Lisa Beneman

Lisa Beneman ’13. Photos by Devika Doowa.

“After graduation, I am immediately heading out on the U.S.-Mexico border trip with [Associate Professor of Politics] Aaron Bobrow-Strain and 10 other awesome Whitman students. It is an amazing program that I am excited to be a part of and learn from. After the trip I am moving to Siena, Italy for the summer to work at Tenuta di Spannocchia, a diversified organic farm in rural Tuscany. I will be working in the vegetable gardens, in the olive orchard and with farm animals as a first step towards my dream of one day having my own farm. The farm is part of a larger 1,100-acre estate run by the Spannocchia Foundation. Present-day life at Spannocchia attempts to show in a very fundamental way how the past of this historic rural agricultural community can be preserved and its traditions maintained in a manner that affords a viable existence within the modern world … After the summer I plan to travel for a little while overseas and then return home to Maine to figure out the next adventure.”

Erin Kiskaddon ’13

“In the future, I have hopes to go to graduate school in marine biology, and I don’t know yet if I want to be a researcher or a teacher or some combination of the two. But what I really hope to do is to save the oceans one way or another. I think that there is [worth] in teaching people about the oceans and protecting it with research . . .  [Next year] I am helping a writer do research for his book on the ecology and behavior of marine mammals. He wanted a student with a strong scientific basis and a liberal arts perspective to help him sort out the North American species. The book is sort of a behind-the-scenes guide to what these critters do beyond just existing and looking the way they do. I will be building a bank of scientific references and composing the details for each chapter, then he will go in and do all the nice writing . . . I will also be volunteering at the America’s Cup Sailing Competition in San Francisco and finding work at a marine lab to get experience before grad school.”

Julia Bowman

Julia Bowman ’12

“I did my thesis on Lincoln High School, and through that process it was interesting to see how they perceive Whitman students and to see how the whole community supports the high school. And it’s been compelling seeing the connections there … I probably want to ultimately work with at-risk youth. Next year I will be the manager of an ice cream shop in Malibu, Calif . . . I have been working at Malibu Yogurt during breaks for the past four years. It is an old school surf friendly ice cream shop where you can sit in the courtyard and smell the beach air. When I was offered the position of store manager in charge of the shop and its 15 employees, I thought it would be a good experience while I work on my yoga teaching certificate and decide on graduate school plans.”

Illustration by Eduardo Vazquez

As students are wrapping up the end of the year, some things are winding down, but for the annual David Nord Award recipients, things are starting to really pick up.

Junior Maikor Pereira Azuaje and senior Diana Boesch were selected to receive this award for work with faculty advisers on projects addressing critical issues currently facing the queer community.

The award was established in honor of alumnus David Nord ’83, who created its endowment three years before he died in 1999.

For her project, Boesch has been conducting thesis research about queer law.

“I knew I was going to write my thesis of something related to LGBTQ studies because it’s been my passion for the past couple of years to write my thesis on queer politics. I was very lucky and got the David Nord Award, and what my thesis is about is the Lawrence v. Texas case [in] 2003 which decriminalized sodomy.”

This important case at the time effectively criminalized gay and lesbian people’s identity.

“Their identity was really wrapped up in their sexuality; society tended to perceive them as criminals themselves, not just the act as criminal. As a result, they were denied other societal benefits such as child custody [and] marital rights,” said Boesch.

She focused on the effects of the work of Lambda Legal, the nation’s oldest and largest legal organization working for the civil rights of lesbians, gay men and individuals with HIV/AIDS. She wanted to look at the development of a gay legal identity.

Boesch’s advisor, Assistant Professor of Politics Melisa Casumbal, has been working closely with Boesch on her thesis.

“I am so proud of her,” said Casumbal. “My hope is that she is able to continue doing whatever work she wants to do, whether in law or in anything else.”

Boesch presented her research in a lecture on Monday, April 29 at 5 p.m. in Kimball Theatre.

Pereira Azuaje has been working on a more creative approach to understanding queer issues.

For his project, he choreographed an original dance performance called “I Love You, Man: Friendship and Brotherhood Across Sexual Orientations.” His production will be performed on Saturday, May 4 at 2 p.m. in Cordiner Hall.

“My way of approaching my topic was through dance, because I think through movement you can express more, and the topic is friendship and brotherhood across sexual orientations,” said Pereira Azujae.

Personal experiences led him to this project idea.

“I was afraid to come out to my all-male section. But there was this one guy who was very affectionate and when we were going to room together the following year, I came out to him. I was very nervous, but he was very accepting and he didn’t change the way that he related to me,” said Pereira Azuaje.

Pereira Azuaje will be focusing on how gay and straight men interact and how gay men often act more “straight” to be accepted.

Visiting Dance Instructor Peter de Grasse has been very impressed with Pereira Azuaje’s choreography.

“Most of my work with Maikor in the studio actually happened first semester. He was in the dance production class; my experience of him is that he is gifted as a choreographer and the way that he works [is] interesting for someone of his experience, because he is working semantically and with his imagination,” he said.

He describes Pereira Azuaje’s methods as slightly unconventional.

“One of the things that he told me that he is working on right now is that he is working from his dreams, dreaming of movement and then taking notes or trying to remember his dreams … that is a really unusual way of working and it is so imaginative that I think it has given him some work that wouldn’t be achieved in an orthodox manner,” said de Grasse.

Sophomore Evan Griffis, one of this year’s two LGBTQ interns, helped to organize the selection process and is pleased with its results.

“Every year, it’s really cool seeing who is going to win. The hardest part is that there are always so many good applicants with great ideas, but I’m really excited about this year’s winners,” he said.

Illustration by Marlee Raible

You might see a few more bikes next time you walk downtown. 

In honor of Earth Week, community organization Sustainable Walla Walla is gearing up for its fourth annual Green Travel Competition for local businesses, agencies, schools, churches and organizations. Participating organizations will be eligible for awards for the best green travel programs  in a variety of categories, including riding a bike or walking. The grand-prize-winning organization will have its name engraved on a traveling trophy.

Green Travel programs encourage people to look for low-energy ways to get to and from work, school, worship, meetings and other errands in order to help make communities more sustainable.

Barbara Clark, a member of Sustainable Walla Walla, has high hopes for this competition.

“Our hope is that a contest may provide the motivation for people to try out an alternative to an SUV for moving around town for a week.  Ideally, some of them will continue to walk, bike, bus or carpool even after the competition’s over,” said Clark.

According to Daniel Clark, secretary-treasurer of Sustainable Walla Walla who has been working with Barbara Clark in developing this program, Sustainable Walla Walla began developing the idea for the competition in 2007. The first Green Travel Competition was in 2010. For the past two years, the Walla Walla Joint Community Development Agency has won first place.

Organizations that want to participate in the competition must submit a report describing their green travel practices to Sustainable Walla Walla at sustainableww@charter.net by Friday, May 3.

In the past, Whitman has participated directly in the competition, but this year the Student Sustainability Committee has decided to focus on a different approach to encourage green travel methods on campus. 

Senior Natalie Jamerson, sustainability coordinator, hopes to encourage better record keeping of green travel practices on campus in order to establish a baseline for future student sustainability committees. In the future, Whitman could use this data to enter the competition. 

“In the past, participation was limited and not that much has happened. We tried to organize a department competition but now we are taking a different approach to do better. We will be surveying [to] determine a baseline for green travel and that way in the future we can determine a rate of change and have better record keeping,” she said.

Illustration by Kelsey Lund

On April 27, Kimball Theatre will host the first inaugural TEDxWhitmanCollege event, featuring student and faculty speakers. Though tickets for the event in Kimball sold out shortly after sales opened, tickets are still available for a concurrent livestream of the talks in Olin Hall.

TEDxWhitmanCollege is an independently organized, community-based event modeled on the internationally known TED format. Seven speakers from the Whitman and Walla Walla communities will deliver 15-minute talks that creatively interpret the theme “Walla Walla and Beyond.”

Juli Dunn, director of the Whitman Academic Resource Center and one of the organizers of the event, believes that TEDxWhitmanCollege talks will create a partnership with the wider Walla Walla community and share what the students and faculty of Whitman are working on.

“I think the TEDxWhitmanCollege talks are really an opportunity to celebrate ideas and innovation. I work with students in lots of different capacities, and I know they are always up to interesting and creative things. This is the perfect forum in which to showcase those ideas and things,” said Dunn in an email.

Themes of the talks vary from environmental to health concerns and everything in between, combining the use of video and live speakers to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group.

Sophomore Theodore Ciszewski will be giving a talk about aquaponics, a topic based around his work to promote sustainability in Whitman’s food sources. He said he has spent a lot of time preparing for the event.

“Preparation has involved a lot of reflection on our own process here at Whitman and how it more broadly applies. It’s involved really incorporating the beyond Whitman theme, and made us reflect on our motivations on the physical concept. It involved a lot of writing and a lot of memorization. Right now it feels just like something I would say, in crafting this … the language can’t sound too forced,” said Ciszewski.

Ciszewski said he was excited to share his work with the community in the accessible format of a TED talk.

“[I hope to] share the excitement of this idea to Whitman … and make it more relatable,” he said.

Senior Jordan Benjamin is also giving a TED talk about a topic he’s been interested in for years, and has already conducted extensive research on.

“I’ll be talking about the issue of snakebites in Africa: what the challenge is, why it should matter to people and how we can begin to unravel such a complex mess, based on my experiences working as a snakebite medicine specialist on the continent for eight months,” said Benjamin. “I’ve been working with snakes since I was a kid, studying snakebite medicine for the past couple of years and practicing it in the field for the past year. Hopefully people will enjoy it and come away with something.”

The event will be hosted by Northwest Public Radio’s Sueann Ramella.

In the end, Dunn said she hoped these talks will become a link between the outside world and the Whitman College experience.

“One of my big goals for TEDxWhitmanCollege this year is to share that innovation and creativity beyond the Whitman bubble. This is an amazing community and this is an area [where] we can continue to build strong ties,” said Dunn.

Illustration by Eduardo Vazquez

For the past few weeks, several “Big Idea Talks” posters have been covering the campus grounds, advertising a first-time collaboration between the Walla Walla Public Library and Whitman faculty to give a series of locally-themed lectures open to the public. The talks, given by faculty members such as Senior Lecturer of Environmental Humanities/General Studies Don Snow and Grace Farnsworth Phillips Professor of Geology and Environmental Studies Bob Carson, focus on the theme of what needs to be done in the future to keep Walla Walla a wonderful place to live.

Put together in collaboration between Assistant Professor of Philosophy Julia Ireland and Walla Walla Public Library Director Beth Hudson, these talks are funded by a grant from the Washington Humanities Council, based in Olympia.

Although Walla Walla is unique for a town of its size in that it has three colleges, Ireland noted that there are few places for the public as a whole to comfortably get information.

“Sometimes, it’s really difficult to get certain constituencies to walk on campus because campus is intimidating, and so the thought was to bring these professors who are in some way engaged in the community [to] the Walla Walla Public Library, a place where people who are under-resourced are comfortable going,” said Ireland.

Hudson has been working with Ireland to make some of the educational resources on the Whitman campus more available to the public.

“I wanted to promote and expand the role of the public library in our community as the place to develop, discover, refine and question ideas. The library is a natural gathering place with its resources, central location and its openness to new ideas. Big Idea Talks uncover questions and possibly answers through discussions led by experts in the fields of art, sociology, literature, philosophy and the natural sciences,” said Hudson.

Because these talks are for the community, Whitman professors have been asked to think locally when giving their presentations.

Professor Don Snow gave the first talk of the Big Idea series on March 28. Although it was never specified by the organizers what his “Big Idea Talk” should entail, the focus was always intended to be on Walla Walla.

“[The Big Idea Talks were designed to show what] Whitman scholars and thinkers and artists think about the community; what do we think are some big ideas that Walla Walla maybe need[s] to think about to maintain a high quality of life,” he said.

In his speech two weeks ago, Snow talked about the resources that Walla Walla has to offer and the natural “commons” that the citizens share, such as land and water.

Professor Bob Carson is excited about his upcoming talk on Thursday, April 11, themed around sustainability in Walla Walla.

In his talk, Carson will focus specifically on how to minimize the potential environmental damage from everyday activities.

For example, “leaf blowers… put out more pollutants…than the average car.” said Carson. While he acknowledges in his talk that eliminating these items completely is not feasible, he emphasizes that reducing their use is a goal for the community.

Hudson believes that these Big Idea Talks could be a huge asset to the community.

“Whitman has the experts and they live among us, so it seemed natural to ask them to join us in the development of this program. My hope is that through these discussions, awareness builds and perhaps the ideas we discuss will serve as solutions for some of the challenges in the community we love,” she said.

Even as acceptance letters are going out for incoming students, the Office of Admission is undergoing a major transition in leadership. Claremont McKenna College alumnus Adam Miller was recently selected as the new director of admission to replace former director Kevin Dyerly after a nationwide search.

“Adam brings with him good experiences in international recruitment, athletic recruitment and student life; these are experiences that we think can help our office in those areas of admission and in connecting with others on campus,” said Tony Cabasco, dean of admission and financial aid at Whitman College.

Miller graduated from Claremont McKenna College in 2003 and then joined the Office of Student Life at the University of Redlands. While working toward an M.A. in higher education, he and his wife decided to move closer to Los Angeles. He was later hired by Claremont McKenna and became associate dean of admissions in 2010.

In between his educational careers, Miller was a professional baseball player after he graduated from Claremont McKenna.

“I pitched for Claremont McKenna’s baseball team throughout college, mostly as a relief pitcher my first two years and then as a starting pitcher my junior and senior years. Some of my fondest memories from college are from playing baseball and my teammates are among my closest friends to this day,” said Miller in an email.

When a former coach asked Miller if he wanted to play for Saint-Lô Jimmer’s in France, Miller “jumped at the chance.”

“When I was a kid I always wanted to be a professional baseball player … how many people actually get to live out their childhood dreams?” he said.

With his balanced background in athletics and academics, Miller is excited to work for Whitman.

“My initial positive impressions of Whitman were confirmed when I came to campus for my interview in January. Whitman is an ideal place in so many ways. The campus is beautiful. The students are dynamic and interesting. The staff and faculty are dedicated to creating a supportive, yet challenging environment that will help students reach their potential,” said Miller.

As with any move, changes are inevitable. As Miller is moving from one liberal arts college to another, he believes the changes shouldn’t be too extreme.

“I still have a lot to learn about Whitman … But in terms of size, academic excellence, liberal arts focus, commitment to undergraduates, quality of teaching and a host of other important factors, I think Whitman and CMC are more similar than different,” said Miller.

For admissions office interns such as senior Nikolas Hagen, a new director is expected to bring some changes, though not in the daily routine of most interns.

“[A normal workday] in the office as a senior admission intern [involves] doing interviews, planning visit days and reading applications,” said Hagen. Although as a senior he will not deal with the new hire directly, Hagen noted that some interns will be affected by this new development.

“I loved my time at Claremont McKenna, but Whitman offers an amazing combination and I am really excited for this move,” said Miller.

Whitman’s first annual Power and Privilege Symposium will consist of two days of workshops, discussion and presentations to focus on its theme, “Why Race Matters.” To augment the experience, Nobel Laureate Rigoberta Menchú will be giving the keynote address.

As a campus continuously promoting its commitment to diversity, there has been a lot of student effort to promote discussion of race. Many students, however, still believe that there isn’t enough of a campus-wide commitment to racial awareness and discussion. Organizers of  the upcoming race symposium hope to encourage Whitman to see that race is still an important topic in the community.

The symposium will take place on March 27 and 28.

Senior Haverty Brown, the chair of the content committee for the symposium, is in charge of organizing approximately eight upcoming workshops dedicated to race.

Brown said the workshops will be focused on race in the Whitman context and more specifically on the role of race in social life, such as interracial dating. In addition, there will be a section discussing how different perspectives on beauty are interpreted in the professional and social world. The talks will be led by both students and faculty, and discussions will be held to provide a wide range of ideas and opinions.

“Then also, we want to talk about the Whitman bubble, and what race means outside of that,” said Brown. The symposium will address problems involving race in the workplace and also problems involving race in the Washington State Penitentiary, which is a topic close to the Walla Walla community.

Senior Marcial Díaz Mejía has also been working diligently to make the symposium a success.

“The symposium as a whole is talking about the issue of race and ethnicity from a more personal perspective. There are a lot of great classes at Whitman [about this] … but this will be more peer-based,” said Díaz Mejía.

Trying to create a symposium that reflects the racial issues on campus and outside the Whitman community, however, requires a unique approach.

“Whitman is not reflective of what the population of Walla Walla is. We have different demographics than the people in the town … the Latino population in Walla Walla is greater than in the Whitman student body. We are just trying to get people to talk about race and ethnicity in a way that they don’t do on a day-to-day basis. For many people on the panels, it’s about sharing their experiences and points of view. It’s a way to educate people … by sharing experiences,” said Diaz Mejia.

First year Ravneet Waraich, a member of the Black Student Union, believes that race is a matter that people need to be educated about.

“Race is honestly just a way of identifying people physically and culturally. It shouldn’t hold much meaning … sometimes it makes walls between people. But sometimes, it is a way to better your understanding of other people and where they come from and who they are,” said Waraich.

Brown noted that the symposium is intended to promote involvement from as many people in the community as possible, particularly students.

“People don’t realize that race is still a big deal,” said Brown. “We really want this to be something that is important and that people feel that they want to be engaged in. We go about our daily lives not thinking about race … so we’ve been thinking about how to get people engaged.”

Díaz Mejía added that he hopes the symposium promotes understanding of how race plays different roles in people’s lives.

“I want people to understand the complexity of race—that race is not universal,” said Díaz Mejía.

For example, growing up in Guatemala, Díaz Mejía never felt like a minority. It was only when he began to go to college in the United States that he was labeled as such. Therefore, as he and Brown stressed, the symposium will not just be focused on individuals who are labeled a “minority” in the United States.

“We want to create a symposium that includes everyone … not just racial minorities,” said Brown.

Last Wednesday evening a group of about a dozen individuals gathered on the top floor of the GAC to share a loaf of banana bread and discuss the afterlife. The discussion was the first meeting of a new club founded by first-year Leda Zakarison called Better Together, meant to encourage more on-campus dialogue between members of different religions.

Ashley Ehlers ’13 and Rachel Quednau ’13 laugh at a joke during the Better Together discussion on the afterlife. Photos by Susie Krikava.

After introducing themselves and the religion that they associate themselves with, the students proceeded to have a discussion on death. Although a darker topic, the discussion was enlightening for many as students confessed what they believed happened after death, which parts scared them and what they were unsure of.

Zakarison said she noticed a need in the Whitman community last semester that was going unfulfilled: a student group that encourages openness between religions.

“I have been interested in interfaith work for a couple of years now, and I came to Whitman hoping that there would be some kind of interfaith group, and there wasn’t,” said Zakarison.

Leda Zakarison ’16 was inspired to bring Better Together to Whitman.

When Zakarison approached Stuart Coordinator of Religious and Spiritual Life Adam Kirtley and asked him to be the adviser for the new group, he understood the need that she was trying to fill. Kirtley said he believes that since college is a time where students are attempting to cultivate themselves, spiritual matters become crucial.

“The college years provide students with the unique opportunity to engage, rather easily and intentionally, with those who are different from them—with those whose core identity is different,” said Kirtley.

Better Together is a national student campaign for interfaith action, mobilizing college students to voice their values, engage with others and act together to make the world a better place for everyone.

“Whitman is really devoted to diversity, which I love, but I believe that there is not enough emphasis on religious diversity,” said Zakarison. “It’s kind of a taboo topic.”

According to Kirtley, creating an open community to talk about different religions is a means to accomplish this goal, not only in terms of awareness about the different kinds of beliefs out there, but also what those different beliefs have in common.

“When we do this, we not only learn more about the other, but also about ourselves. This process of self-discovery fosters growth and development.  So, call me a pluralism geek, but yesterday’s conversation about the afterlife that brought in Buddhist, atheist, Christian and Unitarian Universalist voices is exciting to me,” said Kirtley.

Participants in the afterlife discussion came from a wide variety of religious backgrounds. From left: Joel Ponce ’16, Ziyi ‘Vicky’ Su ’16, Ashley Ehlers ’13, Rachel Quednau ’13, Coordinator of Religious and Spiritual Life Adam Kirtley and Emily Jones ’16

The rift between religions, however, is not only evident at Whitman, but also in other places.

Alex Hulse ’16 joked about why he even does work when he believes there is nothing after death. Hulse was the only atheist at the meeting.

“We also, of course, live in a world in which religious strife is often blamed (rightly or wrongly) for any number of terrible conflicts. The thing is, religion isn’t going away. I fundamentally believe that promoting religious understanding among people of diverse faith traditions is an essential step in making the world a better place,” said Kirtley.

Supporting Better Together in their goal is a national organization called Interfaith Youth Core (IFYC). The IFYC is an organization dedicated to promoting college environments that explore a variety of religions and discuss interesting topics, for example the existence of an afterlife, within multiple religions.

Although the club is still in the process of figuring out its niche, Kirtley said he hopes a student-led organization will offer new ways to approach religion on campus.

“Essentially, Better Together is so new that we are still in the process of identifying the terms of our collaboration [between Zakarison and me]. I also know that any initiative brought about by students has the greatest likelihood for success. My job is to get out of the way and offer support where I can,” he said.

Senior Ashley Ehlers, who originally attended Better Together’s event to support Zakarison, said the club seems promising.

“I might come back [to the next meeting] … It was interesting and everyone seems really nice,” she said, adding that she has noted the lack of religious diversity on campus as a small group leader for the Whitman Christian Fellowship for the past year.

Joel Ponce ’16, Ziyi ‘Vicky’ Su ’16 and Ashley Ehlers ’13 listen during the afterlife discussion.

In addition to holding discussions about religion on campus, Zakarison hopes that Better Together can get involved in some community service in the future. According to Zakarison, her goals include completing one community service project a month with the club.

Better Together is hosting a yoga and spirituality workshop with Terri Cotts on Friday, Feb. 15.