College. All contents copyright © 2015 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.

Table of Contents ALUMNI PROFILES

4 5 6 7 8 9 12 13 14 15 16 17

Scott Wilson ’88 Journalist Serves the World With His Words Isabel Camacho ’14 Young Alumna Navigates Career Changes Harlan Coben ’84 Novelist Finds Inspiration in Lived Experience Diane Saltoun ’84 Lawyer Dedicates Career to Public Service Jean-Luc Charles ’94 Pastor Brings Together Faith and Community Bess Kargman ’04 Director Tells Stories of Athletes and Dancers Lyndsey Scott ’06 Actor, Model and Programmer Breaks Barriers Chuck Lewis ’64 Philanthropist Supports Education at Amherst Bess Levin ’06 Journalist Brings Humor to Politics and Finance Joe Quinn ’69 Economist Devotes Lengthy Career to Teaching Tara Gleason Chicirda ’94 Curator Pursues Passion for Objects of the Past Jeff Jordan ’81 Basketball Star Finds Success in Silicon Valley

NEWS

10-11

Mammoth Voices: News Roundup

SPORTS

18 19 20

Athletes of the Week, Football, W. Soccer M. Soccer, The Mazzola Minute Volleyball Loses in NESCAC Finals to Bowdoin November 9, 2018 | The Amherst Student | 3

Alumni Profile | Scott Wilson ’88

Journalist Serves the World With His Words A powerful storyteller and compassionate reporter, Scott Wilson ’88 pushes boundaries no matter where he goes.

—Shawna Chen ’20 After speaking with Scott Wilson ’88, I sat at my desk, staring at my laptop, at a complete loss for words — how was I going to capture the essence of this extraordinary journalist in 2,000 words?

Wilson has been detained by members of the guerrilla group Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), covered bombings in Gaza, won awards for his coverage of President Barack Obama’s administration and led The Washington Post as national editor. He has received a list of awards too long to include, but throughout our conversation, one thing was clear: he is deeply, irrevocably, undeniably and furiously in love with journalism.

Early Enriching Experiences Wilson grew up in Santa Barbara, California. His father owned a chain of retail furniture stores, and the family of four often traveled to places around the world during the summer. “We were fortunate to do the kind of traveling we did,” Wilson said. “That very much informed my later interests.”

Though Wilson’s father is an Amherst alumnus, there was no pressure on Wilson to matriculate at Amherst. “The fact of the matter is, I just liked Amherst best,” Wilson said. “I was thrilled to have gotten accepted, and I didn’t regret a minute of it.”

At Amherst, he majored in English and was involved in a number of activities: intramural sports, the movement to divest from apartheid South Africa and The Amherst Student. “One of the things looking back at Amherst that I never realized at the time — you really learn more from your fellow students than you even do in the great classes with the great professors,” he said.

In the first few weeks of school as a first year, he found himself sitting with a group of friends, enjoying the atmosphere as he listened to two close friends discuss their favorite writers in The New Republic magazine. “I thought to myself, ‘I have no idea what The New Republic is,’” he said. “[The conversation] was an early reminder of this very engaged, intellectually curious group of people I was with. I don’t think I stopped learning from them throughout.”

Origins of a Distinguished Career Though Wilson was immersed in a

wide range of interests, he called himself a “pretty unfocused youth.”

After graduation, he drove across the country to his California home with a couple of friends and spent the summer traveling in Europe, contemplating his future. “I didn’t have very high hopes for myself,” he said. “Those first weeks after Amherst were kind of disorienting — the wonderful, formative chapter in my life was over so abruptly.”

Upon his return from Europe, he decided to work for his hometown paper for free to compile clips while waiting tables at a local restaurant. After a few months, Wilson secured his first real newspaper job in Hollister, California — a “tiny little daily,” where he “had a ball” learning from its editor. He stayed in Hollister for nine months before moving to the Times Advocate in San Diego County.

“That’s when I really started having ambitions and really knew that this was going to be something I love and really wanted to be a foreign correspondent,” Wilson said.

Though Wilson loved every minute and gained invaluable experience learning from veteran journalists, he soon recognized that he needed to become a better writer. He entered Columbia Journalism School and spent the year refining his writing before receiving his master’s in journalism in 1992.

“As a young writer in journalism, there’s a journalism-ese that you can easily slip into — words that don’t really mean much,” he said. “But precision and clarity is the goal; great writing brings almost no attention to itself. It’s all in service of what you’re trying to say. For a year of really getting drilled into that — it made me a better writer.”

One of his professors at Columbia, who was then serving as the Associated Press (AP) bureau chief at the United Nations, helped Wilson secure his first stint as a foreign correspondent covering Nicaragua for the AP. After a year, he returned to Santa Barbara to cover politics for the News-Press, which was then owned by The New York Times.

R.B. Brenner, Wilson’s editor at the News-Press, said it didn’t take more than a few weeks to see that “he had all the makings of someone who would go on to be a big star in journalism.”

“He was just a completely dogged and thorough reporter,” Brenner said.

“While other reporters on the staff might

be satisfied with just a few interviews, Scott would do 10. While other reporters might not take the time to do the homework of reading every available document, Scott would do that. There was this powerful combination of a really thorough reporter with an exceptionally promising storyteller.”

In the meantime, he began a relationship with his younger sister’s childhood best friend.

Two-and-a-half years later, Wilson joined The Baltimore Sun, moving across the country with his new wife. It was his first post at a major metropolitan daily paper, and his consistently excellent work covering Maryland soon had The Washington Post knocking on his door.

Reporting on Latin America In 2000, after three years at The Post writing on Maryland politics, Wilson was sent to Bogotá, Colombia as a foreign correspondent. By then, he and his wife had a daughter and were expecting their second child, “but we were all ready to set off on an adventure.” The couple’s third child would be born in Bogotá.

“We got there at about the peak of the civil war — two big groups, the paramilitaries on one side and the FARC guerrillas on the other with the government somewhere in between — so I wrote a lot about drugs and conflict,” Wilson said.

Based in Bogotá, he also covered the rise of President Hugo Chávez in Venezuela, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Haiti’s first democratically elected president, and Peru. Some years, he was away from his home in Bogotá for more than half of the year. “It was hard and it wasn’t,” he said. “When I was home, I was really home. It was just a different rhythm for all of us. As a journalist, it was absolutely extraordinary. It’s still the best job I’ve ever had.”

Toward the end of his time in Colombia, he “got reckless” and encountered a FARC front that detained him for 30 hours. An armed guard accompanied him throughout the night, which he spent in a little farm in the middle of a cocoa field. “I must’ve looked scared, because this grandmother was visiting this family when I was in this house and she walked up to me and said, ‘Don’t worry, sir, at least you’re not tied up,’” Wilson said. “And I was like, ‘Oh god, how often does this happen?’”

Photos courtesy of Scott Wilson ’88

Wilson has filed stories from all over the world and credits his education at Amherst with shaping his work today.

The next day, the commander told Wilson his credentials as a journalist checked out — he was allowed to work there and ended up putting in a decent amount of reporting.

“My best work was on the paramilitary movement and how the U.S.-backed Colombian army was complicit in the way they cleared areas and massacred civilians,” he said. “But the story of Colombia and how it changed while I was there — from a place that really seemed in some ways like it was going to be forever locked in civil war to a place where violence had gone quite a bit down by the time I left — was a pretty great story.”

Navigating Conflict in the Middle East In 2004, Wilson’s supervisors asked him to move to Jordan to learn about the Arab world before taking on a new position as Jerusalem bureau chief. There, he covered Lebanon, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Iraq. A year later, in the summer of 2005, Wilson moved to Jerusalem and began covering the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. His first big story was on the Israeli state’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. He often reported “in and around Gaza [and] the border where some of the rockets were going into Israel as well.”

Reporting in conflict zones around the world didn’t leave him unscathed, however. It was difficult and often bewildering to “spend two or three days out in a war zone in Colombia and go to massacre sites where 35 people had been beaten to death with rocks, their bodies on the ground, or see chainsaws being brought in by a helicopter with a cargo net dangling” and then return to a “very elegant apartment in Bogotá” with his wife and three children.

That duality also defined his experience in Iraq, where he often faced bullets accompanying American soldiers. “I had days of being really despondent after stories like that,” he said. “Part of it is being tired; part of it is being upset. It’s a really hard balance to strike.”

The White House

Scott Wilson covered the bombings in the Gaza Strip while working as the Jerusalem bureau chief for The Washington Post between 2004 and 2008

4 | The Amherst Student | November 9, 2018

Wilson and his family returned to Washington D.C. at the beginning of 2008. After working as deputy foreign editor for 18 months, Wilson wanted to go back to writing. He was assigned to cover the president and spent five years working the White House beat before becoming the White House bureau chief for The Post. “It was a totally dif-

ferent kind of journalism than anything I’d done before, trying to figure out the White House,” he said. “Obama’s was probably even more closed than others.”

Cameron Barr, The Post’s managing editor, has worked with Wilson since Wilson’s tenure in Jerusalem. To Barr, Wilson is both an “evocative writer who can bring scenes and people to life” and a thoughtful reporter who “brings a lot of rigor and intensity and determination to get the heart of the story.”

“One thing Scott is known for in our newsroom is being able to tell stories and frame stories with a lot of sweep and authority so readers get a sense of the history making of a moment,” Barr said. “He demonstrated this time and again when he was the White House bureau chief and covering President Obama.”

Wilson was promoted to deputy national editor in 2013 before becoming national editor in 2014, managing the newsroom through the 2016 presidential election and most of President Donald Trump’s first year in power. Under his leadership, The Post published a book on Trump and won a number of Pulitzer Prizes for its reporting on the Trump administration, among other topics.

Here and Now After three years, however, he was ready to get back to reporting and proposed the creation of a West Coast correspondent position. Since 2017, Wilson has worked on pieces about California and the West, writing on disparities between the wealthy and the poor, the legalization of marijauna and technological innovations.

For Wilson, journalism is it. His passion and enthusiasm for what he does is clear in how he talks about his work. “I go all the way back in my first job and why I knew immediately this was the right career for me: because it’s still incredibly fun to land someplace and learn about something that’s happening for the first time and try to make sense of it for other people,” he said. “It uses almost all the tools that they give you at a place like Amherst. Sure, it gets tiring and good Lord, The Post is a giant bureaucracy, but I get to choose what I write about and travel and if that’s not gonna keep you going, I don’t know what will.”

To an aspiring reporter like myself, Wilson’s distinguished career and the impacts of his work are nothing short of awe-inspiring — he shows the world why it needs journalists.

Alumni Profile | Isabel Camacho ’14

Young Alumna Navigates Career Changes From the tennis courts to the business world, Isabel Camacho ’14 has found success in all her pursuits thanks to an indomitable spirit.

—Nate Quigley ’19 For most college students, life after graduation is a shudder-inducing idea — the prospect of finding a job that provides stability and pleasure seems bleak.

However, for current students and recent graduates alike, Isabel Camacho ’14 stands out like a beacon in the sea of uncertainty, showing that success and happiness are both attainable soon after receiving a diploma.

In the four years since graduating, Camacho has seamlessly transitioned from plans for medical school to financial management to the start-up Blue Apron. Though there were bumps in the road, Camacho could always fall back upon the skills she built during her time at Amherst. Her unrelenting drive, ability to think on her feet and willingness to challenge herself with new opportunities have proved invaluable.

An Atypical New Yorker Few cities engender as much loyalty in its residents as New York does, as almost anyone from the five boroughs will be sure to tell you. At first glance, Camacho is no different, having lived in New York all her life apart from four years in the Pioneer Valley. However, as Camacho herself is quick to note, her experience growing up in the Big Apple was anything but typical.

Introduced to tennis at an early age by her parents, she quickly found herself wrapped up in the junior tennis circuit.

While other young New Yorkers were exploring the city, Camacho was instead practicing on tennis courts all over Long Island and New Jersey. Understandably, Camacho came to loathe the sport, as the constant travel and tennis’ inherent isolation began to leave a bitter taste in her mouth. “I hated it,” Camacho remembered. “I didn’t even know if I wanted to play tennis in college.”

Camacho found more pleasure in her studies at The Spence School, a private all-girls school that she attended from kindergarten through 12th grade.

She developed an especially close bond with her biology teacher during her junior and senior years at Spence. Although she had hated chemistry and

physics, Camacho came to adore biology, and her teacher ended up writing one of her letters of recommendation for college applications.

A confluence of factors made Amherst a natural fit for the New Yorker.

The opportunity to attend a top-tier liberal arts college meshed well with Camacho’s desire to spend her undergraduate experience in a more rural setting. Meanwhile, her older brother, Julian Camacho ’12, was already at Amherst and on the men’s tennis team, so Isabel was more comfortable with Amherst than other similar schools.

Ironically, though, it ended up being tennis — the sport she loathed in high school — that proved the decisive factor in Camacho’s choice. The summer before her senior year of high school, Camacho had the chance to meet Amherst women’s tennis head coach Jackie Bagwell. According to Camacho, “I met Jackie ... and we hit it off, and it went from there.”

Success on the Courts As with Camacho’s time at Spence, tennis defined her Amherst experience, and she quickly discovered a newfound passion for the sport. She especially appreciated that the individualism which defined the junior tennis circuit was replaced by collectivism, noting that, “[though] you’re on the court by yourself a lot of the time, the fact that you’re not doing it for yourself or for your parents — you’re doing it for your teammates — that was a huge thing for me.”

Though Camacho did note that the team’s relationship wasn’t always perfect, the group developed a team spirit that extended off the court. “I would say that we were all genuinely friends,” she said, adding that, “... it was a really inclusive group, and I don’t think there was that much intra-team competition.”

Camacho herself was key in fostering this sense of community, serving as captain of the team her senior year. Bagwell spoke to this fact, noting that “Isabel was always a great mentor of younger team members, especially in doubles.”

These bonds paid off on the court,

with Amherst experiencing one of its most successful runs in program history while Camacho was on the team.

The team made it to the semifinals of the NCAA tournament all four years, reaching the finals in 2011 and 2014.

Though she played in several thrilling matches during her time at Amherst, Camacho did not hesitate when asked which memory from her tennis career was most salient.

“For sure the most poignant memory I have of a specific match was the year we got to the finals, my senior year,” she said. In order to reach the national championship match, Amherst had to go through Williams, which had won the past six national titles. The teams met in the semifinals, with a berth in the national championship on the line, and Camacho remembers every moment of the night.

“I genuinely think that match took five years off my life,” she said. “It was the most emotional I’ve ever felt during any kind of sporting event.” When Amherst finally won, she immediately broke down: “I’m not a big crier but I [was] bawling. It was a release of emotions and we all went and crowded around Gabby [Devlin ’14] and there was this huge group hug and we’re all crying.”

Flirting with Medicine Though tennis undoubtedly left a substantial impact on her time in college, Camacho didn’t spend every second at Amherst on the courts. In the classroom, Camacho chose to pursue the pre-med track, embracing a seemingly predestined career path. As the granddaughter of a pediatrician who practiced in Cuba and other developing countries, Camacho had long assumed a future in medicine.

It was at Amherst, though, that she developed an appreciation for the human side of medicine — an appreciation that manifested itself in her decision to major in psychology rather than a hard science. The tipping point for Camacho was the introductory psychology course she took with Lisa Raskin, professor of psychology, neuroscience

Camacho, who served as captain her senior year, played an key role on the women’s tennis team, which reached four consecutive Final Fours and two national title matches during her career at Amherst.

Photos courtesy of Isabel Camacho ‘14

Though she left Amherst set on attending medical school, Camacho had a change of heart and transitioned to a career in finance. and European studies, which she absolutely loved. “After that class, I think I told my friends that every person in the world should take Psych 101, because I think I felt the stuff we had covered was so real world,” Camacho remembered.

In her senior year, Camacho wrote a thesis on the psychology of music preferences under the guidance of Professor of Psychology Matthew Schulkind, who remembers not only Camacho’s aptitude for the field but also the incredible drive she demonstrated over the course of the project. “Isabel was intellectually curious, brave, hard-working, creative and fearless,” he said. “... [She] still stands out as an excellent example of what Amherst strives to be. She excelled in and out of the classroom and was a joy to be around.”

Her thesis experience, combined with several summers spent shadowing doctors in the field and doing even more research, provided Camacho with a world-class introduction to what she believed to be a future in medicine.

Indeed, the summer after graduation, she took two organic chemistry classes, which she had been unable to take at Amherst due to scheduling conflicts, at New York University in preparation for taking the MCAT. In August 2014, matriculation in medical school seemed inevitable.

A Turn Towards Finance “I think I always felt a little bit one foot in one foot out,” Camacho said, looking back on her decision to leave medicine. “I always felt that I had these other interests that were kind of nagging at me that I had never had the chance to pursue because all of my summers had to be pre-med related.”

The seeds of doubt planted, she began to explore other possible career paths. Although she hadn’t taken a single finance or economics course at Amherst, Camacho took a chance and applied to a job at BlackRock, the world’s largest financial asset manager and a pillar of the industry. While she didn’t find her specific position in marketing analytics to be anything remarkable, she greatly appreciated the opportunity to develop both her hard and soft skills at such a major institution.

After a couple years at BlackRock, an opportunity to join Blue Apron, the popular meal-kit service provider, came to Camacho’s attention. She leapt at the chance to join the startup, which she saw as a means to both further develop her business acumen and work in the hospitality sector.

Camacho had long shown an interest in the field, traveling all over the Pioneer Valley to try different restaurants. Although her current role at Blue Apron as part of the finance and strategy team is directly related to finance, Camacho appreciates the chance to work at least adjacent to her major field of interest. “I’m at this company that I really care about what we’re doing, and it’s awesome for me to be at somewhere that half the time we’re talking about tomato cost and these different recipes,” she said.

Apart from the ability to do something she’s interested in, Camacho especially appreciates the opportunities Blue Apron provides. “I’m in this role that I have huge access and influence and decision-making power and I have a seat at the table during all this interesting decision-making that’s happening,” she said. “I’m learning so much from everything we’ve gone through.”

Though Camacho isn’t sure how long she will stay at Blue Apron, the past two years have been invaluable in shaping her perspectives on both business overall and her own career plans. She’s developed an interest in potentially either running or starting her own company and is considering attending business school. The one constant in all her future plans is ensuring that she ends up “around people who care what they’re doing and being in a place where I care about the product.”

Friendly Advice Perhaps more so than any other graduate profiled in these pages, Camacho is equipped to offer sage advice to current Amherst students and recent alumni afraid of an uncertain future.

When asked for such advice, she kept it simple: “Don’t catastrophize.” Granted, Camacho didn’t necessarily heed her own advice when making the decision to leave behind medicine — “when I was sitting there making that decision, it was the most dramatic thing ever.”

However, she successfully made the 180-degree transition, and her success today is a testament to not only the power of her drive, but also the value of an Amherst education. “Rely on the fact that you had a really great education and people will look at you and know that you’re smart person and trust that you can figure it out,” she said. Camacho certainly has and for any young Mammoth, her past four years are definitive evidence that yes, happiness and success can be attained before the age of 40.

The Amherst Student | November 9, 2018 | 5

Alumni Profile | Harlan Coben ’84

Novelist Finds Inspiration in Lived Experience Harlan Coben ’84 has attained enormous success in the literary world due to his creative flair and dedication to the craft.

—Ryan Yu ’22 How does one become a writer?

For Harlan Coben ’84, the path was less straightforward than he expected.

Despite his current status as a globally-acclaimed author, Coben hadn’t even entertained the possibility of writing professionally until the summer before his senior year at Amherst. And even after that, it took Coben eight years after graduation to begin writing full-time.

Since then, however, Coben has progressively acquired a massive following. With his 30 books selling over 70 million copies around the world, Coben has won awards in several prominent mystery novel competitions, topped the New York Times Bestsellers list several times and collected a slew of famous fans ranging from President Bill Clinton to former First Lady Barbara Bush. His most famous works include the mystery novels “Tell No One,” “Fool Me Once” and “Six Years.”

Even now, Coben continues to expand his audience, recently launching three short shows for a Netflix miniseries and securing deals for several more. In light of this success, it isn’t wrong to consider Coben one of the most distinguished authors alive today.

Perhaps the most striking aspect of Coben’s career is the shift from having no interest in writing whatsoever to being a renowned novelist. Yet, when speaking with Coben, it seemed clear that the values and experiences he’d developed through his formative years, including those he cultivated while at Amherst, were crucial in both his transition to authorship and his style of writing today.

Learning to Think A New Jersey native, Coben attended Livingston High School. There, his passion for basketball took up a large part of his time. As it turns out, basketball was one of the main reasons Co-

ben ended up attending Amherst — he was recruited and “thought it would be a fun place to play.” Amherst’s academic reputation and tight-knit community also played key roles in the decision.

“A big part of [why I came to Amherst] was I wanted something small.

I liked the idea of smaller classrooms and more personal interactions with professors,” he recalled.

Coben admitted that he felt somewhat nervous when he first came to Amherst. “I think like most students, I didn’t know what the challenge was going to be in terms of the academics,” he said. Nevertheless, he quickly adjusted and found a home in the political science department, eventually deciding to major in the subject.

Three professors — Austin Sarat and William Taubman in the political science department, as well as Gordon Levin in the American studies and history departments — had particularly significant impacts on him during his time on campus. Describing Levin, Coben remembered that “he was a very special teacher and taught about looking at all the different signs, having respect for everybody who spoke, giving them their due.”

Sarat, with whom Coben took a course almost every semester, recalled Coben’s memorable personality. “He was smart and independent, interested in thinking things through on his own terms. Because he was witty and irreverent, conversation with Harlan was always a real pleasure,” Sarat said.

Coben also credited the broader academic environment at Amherst with imparting upon him several important lessons that have been essential to his work as a novelist. “I think the thing that I learned there most was the ability to think critically, which, to this day, is what I continue to do,” he said.

“My novels are very much about problem-solving, listening and engaging

Coben often returns to his experience at Amherst for inspiration, incorporating many aspects of the college in his books.

6 | The Amherst Student | November 9, 2018

with others and seeking all the different ideas and figuring out via critical thinking which one is the best.”

“You have to see all the arguments.

You have to have empathy for the different positions, and that’s a big part of writing,” he added. “I have to get into the skin of every character that I have.

I have to make sure that I can speak from their viewpoint.”

Outside of the classroom, Coben took part in a variety of activities, including writing and editing for The Amherst Student and, of course, playing basketball. Even at Amherst, his penchant for writing and commitment to excellence were on full display, as he both served as editor for the opinion section and was inducted into the New England Basketball Hall of Fame.

Becoming an Author After graduation, Coben worked at his family’s travel company, setting up trips and vacations for people travelling overseas. Coben had already started writing casually during his senior year; his experience working at that same travel company during his college summers inspired him to produce his first unpublished work.

Coben had also started to consider the idea of writing professionally but was worried about the practical implications of dedicating all his time to it. “It’s not that I didn’t want to be a writer,” he said, “but I couldn’t make a living out of it.”

As a compromise, Coben decided to use his free time to write. “I wrote on the side, which is frankly how I recommend people start,” he explained.

“You always have time to write. If you don’t have time to write, it means that writing isn’t that important to you. You don’t have to be writing full time to be a writer. In fact, almost every novelist that I know who’s now successful starts off writing their first novel while they were doing another job.”

While Coben was still working for the travel company, he released two books — “Play Dead” and “Miracle Cure” — to minimal success. Still, Coben continued to write, and in 1995, he released the first volume of his Myron Bolitar series, “Deal Breaker,” which quickly achieved critical and commercial success.

It was just before the publication of “Deal Breaker” that Coben switched over from his travel job to writing fulltime. However, this shift was born more out of necessity than choice. “There was a little controversy surrounding the business, and I ended up losing my job,” he said, with a slight laugh. “I was also starting to grow enough as a writer that I thought maybe it was worth it at this time to really take the bigger shot.”

Clearly, his gamble paid off. In retrospect, Coben believes losing his job might have been just what he needed to achieve success. “I often say there are three things that make a writer. Two are obvious: inspiration — being inspired to write — [and] perspiration — doing

Photos courtesy of Harlan Coben ’84

In his senior year, Coben found a love for writing that has led him to publish 30 novels and sell over 70 million copies worldwide. the work. [And] the third most important is desperation,” he said, again with a mild chuckle. “I’m not really fit to do anything else, like hold a real job.”

Incorporating Amherst Reading Coben’s books, it’s fairly evident where he draws influence and inspiration from. It’s hard to imagine that someone like the character of Myron Bolitar isn’t loosely based off of Coben and his own experiences, for example. Coben doesn’t deny any of these similarities, though, and instead embraces them.

“All writers take their own experiences and then filter them through some prism, because that’s all we know, really,” he said. “It’s all just been part of my fabric and makeup.”

Coben was especially explicit about the influence that his time at Amherst had on his writing. He pointed to his 2013 stand-alone novel, “Six Years,” as well as his upcoming work, “Run Away,” as the main examples. Both are set at Lanford College, a representation, Coben said, of Amherst College.

“It even had a Judie’s Restaurant nearby, spelled the same way,” he said. “In fact, at the end of the [new] book, I did one of those search-and-replaces, and just replaced the word Amherst with the word Lanford.”

Even outside those two books, the effect of Amherst on Coben’s writing is clear. Coben indicated that some of his Amherst peers inspired characters in his books, such as his close friend, James Bradbeer ’84, who served as the model for the character Win Lockwood III in the Myron Bolitar series.

He also noted that he would often include the names of his Amherst classmates throughout his books.

Amherst’s impact also extends past what can be seen directly in his books, Coben said. He cited several other famous authors that attended Amherst at the same time as him as evidence that there was “something special” about the campus regarding the development of literary skill. Among them, he mentioned knowing Dan Brown ’86, David Foster Wallace ’85, Chris Bohjalian ’82 and Susannah Grant ’84.

“I think there was something about the campus at that time that was sort of stressing that kind of expression,” he said.

None of these are what Coben thinks is most important about his time

at Amherst, however. He reserves that title for his wife, Anne Armstrong-Coben ’85, whom he met at Amherst.

Armstrong-Coben proved pivotal not only in Coben’s personal life but also his career, acting as their family’s primary breadwinner while Coben transitioned to writing full-time.

Looking to the Future Right now, Coben “wants to continue doing what [he’s] doing.” And he’s certainly doing a lot. Even beyond his 30 novels and three TV shows, Coben is gearing up for more creative work. “I have one novel every year,” he said. “I have a deal with Netflix, so I’m doing more TV shows both here and overseas. The career’s never been busier.”

Coben constantly strives to balance his heavy workload with spending time with his family and friends. “I have four children that are growing. One’s out of college, two are in college and one will be heading to college, so personally, I just hope to continue to grow as a person, like we all should be doing,” he said. “[I’m] trying to every day be a kinder and better human being. If you do that, you hope the rest will fall in place.”

As for staying involved with Amherst, Coben often visits and displays pride for his alma mater in various other ways. “Since I’m class of ’84 and my wife is class of ’85, we go to two out of every five reunions. Last time I was up, I was actually speaking about leaving my papers to the library, which I plan on doing,” he said. “I’m just a proud alum. I’ve even got my new Amherst College Mammoth[s] shirt that I was wearing the other day.”

His busy schedule doesn’t leave much room for free time, though.“Part of being a writer is you always feel guilty when you’re not writing,” he said. “Writing and family are the two things that I do most. I enjoy travel, I enjoy vacation time, but usually if I do that, it’s with the family. I play a little bit of golf, and I’m terrible at it.”

“For me, it’s always been about balance. I’m writing well, my relationships with my friends and family are doing well, my health is well — I try to keep those in balance,” he said.

“If I’m not writing well, the rest seems to go out of balance, so hopefully, I won’t retire. I’ll hopefully continue to write.”

Alumni Profile | Diane Saltoun ’84

Lawyer Dedicates Career to Public Service In her roles as a prosecutor, a teacher and a proud Amherst alumna, Diane Saltoun ’84 has shown a constant willingness to take on challenges and break barriers.

—Isabel Tessier ’19 Ask Diane Saltoun ’84 what’s motivated her 30-year long career in government and public service, and she’ll give you her response with no hesitation: “you can feel good about what you do.” Practical, straightforward and mission-driven, this statement embodies Saltoun’s core characteristics.

While working in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Chicago, Saltoun presided over countless investigations and prosecuted federal cases related to everything from corruption to drugs to environmental damage. She has taught at the University of Chicago, Northwestern University and Loyola University Chicago.

In her current position as the first-ever inspector general of the attorney general’s office of Illinois, Saltoun oversees a team that investigates ethics violations by government employees and creates ethics policy for the state. Outside of work, she has served on educational non-profit boards and remains deeply involved with the Amherst alumni and campus community.

during those four years at Amherst are strong,” MacLennan said.

At Amherst, Saltoun majored in French and political science. She was a class representative for student government, played field hockey, lacrosse and track and wrote occasionally for The Student.

However, what Saltoun is most proud of is founding Amherst’s first language house, dedicated to French and Spanish. Saltoun would help bring speakers to the house, arrange cultural events and organize community engagement projects with local Spanish-speaking children. Today, Amherst has eight language and culture houses across campus — thanks, in no small part, to Saltoun’s pioneering love of languages.

Saltoun’s interest in public service blossomed at Amherst. Although she was always interested in it, she noted that, “[Amherst] encouraged my interest in working for the government and gave me a direction in which to do it.”

Passions at Amherst

When it came time to leave Amherst, Saltoun took a position as a paralegal in the District Attorney’s Office in Brooklyn, New York. She didn’t know it then, but her job as a paralegal marked the start of a lifelong career in public service. It was her first taste of criminal law prosecution, and she loved it.

After her year in Brooklyn was over, Saltoun enrolled at Boston College Law School. After graduating, she clerked for a federal district court judge in Chicago, where she got to work on a wide range of cases and began to understand what it meant to be a lawyer.

“He was very much a judge who let us do things,” Saltoun said of the judge she clerked under, “and [he] really made me a lawyer much more than law school did. I think law school taught me things — facts and a way to think — but really being a lawyer I learned all through my clerkship.”

Looking back, Saltoun remembers her years as a clerk fondly — she met her future husband, seriously began

Saltoun’s first introduction to Amherst was inauspicious; she toured campus on a dreary day and was, by her own admission, unimpressed. But her opinion of the college quickly changed after interviewing with an enthusiastic alumnus in her hometown of Chicago, who encouraged her to consider the school more seriously. She visited again, this time staying with a friend who was already at Amherst, and was sold.

Ultimately, it was relationships that brought Saltoun to Amherst, and it’s no surprise that these relationships both defined her experience as a student and motivate her continued involvement.

At Amherst, Saltoun formed close bonds with professors and made lifelong friends.

Laura MacLennan ’84 met Saltoun at the start of their first year, when they lived on the same floor in James Dormitory, and the two soon became fast friends. “I still consider her one of my closest friends. The bonds formed

A Life of Service

her work as a lawyer and even, oddly enough, got to be a part of a movie.

The judge she clerked for occasionally wrote film scripts — as part of her clerkship, Saltoun got to be an extra in “Music Box,” starring Jessica Lange.

“It was all around a good experience — I got to be in the movies, I met my husband, and I learned to be a lawyer.

Couldn’t have asked for much more,” she said with a laugh.

After her clerkship ended, Saltoun moved immediately into the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois — an unusual leap for such a young lawyer. Still only two years out of law school, Saltoun was already prosecuting federal cases, a testament to the fact that in government, “if you show that you’re good and committed, you can really do very very interesting and complicated things, much faster than you can in the private sector.”

Saltoun loved these challenges at her new job and stayed for 12 years, eventually becoming a supervisor in the office.

It was only after having her third child that she decided to leave the long work hours and trial preparation of the prosecutor’s life behind.

Saltoun then briefly entered academia, teaching international students pursuing a master of laws at the University of Chicago. Although Saltoun loved working with students, she soon found herself missing government work. “It wasn’t my personality to sit around and talk about issues and then not do anything about it,” she said.

Just as Saltoun was considering moving back into the public sector, a new position was created in Illinois state government thanks to a series of political corruption scandals — the inspector general of the attorney general’s office. Saltoun applied for the job, and became the first inspector general of the attorney general’s office in the state of Illinois. Since then, she has supervised a legal office of around 1,000 employees, overseeing internal ethics investigations across state government.

Going to Trial

A class representative and member of the Family Leadership Committee, Saltoun visited campus over Family Weekend 2018 to see her children, Natalie Braun ‘19 and Thomas Braun ‘22.

Photos courtesy of Diane Saltoun ‘84

Saltoun has served in a variety of roles and offices in government, spending the bulk of her career as a federal prosecutor in Illinois.

Nowhere is Saltoun’s penchant for problem-solving and tackling complicated tasks clearer than in her experience as a trial lawyer. She loves trials, she said, precisely because they are so difficult. From investigating a case to strategically putting it together to actually presenting it in front of a jury, a trial lawyer always has to “really be in control of what you put forth.”

“I found it incredibly challenging,” she said. As a lawyer in the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Saltoun worked on cases prosecuting a range of people — from gang leaders to corrupt police officers to oil refinery executives.

What she really loved was trial itself.

“It never went the way you thought it was going to go in court, because you’re dealing with witnesses and they’re nervous, or defense attorneys bring up something you didn’t think they were going to bring up,” Saltoun explained.

“So just being in the courtroom was always exciting and nerve-wracking.”

Navigating Male-Dominated Spaces Back when Saltoun was in the U.S. Attorney’s Office, she worked on a case with colleague Jerry Krulewitch that required the two lawyers to monitor two prisoners convicted of violent crimes on a wiretapped phone. “They were complaining about what a great lawyer Diane was,” Krulewitch explained. One of the convicts said to the other, “‘That skinny broad thinks she is so tough.’ I think the irony of two criminals talking about her that way made Diane laugh,” Krulewitch continued.

Despite her casual dismissal of the comment, Saltoun is undoubtedly tough, the evidence for which is especially clear in her expert navigation of male-dominated arenas.

Saltoun arrived at Amherst in 1980, the same year that the first class of women who spent all four years at the college graduated, so co-education at Amherst was still relatively new. “I think the school was going through a growing process … It doesn’t mean your experience is bad, it just means [the college is] constantly improving,” she noted.

Saltoun’s career path only brought her to more predominantly male spaces.

At the U.S. attorney’s office, she was one of the only women in the office, a fact that was particularly clear when Saltoun became a mother. After nine years at the office and as an attempt to create a

better work-family balance, she and another female supervisor proposed sharing a job, so that they could each work part time. The office, she said, was “really, really reluctant” to let that happen.

“They had never had anyone parttime, and frankly there were not many women at all in the office,” Saltoun said.

“They just didn’t think it could be done, because it’s a pretty consuming job.”

Eventually, Saltoun and her coworker convinced them to give it a try and proved their doubters wrong. They were flexible, working longer hours when trials necessitated it and staying in constant communication with each other and their supervisors. The two proved that a job could successfully be shared, and in the process, Saltoun helped pave the way for workers to negotiate part-time positions. Today, Saltoun noted with a hint of pride, part-time employees are a common sight at her former office.

Giving Back With a busy and successful career, a happy family life and more than enough commitments to fill her schedule, Saltoun could easily spend the rest of her free time relaxing. And while she does do that — she loves running, reading and traveling — she has also made a commitment to giving back to the institutions that have shaped her life for the better: Amherst, and education at large.

As an alumna, Saltoun has served as a class representative, a Pathways mentor and, in her most recent role, a member of the Family Leadership Committee. A proud Amherst parent of Natalie Braun ’19 and Thomas Braun ’22, she has loved reconnecting with the Amherst community and supporting it in new ways. Back home in Chicago, she serves on the board of her children’s high school, the Latin School of Chicago, and has held leadership positions at High Jump Chicago, an enrichment program that helps public school students prepare for and apply to selective high schools and colleges.

“I really think that education should be accessible to everyone. [It] makes such a difference and opens so many doors,” Saltoun explained. “This was certainly an influence from Amherst — just seeing what education did for me.”

At work, at home and as a volunteer, Saltoun is defined by a devotion to service and desire to change society, combined with a forceful drive and intelligence in all that she does.

The Amherst Student | November 9, 2018 | 7

Alumni Profile | Jean-Luc Charles ‘94

Pastor Brings Together Faith and Community Jean-Luc Charles ’94 channels his love for people through his faith and commitment to building community justice.

—Natalie De Rosa ’21 In my first semester at Amherst, a friend invited me to the college’s Hermina Gardner Bi-Semester Service, a Christian worship service held in the African-American tradition. Though I had grown up attending church, I hesitantly accepted the invitation, not knowing what to expect. My apprehension about the service disappeared when I was immediately confronted with friendly faces and upbeat music.

While there were several memorable aspects of the service, from the gospel choir’s harmonious singing to the soul food reception afterwards, the sermon, delivered in a charismatic yet convincing manner, resonated with me most.

The man who gave that sermon was Jean-Luc Charles ’94.

“It’s really been a gift in my life,” Charles said about the opportunity to come back to Amherst for Bi-Semester.

Though Charles has dipped his toes in a variety of professions, ranging from advertising to publishing to healthcare, his Christian faith has always remained at the heart of his values. An organizational development consultant during the week and a pastor at the First Free Haitian Methodist Church in Stamford, Connecticut on Sundays, Charles directs his focus toward the intersection of faith and justice.

Building Identity at Amherst Though Charles was inspired by one of his high school teachers to apply to Amherst, it was thanks to the college’s open curriculum that was a driving factor in his decision to attend. “I’m a terrible math and science student,” he said with a laugh.

Charles double-majored in English and black studies, two interests that he started to develop prior to his time at Amherst. His passion for literature began as a child when his family would read the Bible together. As a pastor’s son, he gained a unique perspective on how to interpret scripture that would carry into his college years and beyond.

His connection with Amherst professors, particularly Professor of

English and Black Studies Rhonda Cobham-Sanders, helped him bridge the connection between his Christian background and love for literature. “I think Rhonda understood that, and helped me connect with literature more broadly and expand my textual interpretation.”

Charles’ interest in black studies began later, during his senior year of high school. For the first time, Charles began to question his identity as a black person in America, particularly since he as a Haitian immigrant. “Everything around me said that being black in America was a negative, terrible thing that happens to you,” he said. “I began to think that wasn’t the whole story.”

Stumbling across the black studies department at Amherst sparked an intellectual journey.

“Once I got to Amherst, reading and learning about the ways to think about blackness not just in America but broadly … I just ate it up,” he said.

Aside from his academics, Charles found community in a variety of activities and organizations. He was on the track team, served as president of Black Students Union, sang in gospel choir and was involved with the Amherst Christian Fellowship, just to name a few.

Through these experiences, both inside and outside of the classroom, Charles formed an appreciation for the ways that Amherst influenced his character. “What I loved about Amherst was the sense that once you got there, it was about developing capacity,” Charles said.

Uncertainty in the Post-Grad World As a first-generation college student, Charles was unsure of what steps to take once he graduated from Amherst.

“I had all the raw skills, but nothing else,” he explained.

After trying out a year at the advertising firm Saatchi & Saatchi in New York, he decided to pursue ministry and became a campus leader with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship at Brooklyn

College and Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn, New York. At those two colleges, Charles was able to work with students who were excluded and marginalized and he sought to foster conversation on what that meant.

“I was helping people to make sense of all of that,” he said. “Interpret it, interact with it, be interacted with and figure out how to have a dialogic relationship rather than a monologic relationship.”

Meanwhile at Medgar Evers, Charles mostly interacted with adults who were coming back to school after not having been in a classroom setting in decades. Charles found the sacrifices that these students made to redirect their lives inspiring.

“It was incredible to see the resilience and [ability] to build yourself up after trauma,” he said.

From there, Charles’ career path took several twists and turns. After getting degrees from Duke Divinity School and the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Charles pastored for a couple years before working in the healthcare field.

While healthcare seems like an outlier considering the rest of his resume, Charles’ role at Steward Health Care and CenterLight Health System involved the community engagement skills he developed in previous roles.

“I looked at the hospital system thinking about its social benefits,” he said, adding that the American healthcare system has social considerations beyond those that are visible at the surface.

Specifically, his job examined the ways that for-profit healthcare companies could better interact with the communities it supports. For Charles, working in healthcare was simply putting into practice the core values of community he had formed over the years.

Finding Justice in Faith Though the fields he’s worked in hardly seem consistent, one aspect of Charles’ professional career stands the test of time: his passion for communi-

Charles has dipped his toes in a range of industries, including advertising and healthcare, but his passion for justice and community has been a constant presence in all his pursuits.

8 | The Amherst Student | November 9, 2018

Photos courtesy of Jean-Luc Charles ’94

Charles works as a consultant during the week, but returns to his faith as a pastor on Sundays. ty building through a faith-based approach. During his time as an InterVarsity campus leader, Charles confronted several questions concerning his faith that led him to apply to Duke Divinity School.

“How do you talk about your faith?

In this dialogue, in this place that’s full of an interchange of ideas, in this formation of what does [faith] mean to you — that led me to going to Duke,” Charles said, adding that he himself had to confront the questions he brought to his students at InterVarsity.

Charles jokingly noted that he was a “much better student” at Duke than at Amherst but attributed his success at the former to the skills he had acquired in his undergraduate years. “What Amherst had given me was the capacity to read and to learn,” he said.

At Duke, Charles was highly influenced by theologian Stanley Hauerwas, whose ideology centered around the concept of community in religious spaces. “We think we are these autonomous beings who form our own perspectives, when the reality is, we’re formed and shaped by habits and most of those habits are social habits,” he said. “Christianity is a social habit, so it already has a political vocabulary within the practices that made me a Christian.”

Beyond setting the cornerstone for his beliefs, Hauerwas pushed Charles’ thinking in ways he found unprecedented.

“What he challenged for me was that he caused me to interrogate the assumptions I walked out of Amherst with around that notion that there is a definition of justice” Charles said.

“What does it mean to preach social justice as a preacher? Am I just receiving that from somewhere so that I’m just a foot soldier in somebody else’s fight?”

Upon his graduation from Duke, Charles began working as an associate pastor at White Rock Baptist Church in Durham, North Carolina. There, Charles’ passion for community engagement continued to grow, and he learned how the church could be used as a tool for justice and social good.

One project the church took up during Charles’ time there was providing aid to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. The project, which was a fiveyear commitment, sent buses of volunteers to the area to provide those affected emotional and spiritual support.

“I saw how we as a church com-

munity could make an impact … and [asked], ‘how do we need to change and transform because of this dialogue with the communities that we’re working in?’” Charles said.

At the same time that Charles looked at the role of church in the greater community, he also took the time to examine its internal character. White Rock, which consists of a mostly black congregation, holds great historical significance — Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. preached there on several occasions.

“I looked to help the congregation figure out how to use that legacy, how to pivot from that, how to deal with a lot of the losses institutionally [from the economic decline in Durham] and how to re-engage the community around this,” Charles said.

While the church had a significant impact on the community around him, Charles also recognized the impact it had on him individually. “It brought two parts of my life together that seemed really far apart — a deep commitment to my faith as a Christian, and a deep passion for people,” he said.

His time at White Rock informed his decision to study leadership at Harvard Graduate School for Education, where he focused on “bringing these amazing leadership resources back into communities that were not going to go to Harvard.”

Charles’ year at Harvard forced him to make difficult decisions about his future. He had to ask himself, “how do I get paid doing [community work]?”

Charles said. “I’m a minister who works with poor people, but that’s not a path.”

His role today seems to be the ultimate compromise: while supporting himself during the week as an organizational development consultant, in which he looks at the ways organizations can improve their leadership abilities, he pastors at the First Free Haitian Methodist Church in Stamford, Connecticut on the weekend.

“That’s kind of my life now: married with two kids, pastoring and doing organizational development,” he said.

In the midst of these accomplishments, Charles acknowledged the ways that Amherst guided him there.

“Amherst was a gift,” he said. “This world needs people who are passionate and gifted and competent, and my experience at Amherst helped me develop confidence to go and make a difference in the world. That motto, terras irradient, means a lot.”

Alumni Profile | Bess Kargman ‘04

Director Tells Stories of Athletes and Dancers With tenacity, patience and an eye for a good story, Bess Kargman ’04 has made a mark on the documentary world.

—Diane Lee ’19 When asked to describe her work, Bess Kargman ’04 compared the experience of documentary filmmaking to “an intoxicating high, and just the most amazing feeling ever.” With a charming laugh, she explained, “It is the best feeling when a day’s filming goes as planned and you get to capture meaningful content.”

As a graduating senior who is still unsure of her future, I was inspired by Kargman’s dedication to her passion for documenting sports and dance.

Thanks to her resilience, hard work and an eye for a good story, she has produced award winning films “First Position” and “Coach,” received a nomination for a Sports and Image Award and has directed works for numerous platforms including Teen Vogue, Major League Soccer, National Public Radio (NPR) and the Olympic Games.

City Girl in a Small Town Kargman was born and raised in Boston. A self-proclaimed “tomboy,” she recalls spending most of her childhood being active. She studied ballet at the Boston Ballet School and played soccer, tennis and ice hockey. When Kargman was applying to college, Amherst was her clear first choice.

“The day I visited Amherst, it was a done deal for me,” she said. “I loved the idea of being in a beautiful rural environment. I loved the town, the small school, not having a slew of TAs.” As a student, she pursued her love for photography as a fine arts major and played on the women’s ice hockey team. Naturally curious, she spent her junior fall in Rome and her senior fall at Columbia in New York City. “You want to find a major or concentration that flows really well with the way that your brain works, so that every day isn’t a struggle,” she advised.

“And art history meshed well with my learning style.”

Upon graduation, Kargman returned to New York City. She worked a number of odd jobs, from renting out apartments as a real estate agent to interning at a major music label. “I think it’s important for students to both

be aware of in terms of their own personal experience, but also to know in advance, to know when you’re only 20 years old, that you might go through some big years of struggle, directly after graduating,” she said.

It wasn’t until she took night classes at Columbia School of Journalism that Kargman discovered her passion for journalism and filmmaking. She enrolled with the intention of working in public radio, interning at public radio affiliates and National Public Radio because she was compelled by non-fiction stories. However, a documentary class during her final semester inspired her to instead consider film. She realized filmmaking creates an emotional experience: it is a way to make “people feel different — teaching people something, making people laugh, making people cry, educating people about something they didn’t know about and telling stories that deserve to be told.”

Getting into “First Position”

Fresh-faced and inexperienced, Kargman found herself at a disadvantage when pitted against veteran directors in the documentary industry. “You know, everyone wants to know. “‘What is your slew of credits?’” she notes. For her directorial debut, she decided to draw from a topic that she had personal experience with — ballet. With 10 years of ballet training at the Boston Ballet School, her deep knowledge of the topic allowed her to create “First Position.”

The film follows the lives of six young ballet students on their journey to the Youth America Grand Prix, an annual competition where elite dance companies and dance schools scout young talent. The title comes from one of the five standard placements for dancers’ feet in ballet. “It’s a topic that’s so near and dear to me, and I didn’t think there were enough dance films that allowed intimate access to the lives of dancers,” Kargman said.

Nick Higgins, the film’s director of photography, met Kargman when she first started “First Position” in 2010.

The film appealed to him because

“there was an easy narrative arc in her idea, which is something that most documentaries struggle with. There was was a clear beginning, middle and end in the idea. Fortunately, Bess knew the ballet world and had a great eye for talent. She picked kids that all did well at the competition.”

Kargman described the process of creating the film as “grueling, with lots of tears and struggle.” Working on a meager budget, Kargman directed, produced and edited the film herself, often not leaving her apartment for days at a time. Looking back, she notes with a laugh that she had a “blissful naivete going into it.”

“I hadn’t realized how hard it was to finish a film,” she said.

It wasn’t just naivete that got Kargman through the process. “She is one of the most tenacious directors I have ever collaborated with,” Higgins noted. “When an obstacle gets in her way, she moves around it and continues. To succeed at anything you have to have your eye on the prize and she definitely has that.”

In the end, Kargman’s hard work paid off almost instantaneously. The film garnered critical acclaim, premiering at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival and earning nominations for several film festival awards, including Outstanding Documentary at the NAACP Image Awards. “First Position” also screened in over 200 movie theaters across dozens of countries, which Kargman noted is unusual for a first-time filmmaker.

“My story isn’t that common, and I am so grateful for my successes. I spoke to some filmmakers and critics who were resentful about my naivete, and I think their minds were blown,” she said. “In hindsight, it was great for me to not know so much about the process, because I really took it step by step, moment by moment.”

Put Me In, “Coach” After the release of “First Position,” Kargman was contacted by ESPN Films. Representatives at ESPN had seen her work and asked her to create a documentary short for the “Nine for

Kargman co-produced the documentary short, “Coach,” which follows the coach of the Rutgers’ women’s basketball team, with Whoopi Goldberg. The film won the Jury Prize at the Tribeca Film Festival.

Photos courtesy of Bess Kargman ‘04

Kargman pursued her love for art at Amherst, but discovered a passion for documentary while at Columbia School of Journalism.

IX” series, which celebrated the 40th anniversary of Title IX. “[They] saw no difference between a dance film and a sports film,” Kargman said. She agreed with this similarity, noting how both dance and sports involve “young people doing something that they’ve done since they were three years old, learning to excel at it and devoting their whole lives to this one activity.”

Kargman signed on to the project and started making her next directorial project — “Coach.”

“Coach” follows the career of C. Vivian Stringer, the coach of the women’s basketball team at Rutgers University and one of the most accomplished coaches in college basketball history. She was the first coach to lead three different schools to the NCAA Division I Final Four and was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2009. The film explores her leadership through a scandal in which national radio show host Don Imus called Stringer’s players “nappy-headed hoes.”

“Even before learning about this incident, [knowing] how amazing and incredible this woman is as a coach, parent, leader, public speaker made me so excited to take on the project,” Kargman said.

Kargman described the short as a good challenge for her career. “[Stringer] had been burned by the press in the past, and so she was really hesitant to open up and show emotion at first, I felt lucky to be the one to tell her story,” she said.

Co-produced by Whoopi Goldberg, the short was nominated for a Sports Emmy and won the Jury Prize at the Tribeca Film Festival. “After the film won, [Stringer] called me the next day, and she thanked me, almost in tears for telling her story,” Kargman remembered.

The success of “Coach” opened the door for more sports documentary opportunities. Soon after, Kargman directed “Keeping Score,” a docu-series following the U.S. women’s national soccer team program in the lead up to the 2016 Olympic Games.

Kargman also returned to ballet, creating a web series with Teen Vogue called “Strictly Ballet.” Her other major directing credits include a video on dance for Sesame Street, called “D is for Dance.” When she is not directing short films and series, Kargman also directs commercials and branded con-

tent.

“Every couple of years, I think about dance and always want to come back to it,” she said. “But shooting sports is also so fulfilling because I was an athlete. Hopefully, something with ice hockey and more ballet are in the cards soon.”

Next Steps “I think, right now, we are entering or are already in the golden age of documentary film, and not only film, but content as well, short-form, longform, multi-part series,” Kargman said. “I think the reason for that is that there is something so special and unique about non-fiction storytelling.”

Kargman plans to create a sequel to “First Position,” aptly named “Second Position.” She hopes to fundraise for the film primarily through crowdsourcing in order to better engage the public. “Even though I could go to a distributor or private investors, I think the huge benefit of doing a GoFundMe page is increasing audience involvement and having people who care about the film help push it forward,” she said.

Other future works include a documentary about two deaf twins who start to hear and speak with cochlear implants. The film will follow them throughout their childhood and development. “It’s a much bigger story, and there are also twists that I’m excited to film,” Kargman said. She is also in early stages of producing a piece about the National Hockey League.

In addition to her filmmaking, Kargman hopes to mentor aspiring filmmakers: “I’m at a point now where I wonder, ‘what is the point of having these ups and downs without sharing that with up-and-coming people in the industry?’” She hopes to dedicate a portion of her time to teaching.

Kargman is also the mother of a two-year-old girl and is married to her husband, whom she met during a shoot in London. “I hate cliches, but my daughter is the light of my life,” she said. “Lately, I’ve been privileging knowing when my daughter needs me, and it’s okay if my work slows down for her right now, because I want to be a strong presence in my child’s life.”

Indeed, her story is anything but a cliche. Her passion for dance and talent in filmmaking will continue to amplify important voices that need to be heard.

The Amherst Student | November 9, 2018 | 9

Mammoth Voices:

Amherst has undergone dramatic changes over the past year and it is students who have been leading the charge.

“College Reaffirms Protections for DACA Students” Sept. 13, 2017

“College Updates Housing Accommodations“ Feb. 21, 2018

President Biddy Martin sent a community-wide email on Sept. 5 condemning President Donald Trump’s decision to rescind Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). In her email, she emphasized the college’s commitment to recruiting and protecting students with DACA status.

For the first time, students with housing accommodations were able to enter Early Room Draw as part of an effort by the Office of Residential Life and the Office of Accessibility Services to allow students with accommodations enter Room Draw with friends, an option that was not previously available.

The update was announced in an email on Feb. 14 from Director of Accessibility Services Jodi Foley to students previously using housing accommodations.

Bryan Torres ’18E: “[I was] frustrated, disappointed and worried because [DACA] has been a program that helped not only me personally, but also a lot of other Dreamers out there achieve their dreams, go to school, get jobs, get driver’s licenses [and] relieve them of the fear of deportation ... That’s why I’m trying to be outspoken, because if people don’t see that a college [like] Amherst has someone who’s talking about it, people aren’t going to have the desire to apply, especially the Dreamers that are living with fear and that are trying to get ahead with their education.”

Photo courtesy of Sarah Wishloff ’19

“Orientation Leader Program Faces Challenges Over Compensation and Workload” Dec. 6, 2017

Annika Ariel ’19: “Other colleges have been doing this for years. Hundreds of students have missed out on the opportunity to live with friends, which is disappointing. Speaking personally, I missed out on two years of living with my friends because I’m blind. Saying I ‘chose’ to use housing accommodations and not enter room draw is like saying I chose to be blind.”

Applications to become an orientation leader (OL) for the 2018-2019 school year opened on Nov. 27. Past OLs, however, voiced concerns about the future of the program — the number of OLs had been cut in half in the summer of 2017, increasing individuals’ workload while the position remained unpaid.

Kayla Hall ’20: “Becoming an OL, you do spend a lot of time training and doing a lot of activities, and especially during orientation week, you’re very very active in helping make the first years feel welcome and integrated into the school community … and it’s a lot more work than it seems. I also feel that [the work] doesn’t stop after orientation stops.”

Photo courtesy of Alura Chung-Mehdi ‘19

Photo courtesy of Takudzwa Tapfuma ‘17

“Successes and Challenges Mark LLAS Major in First Semester” Nov. 29, 2017

“Students March for Gun Control in Washington D.C.” Apr. 4, 2018

After years of advocacy from students and faculty, the Latinx and Latin American Studies (LLAS) major debuted in the Fall 2017 semester. The major was approved after a unanimous vote from the faculty in the spring of 2017.

Forty Amherst students travelled to Washington D.C. to participate in the national March For Our Lives on March 24. The trip, which was sponsored by the Amherst College Democrats, brought students to call on policymakers to enact stronger gun control legislation.

Soledad Slowing-Romero ’20: “A lot of the classes I’m taking make me think a little bit more about going outside the school, especially since there’s a really big Latino population in the Pioneer Valley. As a person of color, as a Latina, it’s really good to have those faculty members who are Latinos and darker skin.”

Rose Mroczka ’21: “Being able to hear such a diverse and thoughtful group of young leaders speak was eye opening. Hopefully after the march, Americans will see that action needs to be taken to prevent gun violence.”

Photo courtesy of Sarah Wishloff ’19

“Administration Overhauls Party Policy to Student Frustrations” Jan. 31, 2018 The college released changes to the Party Policy, a set of rules governing expectations of parties on campus, on Friday, Jan. 26. The changes included determining occupancy by venue, expecting party sponsors to manage attendance with staff assistance and requiring party sponsors to clean up the registered party space within one hour of the approved end time. The new party policy, announced in an email to students from Senior Associate Dean of Students Dean J. Gendron, took effect for parties registered for and after Thursday, Feb. 1.

Elias Schultz ’18: “These changes … put even more responsibility in the hands of sponsors, introduce more obstacles to successfully hosting an event, make social life more bureaucratic and introduce more administrative oversight to student life.”

Photo courtesy of Shawna Chen ’20

10 | The Amherst Student | November 9, 2018

Photo courtesy of Natalie De Rosa ‘21

News Roundup

Below, we look back at the biggest news stories covered by The Student since Fall 2017. “$240 Million Science Center Opens Sept. 4” Aug. 31, 2018

“Loeb Center Appointments Appear to Favor Finance Careers” Oct. 3, 2018

After years of planning and construction, the new Science Center opened on Sept. 4, just in time for students to begin their fall classes.

Despite launching a new online platform for career guidance services, the Loeb Center for Career Exploration and Planning has drawn criticism from students seeking guidance in industries outside of business and finance.

Kevin Zhangxu ’20: “Hopefully, the new Science Center becomes a hub for students to both study intensively as well as to relax with their friends. For example, many of the study spaces scattered throughout the new Science Center are collaborative learning spaces, while the cafe on the first floor, which may or may not serve sushi, is a great place to catch up with friends, staff and faculty.”

Photo courtesy of Audrey Cheng ’20

Derek Schneider ’20: “When it came down to applying to [biology research] internships, I wanted support from the career center, but found that none of the Loeb advisors had any expertise in what I was interested in, [since] I was not applying to medical research programs … I was very frustrated as I felt like I had no support from the career center in applying to my internships over the summer.”

“Zumbyes Accepts First Female Member in 68-Year History” Sept. 26, 2018 After 68 years as an all-male a capella group, the Zumbyes admitted its first female member, Emma Ratshin ’21, during the fall audition round that took place between Sept. 9 and Sept. 14. Ratshin was one of two women who auditioned for the Zumbyes this fall.

John Ballard ’20: “[Emma] was amazing. So we called her back, she was amazing again, and then after callbacks, we had to make the decision of what we wanted the future of the group to look like.”

Photo courtesy of Takudzwa Tapfuma ‘17

Photo courtesy of Emma Swislow ’20

“Harvard Lawsuit Raises Potential Threat to Affirmative Action” Oct. 24, 2018

“Low Voter Turnout Spurs New Registration Initiatives” Sept. 19, 2018 9.5 percent of Amherst’s eligible student body voted in the 2014 midterm elections, according to a report by the National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement (NSLVE). The 2014 voting rate for all academic institutions, in comparison, was around 19 percent. A task force made up of Amherst staff and student leaders began meeting earlier in the year to discuss ways to bolster registration and voting.

Taylor Pelletier ’19: “I hope that at least through our engagement efforts over the next few months, we’re able to increase the amount of students who are voting. Especially for a campus that cares so much and does have so many activist groups and groups that are interested in what’s going on in the world, it’s really sad to see that one of our basic civic duties is unfortunately not being fulfilled at a very high rate.”

A lawsuit alleging that Harvard’s admissions process discriminates against Asian-American applicants began its trial on Oct. 15 in the federal district court of Massachusetts in Boston. The case, which became national news after the group Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA) filed a complaint against Harvard in 2014, has the potential to change how colleges and universities, including Amherst, use affirmative action practices in their admissions process.

Photo courtesy of Takudzwa Tapfuma ‘17

“College Sees Increase in New Faculty of Color” Sept. 26, 2018

Sho Young Shin ’19: “I am concerned, disappointed and hurt when people, including admissions officers, do not see Asian people as individuals with complexities and worth and instead rely on stereotypes. But terminating affirmative action would not change that; in fact, affirmative action is all the more necessary to challenge problematic mindsets and dominant American culture.”

63 percent of new professors hired by the college in 2018 are people of color — 10 out of the total 16, Dean of Faculty Catherine Epstein reported, with two additional professors identifying as international. Last year, six of the 13 new professors hired for tenure track positions were people of color — a comparatively lower proportion at 46 percent.

Rachel Kang ’21: “We have to think about … how many faculty of color are being replaced by faculty of color and who’s being hired in which departments.

I do think there are some departments that have more than others, and the identity of the faculty is a key factor for me when I’m choosing my classes, although it’s a heavy burden to put on the professors.”

Photo courtesy of Matai Curzon ’22

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

The Amherst Student | November 9, 2018 | 11

Alumni Profile | Lyndsey Scott ‘06

Actor, Model and Programmer Breaks Barriers Lyndsey Scott ’06 has made a name for herself across various industries, despite the many people who told her it was impossible.

— Emma Swislow ’20 Lyndsey Scott ’06 struts down the runway with a train of multicolored balloons trailing behind her. It’s 2009 and Scott walks in the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show, an event 800 million people watch annually, according to Harper’s Bazaar. That same year, she was the first African-American model to sign an exclusive runway contract with Calvin Klein. Scott has also walked in shows for Prada, Louis Vuitton and Gucci and modeled in campaigns for Covergirl and DKNY. Off the runway and away from the cameras, Scott is an iOS engineer who creates apps and tutorials for companies like Rallybound and RayWenderlich.com. Most recently, she wrote a screenplay based off of her own life and started pursuing a career in acting.

But before she was a model, actor or programmer, Scott was a theater and dance and computer science double major and a member of the women’s track team at Amherst.

A Model Student Scott knew going into college that she wanted to major in theater, but her interest in computer programming was completely unexpected, even though she had put games onto her graphing calculator as a middle schooler. However, she didn’t realize until she took an introductory computer science course with Lyle McGeoch, a computer science professor at Amherst, that the process of putting games onto her calculator had actually been programming all along.

“When I [first] took a computer science course, I didn’t really know what that meant,” Scott said. “I really liked the class, and I realized that I had a natural talent for that sort of logic, so it was exciting for me. I think I got better grades in programming courses than I did in my acting classes.”

After college, she began working as an actress and model in New York City, not far from where she grew up in West Orange, New Jersey. Although she originally planned to work as an actor, modeling “took off quicker,” and she spent several years in the industry.

Scotts says that even though her modeling work was exciting at times and gave her the opportunity to travel and live in a variety of places, it still could be difficult, especially when dealing with agencies.

“The agencies weren’t always very nice,” she noted. “They would tell me I was boring and not enough fun. They would try to put the blame on me for any jobs that I wasn’t booking with them.

They would blame my race and my height, for example.”

Scott had to contend with the incredibly homogenous state of the modeling world — at fashion shows, she would typically be one of the only black models. “There are so few black models who are used in fashion shows,” she said. “Normally, I’d be the only black model or there would be none. Maybe at some shows they would have several, but it was very much an industry where it was much more difficult to book jobs as a minority.”

The final straw came when her

agency in New York suggested that she work overseas for a year to build her portfolio. When she came back to the United States after the year had passed, Scott found out that the agency had dropped her.

Luckily, her skills as a programmer came in handy and she began working as a contracted programmer to support her move out to Los Angeles, where she hoped to pursue acting.

Coding in the Public Eye

Nowadays, Scott spends 20 hours per week programming as an iOS engineer for Rallybound, a company that creates fundraising apps for non-profit organizations.

She spends the other half of her time going to auditions and taking acting classes.

Although Scott feels confident in her programming abilities, she found that it was difficult to enter the programming world initially.

“I couldn’t convince people to hire me at first,” she said. “I knew I was really good at iOS development at that point, but the language people would use would make it sound like I was learning or just starting ... Luckily now I work with people who know me and who know my strengths.”

Scott has also been working on a screenplay for a dark comedy based on events that happened in her own life. About a year and a half ago, Scott’s father, whom she was very close to, passed away, and she went through a difficult breakup soon after his death.

“After my father’s death and this breakup, I knew I needed extra

Photos courtesy of Lyndsey Scott ’06

Scott became the first black model to sign an exclusive runway contract with Calvin Klein in 2009. help,” she said. “I actually ended up going to a [mental health] facility ... It’s a home that would help me get my mind right again and process my grief and everything ... My screenplay is actually a dark comedy about mental health based off of this time in my life.”

She was supposed to stay at the home for a month, but a week after her arrival, the facility shut down due to a spate of issues, including a lawsuit over insurance fraud and an FBI investigation.

“I’m taking meetings, and I plan on doing one more draft, but I’ve gotten good feedback so far,” Scott said.

Becoming a Role Model

Today, Scott splits her time between acting, programming and writing. She just finished a draft of her first screenplay, a dark comedy based on her own life experiences.

12 | The Amherst Student | November 9, 2018

This September, Scott found herself in the media after she responded to a series of comments on an Instagram post. The post featured an image of her from the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show in 2009 and said that she could program in Python, C++, Java, MIPS and Objective-C. Many of the comments left on the post questioned her programming ability and claimed that she was lying about her credentials.

When she responded with a post of her own proving her skills and educational background in programming, Scott received widespread praise for her response.

“It’s interesting because I’ve been in the press before in my career, basically since the first big job I booked with Calvin Klein,” she said. “It’s a weird and interesting experience, especially this year when I was applauded for my strength in that particular situation with these trolls, just following one of the weakest points in my life.”

However, Scott still hopes that

the people who left comments on the original post can learn something from her response.

“For me, it’s a systematic issue,” Scott said. “If I can show at least one of them that they can’t judge a programmer based off of her appearance, then maybe when they go into their office, they’ll be less likely to judge a book by their [sic] cover when they encounter people who don’t fit the typical programmer image.”

This typical programmer image is something that Scott hopes to combat. She pointed out the growing need for programmers throughout the technology sector and the fact that currently there aren’t enough people to fill those positions.

“In two years, there are expected to be a million more computer programming jobs than there are qualified candidates,” Scott said.

“If more women had access to the tools, then we could get more people interested. But no matter what … we need more people to build the technology in order to keep up with the demand. If we’re only pulling from a very small part of the population, it’s not going to work.

Despite Scott’s negative experiences with modeling agencies and the discrimination she faces as a woman in tech, she continues to pursue careers in acting and programming.

In the future, Scott hopes to spend time in both the programming and acting worlds. “I’d like to do the acting and use that to fund the programming instead of the other way around,” she said. “I’d be able to act and then make my own apps that I want to make and have a company to do the sort of work that I want to do.”

Alumni Profile | Chuck Lewis ’64

Philanthropist Supports Education at Amherst With a focus on connecting ideas, resources and motivated people, Chuck Lewis ’64 creates thoughtful solutions to issues in education.

—Connor Haugh ’21 Charles “Chuck” Lewis is best described as a bridge-builder.

“Some people fill structural holes — I’m one of those people,” Lewis told me. Lewis learned this about himself as a quarterback at Albany Comprehensive High School, where he led a group of talented running backs, rangy wideouts and a “monster” center as a unit. Lewis, now in his seventies, can still shoot a basketball and continues to follow the same principles of leadership and bridge-building in his work.

Today, Lewis “pays to work” as an influential philanthropist in the world of education. Working with networks of financiers, nonprofits and academic institutions, the Lewis-Sebring Family Foundation, to which Lewis has devoted his retirement years, provides guidance and funding to organizations that attempt to equalize educational opportunity.

A Different Era Growing up in Loudonville, New York just outside of Albany, Amherst initially didn’t appear on Lewis’ radar — he had never even heard of the college until his senior year. Lewis’ football stardom was an unlikely turn of events, as he didn’t take up the sport until his junior year of high school.

However, his natural talent was more than enough — it only took one visit to Amherst for Jim Ostendarp, then-coach of Amherst football, to notice Lewis. An admissions officer spoke to Lewis at the end of his tour. According to Lewis, “He said, ‘Well, if you want to come here, you’re in.’ I had not yet applied. That was enough to snow a high school senior. Things were a little different then.”

In reflecting on his time at Amherst from 1960 to 1964, Lewis highlighted some of the major differences between then and now, some of which he found negative.

“People say that college should be the best time in your life — and I didn’t find it that way,” admitted Lewis. “The way I would describe the place back then was as a combination of an English boarding school and marine boot camp.”

He recalled memories of the old dining hall’s sparse offerings served on divided metal trays, early morning mandatory chapel services, maids cleaning dorm rooms and unforgiving professors, as Postwar habits blended with the “refinement and austerity” of an English boarding school. Back then, Lewis said, Amherst didn’t have the vibrant community that he sees today.

“In my four years at Amherst, I don’t recall an adult asking me how I was doing,” said Lewis. Even his academic life retained the same regimented nature, since Amherst had not yet adopted the open curriculum. Although some required courses pushed students outside their comfort zone, he noted that others were just boring.

Lewis credits English 102 — a required composition course known for its professor’s harsh and often publicly humiliating feedback — with developing his writing skills.

After Amherst, Lewis enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton Business School, and after receiving a draft physical form in the mail, Lewis spent the next several years “dodging the draft from within the Army.” He served as an administrator in hospitals in skipping basic training and earning an officer’s salary, a role the army

desperately needed filled during the Vietnam War. He also served in the data processing division of the Army Surgeon General, where his experience working during the summers in grad school at International Business Machines (IBM) helped him pass himself off as a “computer guy.”After the army, the technological experience he had gained led him to join a tech-services company — imaginatively called Computer Technology Inc. — where he served as assistant to the CEO. Upon the company’s acquisition, Lewis “talked his way in” to the Chicago office of Merrill Lynch, where he would remain for the rest of his professional career, eventually reaching the post of vice chairman, until his retirement in 2004.

An Unlikely Return There is an irony to Lewis’ relationship with his alma mater. Despite his negative experience at Amherst, he has remained involved with the college since graduating, serving as a class agent, trustee, chairman of the board and change-maker for almost 30 years. Perhaps he saw his post-graduation role in the Amherst community as a chance to remedy some of the problems he experienced — in particular the difficulties of being a first-generation college student.

Lewis’ interest in supporting education stems partly from a personal understanding of the importance of education to his own success, but also from the work of his wife Penny Sebring, an educational researcher and senior research associate at the University of Chicago. Together, the couple founded the University of Chicago Consortium on School Research, which researches Chi-

Photos courtesy of The Lewis Sebring Family Foundation

Lewis’ own experiences as a first-generation college student led him to help establish the college’s new Meiklejohn fellowship. cago schools to understand how to better improve them.

While education serves as the basis for the larger body of work of the Lewis-Sebring Family Foundation, the Meiklejohn fellowship directly relates to Lewis’ own experience at Amherst as a first-generation college student. The Meicklejohn Fellowship provides funding, advising and connections through the Loeb Center for Career Exploration and Planning.

“In starting something or sustaining something, it requires clarity as to what the organization is trying to do,” said Lewis. “The Meiklejohn fellowship is a perfect example of this.” The Meiklejohn fellowship attempts to engender a positive reputation, rather than one of deficiency, for first-time college goers.

“We’re going to guarantee fellows an internship during their first or second summer at Amherst.

That’s a big deal,” said Lewis. He hopes to reverse the stigma around being first-generation, making it less of a hindrance and more of an advantage. Lewis hopes that this pro-

Lewis has helped create programs for those interested in education, including the Careers In Education Professions track, and has been a vocal advocate for the creation of an education studies major at Amherst.

gram will push Amherst forward towards a more equitable future, and will continue to ameliorate the ills he experienced.

A Passion for Education Lewis’ other notable influence on Amherst is his work in developing programs for future teachers at Amherst. The Careers in Education Professions initiative has its roots in the University of Chicago’s career center, which puts emphasis on providing opportunity rather than guidance. The Amherst program works in tandem with similar programs at the University of Chicago and Grinnell College, sharing resources and strategies.

Even the name was carefully thought out — Lewis wanted it to mirror Amherst’s “Careers in Health Professions Program,” which helps students who want to go into medicine or other health-related fields.

Lewis believes the way in which these programs are branded helps position them as fields of choice, and he hopes that doing so will help remove the stigma surrounding going into education.

“One of the ways to chip away at that perception is to have elite institutions like ours take the study of education seriously,” Lewis said.

In addition, Lewis has been instrumental in creating the Education Studies Initiative, which seeks to formally integrate education studies into the curriculum. Visiting Professor of History and American Studies Leah Gordon credits Lewis’ work with “making Amherst a place where Amherst students realize the range of exciting work they can do related to education and … [that] education studies is very much an area of interdisciplinary study that fits within a liberal arts curriculum.”

Collaboration remains an integral part of his success. Lewis’ friends talk about his dinner parties, bringing together researchers, thinkers and activists, as being central to the way he operates.

“All these things are small, but cumulative” Lewis says of his work.

He believes in the power of places like Amherst to make considerable change.

The Amherst Student | November 9, 2018 | 13

Alumni Profile | Bess Levin ’06

Journalist Brings Humor to Politics and Finance With her humorous and insightful takes on the complicated worlds of Wall Street and national politics, Bess Levin ’06 has established a name for herself in the world of journalism.

Bess Levin ’06 always knew she wanted to write. She had a natural ability for noticing often-overlooked characteristics, and incorporating them into her stories in a unique way. After graduation, she began writing about Wall Street for the online publication Dealbreaker, becoming editor-in-chief after just two years.

Now, Levin writes for Vanity Fair, covering politics and finance.

As an expert journalist on the craziness of the Donald Trump presidency and Wall Street, she brings humor to the sometimes-dry world of economic and political journalism.

A Natural Talent

Levin arrived at Amherst as a sophomore transfer student from Boston University after realizing she disliked the atmosphere at a large school.

She was already familiar with the area, having family friends who live in Sunderland, Massachusetts, and figured that she would thrive at a small liberal arts college.

Writing always came naturally to Levin, and she knew from a young age that she wanted to pursue a career in writing. As a college student, she would write humorous short stories about her friends and send them out.

Levin’s longtime friend and fellow Amherst graduate, Sarah Rothbard ’06, spoke highly of Levin’s exceptionally witty writing.

“Bess has always been hilarious,” she said. “At Amherst, she definitely honed her skill for finding the absurdity in the people and events around her … in her retelling or imitation. Although her imitation of me trying to corral the writers and editorial staff of The Student by yelling at them to get on a horse

— Seoyeon Kim ’21

[was] almost completely inaccurate, it still makes me laugh almost 15 years later.”

Even though she always knew writing was her strong suit, Levin said a creative writing class with Senior Lecturer in English Helen von Schmidt helped her practice the kind of off-beat, humorous writing she is involved with today. “[The class] showed me the kind of writing that I wanted to do,” she said. “I definitely knew that I was always interested in writing, and more creative writing down that avenue, but that [class] solidified it.”

A Unique Perspective

Interested in continuing her passion for writing, Levin reached out to various publications near the end of her senior year.

One of the people who emailed her back told Levin about a new online publication covering Wall Street, called Dealbreaker, which was launching in a couple of weeks.

After sending a few story ideas to the people who were starting the website, Levin was hired as an intern the summer after she graduated. Following a successful internship, Dealbreaker hired Levin fulltime, and she ended up working at the publication for 10 years.

A women and gender studies major, Levin initially had no interest or expertise in the workings of Wall Street, and she took the job at Dealbreaker despite not having taken a single economics class at Amherst.

“When I was told about this website and told that Dealbreaker was going to be about Wall Street, I wasn’t sure how that would be,” she said. “But then it was explained to me that it would be more about the writing, because it wasn’t going to be like the Wall Street Journal. It

was going to be talking about Wall Street in a way people hadn’t before. It was going to be a lot more about the people … and writing about it in a humorous way.”

Levin advanced to the position of editor-in-chief just two years after starting her internship, and she credits Dealbreaker with both allowing her to focus on humorous writing and providing enormous creative freedom.

“An aspect of [the job] that was really fun and pretty unusual was that I got to write about whatever I wanted, within the context of Wall Street,” Levin said.

“For a first job in media or journalism, that is unheard of … It was amazing to be able to do stories I was interested in,” she emphasized.

Realizing that a lot of her writing bordered on satire, Levin decided to create an event called Dealbreaker Dramatic Reading Night, during which a hired actor would read a number of the publication’s pieces to an audience.

“It became super popular,” she said. “It was a very niche event, but we had a lot of very devoted readers … They were very familiar with the pieces. Wall Street has all these larger-than-life people, so we could make recurring characters out of them on the website, and [the stories] definitely lent themselves well to those dramatic readings.”

Over the course of her career, Levin has cultivated a devoted fanbase of readers who follow her for her unique and biting take on all that she writes about.

Moving Forward

After working at Dealbreaker for 10 years, Levin decided it was time for a new challenge.

She was hired at Vanity Fair as a Wall Street correspondent and

Levin, pictured above with her husband Dan Kelsall, is an expert on politics and finance, having covered everything from the workings of Wall Street to corruption in the Trump administration.

14 | The Amherst Student | November 9, 2018

Photos courtesy of Bess Levin ’06

Levin has her own daily newsletter at Vanity Fair called “The Levin Report,” which focuses on business and politics. now writes a daily column which is also sent out as a newsletter. “The Levin Report” covers topics including business, politics, the presidency and corruption.

Although Levin was originally hired to cover Wall Street, things changed after the 2016 presidential election.

“My first day at Vanity Fair was the day after the presidential election,” Levin said, laughing. “It was a memorable day that I won’t forget. When I had accepted the job, I obviously thought Hillary Clinton was going to be president.”

The unexpected results of the election led Levin to start writing more about the Trump administration. Although she had never written about politics before, Levin quickly adjusted.

“Because I wrote about Wall Street through the lens of personalities, it wasn’t that difficult to write about politics [through the same lens],” she said.

At Vanity Fair, Levin often writes about corruption in the Trump administration. She brings a new perspective, focusing on bringing life to her characters rather than writing on the technicalities of the U.S. government. “[It’s] a very fruitful topic …

There are some very big personalities in the White House,” she said with a chuckle. She enjoys being able to write about both politics and finance.

“I certainly did not think when I was initially switching jobs that I would be writing about politics as much as I do now, but obviously things change,” she added.

When I asked her for any of her particularly memorable stories, Levin laughed again.

“I write so much and the news is so crazy that I’m not sure I could tell you what I wrote about on Monday,” she explained. “But I will tell you that there are certain people that I really enjoy writing about. I like to write about Jared Kushner, because I think … he lends himself well to the sort of writing that I do, and I’m amused — well, also horrified — by him. He’s a good source of material.”

The reason for Levin’s inability to pick out a particular article became clear when she described her typical day to me.

She is constantly immersed in the non-stop pace of the news cycle.

After a morning meeting with other writers and editors to discuss stories of the day, Levin spends “many hours just reading about everything that’s going on.”

“There’s a lot of collaboration in the office,” she said. “My goal is to start writing around 3 o’clock, then it’ll get sent around 7 o’clock, and then I start all over the next day.”

Levin typically writes one to two articles per day. “Luckily, there’s a lot of material. It’s a real hodgepodge,” she added. “My stories are based on what I’m interested in that day, within a certain scope.”

Remembering Amherst

Levin’s humility, above all, shone throughout our interview. I was amazed by her long list of accomplishments, but couldn’t help but notice that she spoke very matter-of-factly.

Rothbard speaks to this humility, describing the experience of attending Levin’s wedding this summer as special because Levin “doesn’t always love to be publicly celebrated, preferring to cover and observe events rather than placing herself at the center of them.”

Even as she’s found such success in her journalism, Levin remembers her time at Amherst vividly.

When she visited campus this June with her then-fiancé, she was overwhelmed by a rush of happy nostalgia.

“When you step on campus — I felt the same way when I went back for my five- and 10-year reunion — you can be gone however long, but when you come back you just have this wonderful feeling,” she said.

“The friends I made [at Amherst] are some of the most cherished relationships that I have to this day,” she added.

“The feeling you have on campus is such a wonderful, nurturing environment, and just being there, … you feel really lucky. I think so fondly of my time there.”

Alumni Profile | Joseph Quinn ’69

Economist Devotes Lengthy Career to Teaching Joeseph Quinn ’69 found a love for the economics of aging and retirement that has deepened during his long tenure at Boston College.

—Henry Newton ’21 Joseph F. Quinn ’69 does not fit the mold of the traditional economist — he is not a distinguished intellectual who studies Wall Street, the workings of industry or the accumulation of wealth and capital itself. Quinn’s research instead focuses on what comes after such capital is accumulated: on the why and how millions of Americans end up retiring and affording their post-work lives.

Quinn arrived at Amherst in 1965, and after graduating, matriculated at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) Graduate School of Economics. After receiving his Ph.D., Quinn immediately began working for Boston College (BC) in 1974, becoming a full professor in 1985 and Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences in 1999. During this time, Quinn wrote two books and contributed to over 100 book chapters and journal articles, all the while becoming one of the nation’s foremost experts on aging and retirement.

Developing an Interest in Economics Economics was, however, never a life-long passion for Quinn. He arrived at Amherst largely by chance, and this theme of happenstance would carry throughout his academic career and professional life. “I applied to Amherst pretty much because my dad went there, and because I liked the size of it and the fact that it wasn’t in a big city,” Quinn remembers. “It was a lot less thoughtful a process that most people go through today, and I was, in many senses, lucky to pick such a great place.”

At Amherst, Quinn was a member of a number of teams, running cross country during his first year while simultaneously playing for the men’s lacrosse team during the entirety of his four years at Amherst. In his senior year, Quinn became the team captain, and during his stay in Western Massachusetts, the Amherst lacrosse program consistently ranked among the top 20 programs in the country.

Coming to Amherst without a defined plan, Quinn quickly spread out and explored the various parts of the curriculum, taking courses in a diverse range of departments. However, fate intervened again, and Quinn soon found himself drawn to the economics department after taking a course taught

by Professor of Economics Ralph Beals, who showed interest in Quinn and his work.

“I think I basically was interested in studying people,” Quinn said, “I could have been happy in any of the social sciences, but economics was the most mathematics-oriented of them. I liked math, [and] I liked studying people, so economics was really the perfect mix for me.”

Quinn’s natural aptitude for the discipline quickly became evident, and he raced through the major’s requirements, impressing several professors along the way.

One of them, Professor Walter Nicholson, noted Quinn’s skills, commenting, “I rapidly discovered that Joe was a fine student, but everyone else in the department already knew that. I had the feeling that I was barely keeping ahead of him as I struggled to learn how to teach this rather difficult material.”

Early Post-Grad Years Nicholson, impressed by Quinn’s scholarship, proved instrumental in Quinn’s decision to attend graduate school, pushed him to attend MIT and pursue a doctoral degree in economics.

It was in Cambridge, Massachusetts and through a graduate internship with the Social Security Administration (SSA), that Quinn began his lifelong interest in the study of aging and retirement.

At the SSA, Quinn had the opportunity to study a data set completely untouched and unexamined by the nation’s economic and academic professionals. “To tell you the truth, good luck again played a part in that,” Quinn noted. “I just ran across this fabulous data

set that nobody outside of the Social Security Administration had been able to use. When I left, the [SSA] was able to technically continue [taking] me on as an employee, and I was the first person who was able to use this data set.”

Quinn had decided early on at Amherst to pursue a career in academia, saying, “I think I learned from some of my professors at Amherst that academia was really a fabulous career, and I couldn’t have been more right. I can’t imagine a career in which I would have been happier.”

Having published his dissertation on the effects of aging across societies, Quinn proceeded to take his first job in academia at BC. “I expected to be there two years and then go somewhere else, but after 45 years I’m still here. I can’t imagine a place that I would have been happier than at Boston College,” he said.

Boston College Unlike many of his peers in the economic field, Quinn took to teaching with a fervor that remains uncommon to this day. “If someone said, ‘From now on, you have to either choose teaching or research,’ I would choose teaching in a heartbeat. I like them both, but I really love the teaching,” he said.

In his career, Quinn taught courses at both the graduate and undergraduate level. His most recent courses have concentrated on public policy in aging societies and microeconomic public policy issues. Receiving tenure in 1985, Quinn served as the chair of the economics department from 1988 to 1994.

This first administrative experience set the stage for his appointment as Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences in 1999.

Again Quinn returned to the administration when BC selected him to serve as interim provost from 2013 to 2014e.

Despite having to somewhat pull back from teaching and his own research, Quinn truly enjoyed his time in academic administration. “I loved it,”

A prolific writer and educator, Quinn has written two books and over 100 journal articles, book chapters and monographs surounding his research on social security and the economics of aging.

Photos courtesy of Joe Quinn ’69

Quinn has built a career as an economics professor and is considered one of the country’s foremost experts on retirement. he remarked, adding that “it was a very rewarding experience.”

Research and Writing Outside the classroom and administration, Quinn has devoted most of his time to his own research on the ways people save and experience retirement in the United States. What has motivated him to continue this work is the constantly evolving set of challenges that many of the nation’s retirees face.

Today Quinn is regarded as one of the nation’s preeminent experts on social security, retirement and workers who are close to retirement.

At the core of Quinn’s career and enormous success is a long-abiding appreciation for writing. The opportunity to write was one of the key factors in his decision to pursue a career in academia rather than in the public sector.

Over the course of his career, Quinn has co-written two books, “Passing the Torch: The Influence of Economic Incentives on Work and Retirement” and “The Economics of an Aging Society,” in 1990 and 2004, respectively. The former was the culmination of much of Quinn’s research prior to 1990 and analyzed the United States’ retirement statistics. The latter book focused on the effects that aging has on a society and what happens when societies and their populations age.

In addition to his two full-length works, Quinn has written over 100 journal articles, monographs and book chapters.

His more contemporary work has focused on how much less prepared the retiree is for life after work in modern America than in the past. This year, Quinn returned to Amherst for Family Weekend to give a talk sponsored by the economics department, during which he presented his most recent paper, “Challenges and Opportunities of Living and Working Longer.”

One of the key findings from his work, posits that the likelihood that an individual will slowly phase themselves out of the workforce through multiple “bridge jobs” is increasing. Quinn sees retirement as no longer a set end date but rather a gradual transition out of the labor market and workforce.

Given the profile of his work and his status and stature within the field of economics, Quinn has been invited to serve on numerous boards and advisory committees throughout his career

including the Massachusetts Governor’s Council on Healthy Aging, the Employment Working Group and the Foundation for International Studies on Social Security.

Perhaps most notable was Quinn’s service on President Bill Clinton’s Commission on Reforming Social Security. About this experience, Quinn said, “If you can find anyone in government, in other words, someone who can do something about what you’re writing about, and talk, it’s wonderful to interact with them.”

With an established body of work and a distinguished academic career well underway, Quinn was invited to join the Amherst College Board of Trustees in 2014. During his tenure on the board, he has treasured the experience of serving the college as it undergoes vast physical and structural changes.

“It’s one of the greatest experiences that I’ve had,” Quinn remarked. “The board is a dedicated, accomplished, and, frankly, nice group of people…

It’s as impressive a group of people that I have ever met.”

Turning towards the future, Quinn said, “I think that the two things that will continue to be on the plate are social life at Amherst, where there appears to be some concerns, and the whole issue of what admissions is going to look like pending the Supreme Court’s rulings on affirmative action …

We are very proud of the fact that we want a diverse student body, and nobody beats Amherst on that.”

Quinn has both been at the forefront of his field of the economics of retirement and has served as a mentor and teacher to countless students over his years of service. Nicholson summed up Quinn’s career, saying “[Quinn’s] work on retirement and aging was path-breaking. I got to know him much better over the years and have always viewed him as one of our finest students.”

Quinn has not only served as an expert in his field, but has served as an exemplary and humble educator.

As one of his colleagues said during his presentation on Family Weekend, Quinn has always been one of Boston College’s most popular professors, not only because of his sharp intelligence and groundbreaking work but also for his genuine compassion and enthusiasm for his craft.

The Amherst Student | November 9, 2018 | 15

Profile | Tara Gleason Chicirda ’94

Curator Pursues Passion for Objects of the Past Inspired by an Amherst class on material culture, Tara Gleason Chicirda ’94 has sought to learn about history through objects.

— Olivia Gieger ’21 For Tara Gleason Chicirda ’94, there is no such thing as a dull day.

As the associate furniture curator for the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation in Williamsburg, Virginia and the mother of a 12-year-old boy, her days are full of constant activity, moving from her office to the historic grounds and museums of Colonial Williamsburg, the world’s largest living history museum featuring 18th-century shops and houses.

Days Spent Among Relics of the Past Chicirda’s job managing Colonial Williamsburg’s extensive furniture collection requires enormous coordination; Chicirda must carefully organize bringing the object out of storage and incorporating it into the historic area before crowds of visitors flock to the museum. She fills her days giving tours and lectures, communicating with donors and designing the exhibitions themselves.

Research into historical objects is essential for all of her tasks. Chicirda’s favorite part of her job is sharing all this research with the public to “let them realize how cool the objects and furniture are.”

“With material culture [the study of history through objects], the objects are telling us so much about the past,” she said.“Someone might just see a chair or a spice box, but there is so much about how it came to be that way. There is a lot to learn there.”

The Spark of a Passion A passion for studying history through the stories of specific objects defines Chicirda’s professional career, and it began in one Amherst course. A material culture course

by Professor Kevin Sweeney of the American studies and history departments, is “what really opened [her] eyes to this field.”

Even years later, Sweeney still remembers the papers Chicirda wrote in his class — one on a card table in the Mead Art Museum’s collection and another on the Emily Dickinson house. His lasting memory is certainly a testament to her natural talent in this field. “It was very surprising how well she did in the class and her aptitude for this field because she didn’t really have a background in it,” he remembers. “She was both extremely observant and very good at making connections with her observations to larger historical concerns.”

For Chicirda’s paper on the card table, Sweeney recalls being impressed by the fact that she noticed that the four legs were all slightly different — a feature that students who had written about the same table in previous years had failed to notice. Chicirda’s paper on the Emily Dickinson house, written before the recent surge of professional academic analysis on the house and its furniture, impressed Sweeney even more.

Chicirda closely observed the house and tied her observations together to analyze how the house might have changed over time.

Sweeney was so impressed that he gave a copy of her paper to Myron Stachiw, a leading historian of early New England architecture, who was shocked by both the paper’s high quality and the fact that Chicirda was only an undergraduate with little prior experience in the field.

Chicirda continued developing her talent for material cultural history in her senior thesis, which took a similar approach to her research on the Dickinson House. She thoroughly analyzed the Porter-Phelps-Huntington House, a historic house museum in Hadley, Massachusetts. She formed a historical analysis of the family that lived there by studying the several generations of furniture in the house.

To Sweeney, Chicirda’s ability to draw broad historical conclusions from objects and furniture “was quite striking. The aptitude was there,” he said, “and so was the general intelligence.”

Taking his course initiated what Chicirda calls the “progression” that led her to where she is today. Each opportunity she took in the field of material culture laid the foundation for her next step. After Sweeney’s class, she participated in a summer fellowship program at Historic Deerfield, a museum of historic homes in Deerfield, Massachusetts. After graduating from Amherst, she completed a master’s degree in Early American Material Culture at the University of Delaware, one of the top material culture programs in the country.

Liberal Arts as a Map to a Winding Road

Chicirda’s natural empathy makes her a skilled expert in interpreting the past through objects and the people who used them.

Two years after getting her master’s, Chicirda successfully applied for the job at Colonial Williamsburg and has remained there for the last 16 years. Because of the limited number of job opportunities in the field, Chicirda joked, “once people find the job they like, they stay.”

Yet, Chicirda’s road to her current job — and the field as a whole — was a winding one. She arrived at Amherst expecting to major in biology, after experiencing great support from her high school biology teachers at The Brearley School in New York City. However, upon arriving, she found that the department with the most similar level of personal support on campus was the history department.

Amherst’s liberal arts philosophy was essential to Chicirda navigating what she was most interested in pursuing during her time at Amherst.“It gave me lots of time to figure out what I wanted to do,” Chicirda said, adding that she took courses in ev-

erything from French and German to biology and psychology before deciding to major in history.

“It gave me a chance to explore — I think that’s important to do because you don’t know what you want to do when you’re a college freshman. A big part of the liberal arts education is finding something you know and love,” she added.

This appreciation for the liberal arts runs throughout Chicirda’s family; her husband graduated from Amherst in 1992 and her sister walked across the stage in 1993. Now her 12-year-old son has his eyes set on following his parents’ footsteps.

Photo courtesy of Tara Gleason Chicirda

Once a shy student, Chicirda now regularly presents on furniture as part of her job. Here, she gives a talk during Colonial Williamsburg Foundation’s “Working Wood in the 18th century” conference.

16 | The Amherst Student | November 9, 2018

Photo courtesy of Colonial Williamsburg Foundation

Personal Change, Marked by Compassion Looking back at her own time at Amherst, Chicirda said the college senior version of herself wouldn’t be surprised to learn she is now working in a museum. Rather, the New York City-native might have been surprised to know that she and her family now live in Virginia and has brought her in-laws there with her.

On a more serious note, Chicirda said that her younger self would be truly proud of the strides she’s made in becoming more comfortable with public speaking; she now gives tours and lectures regularly, while in college she was, in her own words, the “quiet person in class who never talked.”

Sweeney observed this growth happening even before Chicirda crossed the stage at graduation. “She certainly became more confident over time,” he said. “[Material culture] grabbed her interest … As she was doing it, she did it well, which spoked her confidence.”

“She was a fairly quiet person, and as she became more sure in articulating what she was seeing, she became more confident,” he said.

Chicirda’s long-time friend Michael Abramowicz ’94, mentioned that her shyness has never been a

hindrance to Chicirda. “Tara is a quiet person, and I suppose that if she took a personality test, she would score as an introvert,” Abramowicz said. “But, that did not stop her from participating in a wide range of activities — one does not usually think of introverts playing rugby — and cultivating a wide range of friends.

Tara genuinely sees the best in people and cares deeply about people. ” Sweeney echoed a similar sentiment about Chicirda’s experience playing rugby at Amherst — one of the three sports teams, including soccer and ice hockey, she played in college. “I remember one day she showed up with a triple fracture,” he said, laughing. “It always seemed slightly incongruous to me: here was this quiet, really refined person playing rugby.”

However, Chicirda’s interest in sports does speak to her personality as someone who cares deeply for others, a trait that defined both her time at Amherst and her life today.

“She was always comfortable interacting with anyone, regardless of the person’s background, interests or personality,” said Abramowicz. “I imagine that her extraordinary empathy helps in her job, both as [she] conceives of the individuals who at one time built or bought furniture masterpieces and as she relays the importance of the pieces to others.”

And, it does. Material culture, to Chicirda, “is about so much more than the objects themselves; it’s really about the people,” she said.

Though Chicirda left Amherst fulfilled by her experience, she would urge that 22-year-old version of herself — as well as current Amherst students — to try new things more often. She has found experimenting with new topics and venturing outside her comfort zone to be incredibly rewarding, so she encourages young people to do the same — and, of course, to take advantage of the museums.

Alumni Profile | Jeff Jordan ’81

Basketball Star Finds Success in Silicon Valley Jeff Jordan ’81 served as an executive at major companies like PayPal and Open Table, before turning his focus to venture capital.

—Kelly Chian ’20 Jeff Jordan ’81 is a lifelong learner, who is always up for the challenge.

People have often recognized his perseverance and contributions in the workplace and helped shape the career he has today.

As a venture capitalist at Andreessen Horowitz, Jordan serves on the board of Airbnb and Pinterest and was formerly the CEO of PayPal and OpenTable. A father of two, Jordan is passionate about assessing and building companies, especially in their early stages.

Growing Up and Amherst Jordan grew up moving between Philadelphia and Washington D.C. and went to high school in northern Virginia, where he managed to maintain good grades while playing both football and basketball. When he was 15, his father passed away. Looking back, Jordan says this event changed his relationship with his community — he received an outpouring of support from everyone around him, which ensured the consistent presence of male role models in his life.

When the dean of admissions at Amherst came to visit his high school, Jordan asked if he could successfully pursue both academics and sports at the college. The dean responded: “Son, I like that question. No, I love that question. Yes, you can. You’re just the kind of person we want at Amherst. You’re in.” With this answer, Jordan was convinced that Amherst was a good fit for him and so he made the trip up to Massachusetts in the fall of 1977.

At Amherst, Jordan struggled to find his footing at such a “bastion of white, male privilege.” It was the late 1970’s, and the school had only recently started admitting women, so a “frat driven” culture still dominated the campus.

“Here I am, a public-school kid who had no money and had recently lost his father,” Jordan remembered. “I literally

got asked in the school, ‘What [company] does your father own?’”

On paper, Jordan was an ideal member of the Amherst community — a well-rounded student-athlete the dean of admissions predicted he would be.

A political science and psychology major who graduated magna cum laude, Jordan was also a forward on the men’s basketball team, a basketball intramural champion and a member of Phi Beta Kappa honor society.

Jordan would wake up early to complete all his homework before class and play basketball at night. “[Jordan] never could jump very high; he was not super-strong, not super-fast, and he had absolutely no outside shot at all for many years,” Charles Brewer ’81, a classmate of Jordan’s at Amherst and Stanford remembered.

“But somehow he is an amazing rebounder and a great inside scorer.

Somehow he just knows where the ball is going about a second before anyone else. And somehow he could always get around defenders just far enough to get off one of his scoopy, lay-uppy shots that always went in.”

Internally, however, Jordan was struggling. Without the strong support network he was used to back home, he became depressed and lost around 50 pounds, going from “an undersized post [on the team] to a useless one.” Jordan referred to his college years as his “angry man period,” but he managed to “stumble out of Amherst unscathed.”

Early Jobs and Business School After Amherst, Jordan followed his college girlfriend back to Philadelphia, where he cooked in restaurants. He then found work at a series of insurance companies but continued to cook on weekends. While at Cigna, a Philadelphia insurance company, his boss Rick Thatcher took particular interest in him. Thatcher mentored Jordan, got him onto good projects and ultimately,

after Jordan had become one of the company’s best employees, told him to go on to business school to further his career.

Taking his boss’ advice, Jordan applied to Stanford Graduate School of Business and soon got a call from the dean of admissions — he had been accepted. At first, Jordan denied the offer because he simply couldn’t afford to go to business school. He was making less than $13,000 a year at Cigna and needed to support his mother as well. However, the dean called Jordan back the next day urging him to enroll, even if he had to make use of loans and scholarships. Jordan ultimately accepted the offer and hasn’t regretted the decision.

“At Stanford, I was able to make the leap, with a lot of effort, out of insurance jobs into much more interesting, higher potential and challenging jobs,” he said. “I would credit [my boss and the dean] for launching me into a completely different career trajectory.”

Working in Operations After business school, Jordan joined Boston Consulting Group as an associate consultant. While he enjoyed the job, he said that he didn’t get to see the impact of his work and worked mostly with failing companies.

After a few years in working in consulting, Jordan moved to The Walt Disney Co.’s strategic planning team.

After a while, Jordan moved to the position of CFO of the Disney Store to work more on the operating side of the business. After eight years and with growth beginning to slow down at Disney, Jordan left the company and became the president of Reel.com, a subsidiary of the video rental shop Hollywood Entertainment. While Jordan now admits that this was “a dumb leap because it was a bad business,” the move was a major turning point in his career, because he became one of the first internet executives just as the internet began to commercialize.

Jordan has settled down in Silicon Valley, where he is able to serve on the board of several major startups while maintaining enough time for his family and basketball.

Photos courtesy of Jeff Jordan ’81

Jordan is now a venture capitalist, after spending much of his career as an executive at companies including Disney and eBay. Foreseeing the eventual downfall of the movie rental industry, Jordan looked for other options. Megan Whitman, the CEO of eBay at the time, who had formerly worked with Jordan at Disney, convinced him to join her at eBay. At first he was skeptical of the company, which he associated with selling Beanie Babies and thought lacked potential after the company went public. However, he changed his mind after meeting “really high-quality people” at the company and listening to their visions for eBay. Today, he considers the company “one of best the business models ever to have been associated with me.”

Jordan joined eBay as one of 200 employees, but by the time he left seven years later, the company had grown to over 11,000 employees. In that time, he went from “having never really having run a business to managing one person to five, six thousand. You make a lot of mistakes, and if you’re successful, you learn really quickly.”

Jordan led eBay in the successful acquisition of PayPal because at that time eBay didn’t have an efficient online payment system. When he was offered the opportunity to serve as CEO of eBay, Jordan turned down the opportunity and instead chose to focus on running PayPal. “I thought about it a lot and I told [Whitman] that I didn’t want her job, because I actually loved the early stage,” Jordan said. “She lived in a plane. The company was huge. I was so proud I was able to scale with the company but I had less fun doing the job as eBay got bigger and bigger. So, I told her I didn’t want her job.”

Under Jordan’s leadership as CEO, PayPal became the online payment service of choice. He described his time at PayPal as “an experience I wouldn’t trade for anything in the world,” but added that “they were dog years.” He quickly felt burned out, and after two years as CEO, he left PayPal. After taking time away from the business world, Jordan’s next career move brought him to OpenTable, where he served as CEO of the restaurant-reservation service provider. The job was the perfect fit, because Jordan already had familiarity with the restaurant industry and was looking for a smaller time commitment. Under his leadership, the company experienced high levels of growth.

Investing in People and Business By the time he assumed his position at OpenTable, Jordan had already experienced a long and illustrious career in operations. Most would be ready to relax and rest on their laurels at this point, but that was never in Jordan’s personality.

Instead, feeling that he had learned everything he could about operations, he took a turn and “jumped across the aisle to become an investor.”

In 2011, Jordan started his current position as fifth general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, a leading venture capital firms. Throughout his tenure, Jordan has played an instrumental role in some of the firm’s largest investments, including the $112 million investment for Airbnb in July 2011 which valued the now now $31 billion homesharing company at $1.3 billion.

Today, Jordan serves on the boards of Airbnb, Instacart, Lime and Pinterest and loves the “mentally challenging and interesting” task of dealing with a company’s most important questions.

As a venture capitalist, Jordan receives pitches from executives of new technology companies. “We have the smartest people in the world coming to try to convince us of their vision of the future. Every day is something new,” he said.

This is the last full-time job I’ll have.

I still love coming to work and am still learning and being challenged. Venture has such long lead times and you have to plan to be on a board for 10 or so years. I’m 59 making 10 to 12 year commitments every day,” he added.

Basketball and Business After playing basketball at Amherst, Jordan carried his love for the sport to graduate school and beyond. He remains deeply involved in the Stanford community, staying in touch with many of his classmates, serving as a member of the Stanford Athletics Board of Directors and often hosting dinners at his home for different sports teams.

Jordan has organized basketball games with former and current college and professional athletes in the Stanford courts ranging from people in their early 20s to people his age. “It’s a way to stay connected to 50 really interesting people,” he said. “While I love athletics, I love what it does to bring people together for a higher mission.”

The Amherst Student | November 9, 2018 | 17

18

Sports

The Amherst Student • November 9, 2018

Football Suffers First Loss of Season, Title Hopes Now on Life Support

Photo courtesy of Clarus Studios

Quarterback Ollie Eberth ’20 and running back Jack Hickey ’19 are the Mammoths’ main offensive weapons, combining for 271 yards agianst Trinity.

Matthew Sparrow ’21 Staff Writer Last weekend’s matchup between Amherst and Trinity, winners of the last seven NESCAC conference crowns proved to be every bit as good as advertised.

The undefeated Amherst Mammoths faced off against reigning NESCAC champions Trinity on Saturday in Hartford, Connecticut before a raucous crowd of 3,000.

While the Mammoths battled the entire game, their usually stingy run defense cracked when it was needed most, allowing Trinity to walk away with a 27-16 win and a clear path to the NESCAC title, although Amherst may earn a share.

The Bantams received the opening kickoff but the stout Amherst defense quickly stopped the hosts, who went three-and-out.

After a short punt, the Mammoths started their drive with good field position at their own 41-yard line.

The Amherst offense started off red-hot, moving the ball into the Trinity red zone thanks to 26 rushing yards and 18 receiving yards from wide receiver Bo Berluti ’19.

The Mammoths, however, were unable to punch the ball into the end zone and instead sent out senior kicker Andrew Ferrero to try a 34-yard field goal.

The Bantams managed to block Ferrero’s kick, and the game remained in a scoreless deadlock.

After exchanging punts, Trinity finally got on the board thanks to a 16-yard touchdown pass by quarterback Seamus Lambert that put the Bantams up 7-0.

Amherst responded with one of its best drives of the season, using a steady diet of running back Jack Hickey ’19 on the ground and quarterback Ollie Eberth ’20 through the air to go 80 yards in 11 plays. Eberth punctuated the drive by tossing a touchdown from five yards out to junior wideout James O’Regan, knotting the score at seven apiece.

Another stop by the Mammoths’ defense gave the ball back to the Amherst offense with about nine minutes remaining in the first half.

Nine plays and 83 yards later, Hickey found the end zone on a three-yard rush to give the Mammoths their first lead of the game at 13-7 after Ferrero’s extra point attempt was blocked.

Lambert and the Bantams responded quickly, as they rapidly advanced down the field thanks to a dominant aerial attack, punctuating the drive with a Max Chipouras touchdown rush from three yards out. The Mammoths did block the extra point to keep the score tied at 13.

Eberth returned to the field, ready to run the two-minute offense to try to give Amherst a lead headed into the half. While the Mammoths were able to cross midfield into Bantam territory, Eberth was picked off for the first time all season, setting Trinity up with good field position with less than two minutes

remaining.

The Amherst defense and special teams were up to the task, however, as the Mammoths kept the home team out of the end zone and managed to block a 28-yard field goal attempt right before the end of the half to keep the score tied at 13.

The Mammoths received the second half kickoff and showed some life on offense, marching down the field until they were faced with a 4th-and-four at the Trinity 30-yard line.

Amherst head coach E.J. Mills elected to keep the offense on the field, but Eberth’s pass fell incomplete and the Mammoths turned the ball over on downs.

Lambert took advantage of the missed opportunity and put the Bantams up 20-13 on his second touchdown pass of the day, a 33yard strike that gave Trinity their first lead since the first quarter.

After an Amherst punt, Lambert led the Bantams back into the red zone, but Avery Saffold ’20 came up clutch with an interception to end the threat.

After the pick, Amherst’s offense took to the field once again and picked up right where it left off, driving into the Trinity red zone with ease.

The Bantams came up with a big stop on third down, though, and forced a 33-yard field goal from Ferrero that made the score 20-16 in the host’s favor with just 7:45 remaining.

After the teams traded punts, Trinity converted a few first downs before Chipouras put the game on ice with a 70-yard touchdown run to extend the Bantam lead to 27-16 with under three minutes remaining. Eberth lost the ball on a strip sack on the ensuing possession, enabling Trinity to kill the rest of the clock and move into a tie for first place in the NESCAC. Overall, the Bantams rushed for 227 yards on the ground, including 203 yards from Chipouras, against an Amherst run defense that hadn’t allowed more than 116 yards in a single game all season.

While the Mammoths were able to get to Lambert for four sacks, including 1.5 each for Andrew Yamin ’19 and Alex Katchadurian ’20, the visitors weren’t able to come up with the big stop late in the game when it mattered most. The offense was inconsistent, with Eberth being held below a 50 percent completion percentage and Hickey averaging under four yards per carry. The biggest contributor on offense was Berluti, who totaled 165 allpurpose yards on offense, including 142 receiving yards.

Amherst will close its season at home on Saturday, Nov. 10 at noon to face off against rival Williams in the Biggest Little Game in America.

The Mammoths’ record now sits at 7-1, tied for first in the NESCAC standings, but Amherst needs a win over the Ephs coupled with a Trinity loss to Wesleyan next weekend to clinch a share of the title.

ATHLETE SPOTLIGHT

Bernie White ’19

Emily Kolsky ’19

Team: Men’s soccer Favorite Team Memory: Going to see “A Star Is Born” the night before a big game Favorite Pro Athlete: Mo Salah Dream Job: Sports agent Pet Peeve: Snoring Favorite Vacation Spot: Lake house Something on Your Bucket List: Skydiving Guilty Pleasure: Candy Favorite Food: Tacos Favorite Thing About Amherst: The beautiful views around the campus.

How She Earned It: White has started the majority of the games between the pipes for the men’s soccer team, and has proved to be a solid addition to the Mammoths’ defense. Registering seven shutouts over 13 games started, White has additionally posted an exceptional goals against average of 0.76 to go along with a team-leading 60 saves, good enough for fifth in the NESCAC despite his not registering a save in the first four games of the season.

Team: Volleyball Favorite Team Memory: Beating Wesleyan this past weekend in three during the semifinals.

Favorite Pro Athlete: Kelsey Robinson Dream Job: Something that incorporates art and business.

Pet Peeve: People who chew with their mouth open.

Favorite Vacation Spot: Jackson Hole, Wyoming Something on Your Bucket List: To visit the pyramids of Egypt.

Guilty Pleasure: Binge-watching tv Favorite Thing About Amherst: The people How He Earned It: Kolsky has been an offensive leader for a Firedogs team that reached the finals of the NESCAC Championship tournament.

Kolsky leads the team in kills, registering 326 on the season, leading her to a team-high 3.58 kills per set. Furthermore, Kolsky has been remarkably efficient, with a hitting percentage of 29.2, good enough for second on the team. During the tournament, Kolsky’s play went to another level, as she registered 24, 16 and 15 kills against Williams, Wesleyan and Bowdoin, respectively.

Women’s Soccer Loses in NESCAC Semis to Middlebury on Penalties Nat De Jonge ’21 Staff Writer On Saturday, after two days of rain in Williamstown, Massachuesetts the site of the 2018 NESCAC women’s soccer tournament, a midafternoon start on a grass field turned to a 5 p.m. start time under the lights on the FarleyLamb turf field for the semifinal match for the women’s soccer team and Middlebury. From the opening to the final whistle, the two teams battled temperatures in the low 40s and gusts of wind over 20 miles per hour. Through regulation and overtime the two teams remained deadlocked with one goal apiece. Middlebury eventually prevailed in the following sudden death penalty shootout.

The early stages of the semifinal contest were defined by strong midfield play from both teams. Midfielder Natalie Landau ’21 had two shots blocked by Panther defenders and Maeve McNamara ’19 kept up the pressure on the Middlebury backline, putting in a cross that found the foot of first-year striker Alexa Juarez, who put the shot just wide.

Amherst’s pressure finally paid off in the 34th minute, when Rubii Tamen ’19 scored an impressive unassisted effort. Receiving the ball a few yards outside the 18-yard box, Tamen turned to beat her defender and quickly fired off a shot into the upper left corner of the goal, leaving the Panthers’ keeper with no chance for a save.

The Mammoths’ defense, anchored by goalkeeper Antonia Tammaro ’21, thwarted several Middlebury attacks over the next 10 minutes to secure a one-goal lead entering halftime.

Both teams picked up where they left off to start the second, with Tamen and Juarez each produced dangerous scoring opportunities for Amherst, while Middlebury pressed for the game-tying goal.

In the 62nd minute, Middlebury finally found the equalizer with a spectacular long-

distance shot from striker Olivia Miller, who entered the match as Middlebury’s leading scorer. Miller’s shot from roughly 33 yards out arced over Tammaro’s hands and into the top left corner.

The final 28 minutes of regulation remained scoreless, but not for the two teams’ lack of trying. Indeed, Amherst nearly conceded in the final minutes of the game when a Panther attacker rippeda shot just wide of a completely open goal.

The two periods of overtime, however, were more cagey affairs, as both teams seemed content to play for penalties and neither side managed to score.

The penalty shootout began inauspiciously for both sides, as the first kicker for Middlebury and Amherst both skied attempt over the frame of the goal. The Mammoths netted their next two attempts while the Panthers went scoreless, leaving Amherst in a comfortable 2-0 lead through the first three attempts, meaning the only way Middlebury could stay alive was if Amherst missed its last two kicks and Middlebury scored both.

However, this unlikely scenario occurred, with the Mammoths choking away the lead and the match progressing to sudden death penalties. Although both teams were successful in their sixth-round attempts, Amherst missed in the seventh round and the Panthers’ Sara DiCenso slotted home the matchwinning penalty.

Despite the loss, the Mammoths’ season is not over. On Monday, Amherst found out that it had not only received an at-large bid to the NCAA Division III tournament but also had earned hosting rights for the first weekend of games. Therefore, the Mammoths will take on Lesley University at Hitchcock Field this Saturday, Nov. 10 with the time still undecided.

If Amherst manages to beat Lesley, the team will face either Vassar College or the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a spot in the Sweet Sixteen on the line.

The Amherst Student • November 9, 2018

Sports

Men’s Soccer Falls to Colby, 3-1, in NESCAC Semifinal Matchup

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The Mazzola Minute Jamie Mazzola ’21 Columnist Jamie explores why the Golden State Warriors, led by Steph Curry are playing with the same dynamism of their successful 2015-2016 campaign.

Photo courtesy of Clarus Studios

German Giammetti ’22 took more shots than the entire Colby team with nine, but failed to find the back of the net during the team’s semifinal loss.

Connor Haugh ’21 Managing Sports Editor This past Saturday afternoon, fter two nights of torrential downpour, the Mammoths hosted Colby in the semifinals of the NESCAC tournament on Hitchcock Field. No. 4 Amherst downed fifth-seeded Bowdoin in the first round to secure progress to the semifinals, while Colby took down top-ranked Tufts in penalty kicks the week prior.

Amherst pushed hard from the first whistle and looked to be the more confident and composed side. In the opening minutes, Will Cohen ’19 managed to head a shot on target, but the Mules’ netminder Dan Carlson parried the shot away.

In the ninth minute, completely against the run of play, Colby’s Asa Berolzheimer found himself racing upfield with several Amherst defenders harrying him.

Berolzheimer sent a pass to his left to the waiting Jeff Rosenberg, who used his first touch to fire the ball past Mammoths goalie Bernie White ’22 and give Colby the early lead.

After the restart, Amherst immediately turned on the pressure in an attempt to quickly find an equalizing goal. Fikayo Ajayi ’19 had a chance saved, German Giammattei ’22 sent a shot wide of the net and center back Felix Wu ’21 had two headers sail just over the crossbar.

However, all these efforts were for naught, as the Mammoths entered halftime scoreless and frustrated, while Colby seemed content with its one-goal lead.

Shockingly, though, it was the Mules who

started the second half stronger, again scoring early. A throw-in from Cam Clouse found its way through a scrum of Mammoths and Mules and landed at the feet of Rosenberg, who cooly slotted the ball past White for his and Colby’s second goal of the game. The Mules’ second goal shook Amherst out of its slumber, and the hosts took five shots in the next few minutes.

In the 57th minute, though, Colby put the final nail in the Mammoths’ coffin, scoring its third goal of the game again against the run of play.

The Mules capitalized on an indirect free kick by Berolzheimer, whose shot deflected off an Amherst defender and nestled into the back of the net with White unable to do anything to stop it.

The Mammoths did manage to pull one goal back when left-back Bryce Johnson ’21 uncorked a volley past the Mules’ goalie to make the scoreline 3-1.

Although the final 30 minutes saw Amherst commit every man forward in the hopes of finding two more goals, Johnson’s ultimately proved to be the hosts’ only tally of the game.

Colby held on for the 3-1 win despite being outshot 27-7 by the Mammoths, and finished off its Cinderella run in the conference tournament on Sunday, when the Mules managed to beat Williams to earn the NESCAC title and its attendant automatic bid for the NCAA tournament.

Even with the loss, however, Amherst’s season will continue. The Mammoths earned an at-large bid to the NCAA Division III tournament, and in the first round, Amherst will host Bridgewater State University on Hitchcock Field this coming Saturday, Nov. 10.

Golden State is back. Sure, the argument could be made the winners of the past two NBA championships never left, but I’m talking about a different iteration of the Warriors — the highly-motivated 2015-16 Warriors who dominated the league to the tune of a 73-9 record.

Spearheaded by the three-point shooting barrages of the Splash Brothers (Steph Curry and Klay Thompson) and an elite defense anchored by point-forward and small-ball center Draymond Green, that season’s Warriors changed the game of basketball.

Golden State’s free-flowing half-court offense was characterized by a chaotic system of misdirection and off-ball movement to free up a legion of deadly snipers.

Curry and Thompson pulled up for threes in transition. Head coach Steve Kerr deployed lineups without a traditional center. The team disproved the old adage that a jump shooting team did not have a shot to win a title.

Curry demonstrated the value of a scorefirst point guard, while Thompson epitomized the modern three-point shooting, defensively-minded wing. Green showcased the importance of the point forward role, and Andre Iguodala became the ultimate role-player — a starting-caliber sixth-man whose veteran leadership helped youngsters develop.

Those Warriors, renowned for their unmatched team chemistry, truly lived by their “strength in numbers” motto. Then, after blowing a 3-1 lead in the 2015-16 NBA Finals, the Warriors added former-NBA MVP Kevin Durant.

In the 2016-17 season, Golden State again earned the top-seed come playoff time, and the team went a remarkable 16-1 in the playoffs, obliterating every opponent.

Still, something was missing. Gone was the energy of the 2015-16 season. In 2017-18, Golden State took yet another step away from that magical 2015-16 season.

The Warriors lazily strolled through the regular season, making little effort to challenge the Houston Rockets for the No. 1 seed. Even in the playoffs, on the brink of elimination, Golden State looked borderline lethargic. If the Rockets hadn’t endured a historically bad shooting drought — Houston missed an NBA-postseason all-time worst 26 consecutive three-point attempts — the Warriors might not have even made it back to the finals.

To make matters worse, veterans Shaun Livingston and David West alluded to behind-the-curtain team chemistry issues. The Warriors had assembled a nearly indomitable juggernaut, yet they struggled to use it to its full capacity.

Key to these struggles was the fact that, Steph Curry was not playing like his 201516 self. His shot attempts were down, and he struggled to find a rhythm while consistently deferring to Durant.

As a result, the Warriors became more defined by Durant’s game, with a heavier focus on isolations and mid-range jumpers.

This change in style peaked in the first games of the 2017-18 Western Conference Finals, when the Warriors took on the Houston Rockets.

Teams had figured out that forcing the Warriors to play through Durant upset their carefully-established flow.

Even in high-scoring efforts, the Durantled Warriors looked thoroughly outclassed.

It’s no coincidence that, as the series against the Rockets wore on, an increased reliance on Curry resulted in better Golden State performances.

It’s easy to forget that in the 51 games Cur-

ry played during the 2017-18 regular season, he statistically resembled a legitimate MVP candidate. With Durant off the court, Curry was even scarier, putting up Wilt Chamberlain-esque scoring totals on unmatched efficiency. Durant’s presence in Golden State combined with injury woes spoiled Curry’s MVP candidacy.

Even when Curry was healthy, the narrative had changed around his status in the league. Golden State was no longer the hardworking, homegrown underdogs, led by a humble superstar.

They were the lazy villains, and that humble superstar had come to be loathed for his perceived arrogance. Curry was looked at as a second-rate superstar. He was no longer dominant, just talented.

Something else changed in the NBA since that 2015-16 season. Other teams started following the Warriors’ model. Small-ball lineups became commonplace, teams launched threes at a historic rate, other score-first point guards excelled, general managers coveted three-and-D wings above all else and veteran presence on the bench became essential. The Warriors didn’t invent all these trends, but their 2015-16 season served as a blueprint for the rest of the league.

Fast forward to today — it’s the 2018-19

“The Warriors have the talent to win the title with Curry playing at the level of a “mere” All-Star starter. It’s when he’s a legitimate MVP candidate that they are dominant.

”

season, and the Warriors are once again tied for the best record in basketball.

Shooting the lights out and on pace to break his single-season three-pointers record, Curry is an early leader for MVP. Golden State’s chemistry is at an all-time high since the arrival of Durant.

The Warriors are the most efficient team in basketball, leading the association in both field goal percentage overall and three-point percentage.

What changed? On the surface, new officiating rules are designed to encourage offball freedom of movement for shooters. This legislation should help Curry more than just about anyone else, yet his free-throw attempts are actually down and, watching Warriors games, it’s clear he’s still being manhandled in off-ball situations.

The Warriors’ entire system is predicated on the floor spacing created by Curry’s miraculous shooting. This year, Curry is playing more aggressively, upping his shot attempts to 20 per game. He’s taking and making obnoxiously difficult shots including some heavily-guarded, long-distance threes. Once again, Curry is a potent weapon for the Warriors and a terrifying threat for all others.

Even role players Alfonzo McKinnie, Jonas Jerebko, Jordan Bell, Damian Jones and Kevon Looney look elite in this iteration of the Warriors. In truth, they’re just benefitting from Curry’s earth-shattering gravity.

The Warriors have the talent to win the title with Curry playing at the level of a “mere” All-Star starter. It’s when he’s a legitimate MVP candidate that they are dominant.

It starts and ends with Steph.

Sports

Photos courtesy of Clarus Studios

Outside hitter Jamie Daley ’21 logged an impressive 17 kills, close to her season high, in the Mammoths’ win over rival Williams in the quarterfinals.

Volleyball Advances to NESCAC Finals But Loses to Bowdoin in Four Sets Dan Papa ’20 Staff Writer This past weekend, the third-seeded Amherst volleyball team came up just short in its quest for the program’s first NESCAC tournament crown in over a decade, falling to top-seeded tournament host Bowdoin, 3-1, in the final.

In the quarterfinals, Amherst needed five sets to defeat archrival Williams before winning against Wesleyan, the No. 2 seed, in the semifinals.

This was the sixth straight year that Amherst has made the NESCAC semifinals, but it was the Mammoths’ first appearance in the title match since 2008.

On Friday, Nov. 2, Amherst opened tournament play against the sixth-seeded Ephs.

It was a tightly-contested match from the very beginning, as the teams traded leads for the majority of the first set, before a late run by Wil-

liams propelled the Ephs to a 25-23 win in the first.

Amherst dominated the second set, though, putting together a 15-5 run to win 25-11 and knot the match at one set apiece.

The third set mirrored the first in its constant back and forth, with late kills by Jamie Dailey ’21 ultimately sealing the 25-22 Amherst win.

Williams would not quit, though, scoring seven of the last 10 points to win the fourth set 25-21.

In the fifth and final set, Amherst battled back from an early deficit to take the deciding frame, 15-12, and seal progress to the tournament semifinals.

In the win, Emily Kolsky ’20 led all players with 24 kills, and Skyleur Savage ’22 finished with 28 digs.

Additionally, the Mammoths received three blocks each from Cam Hendricks ’20 and Claire Dennis ’20.

On Saturday, Amherst took on Wesleyan, whom the Firedogs had lost to earlier in the season, with a trip to the championship on the line.

Amherst struggled early in the first set, trailing 17-11, but fought back to win 25-21.

In the second, Amherst maintained a small lead throughout the entirety of the set and held off a late Cardinal comeback to win, 25-21.

It took just one more set to seal Firedogs place in the finals, as Amherst put together a late comeback of its own to seal the straight-set sweep.

Kolsky led the Firedogs with 16 kills and Duran added a double-double with 40 assists and 15 digs.

Hayes Honea ’19 and Candace Chung ’20 each contributed 14 digs alongside 12 kills from Sophie Launsbach ’22.

On Sunday, Nov. 4, Amherst faced the tournament host, the 26-1 Bowdoin Polar Bears, in the NESCAC championship match.

SAT GAME SCHE DULE

Men’s Soccer vs. Bridgewater State University, 11 a.m.

Women’s Cross Country New England DIII Championships @ Bowdoin, 11 a.m.

Women’s Soccer vs. Lesley University, 11 a.m.

Football vs. Williams, noon

Men’s Cross Country New England DIII Championships @ Bowdoin, 12:30 p.m.

In the first frame, the teams traded points before Bowdoin broke away to win 25-19. In the second, Amherst jumped out to a 10-1 lead and coasted to a 25-16 set win.

The Firedogs used their momentum to take a 2-0 lead in the third, but a strong Polar Bear push led to a 25-13 Bowdoin win.

In the fourth and final set, Amherst quickly fell behind and was never able to recover, losing 25-13.

In the defeat, Kolsky had 15 kills, while Dailey and Dennis each had eight.

Duran finished the match with 35 assists and 21 digs, and Savage added 22 digs of her own.

On Monday, the NCAA announced the postseason tournament seeds and Amherst was expected to get a bid.

The draw, however, was not in the Mammoths’ favour, and Amherst failed to qualify for what would be only their eighth tournament appearance in school history.