Anita Charles
Bates education expert talks about ‘screen time’ with Diane Sawyer for TV special — Sun Journal
A two-hour ABC News special looking at Americans’ relationships with screens included an interview with Lecturer in Education Anita Charles, who has studied the effects of cellphones on classrooms.
The special, ScreenTime, aired May 3.
Anita Charles teaches a course on basic concepts in special education in March 2018. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/Bates College)
Speaking to the Lewiston Sun Journal about the interview, Charles said, “We need to just be mindful and aware. We are trying to figure out things together.”
What’s more important than setting hard limits on screen time is that parents, schools, and communities provide a sense of balance and listen to their kids.
“Professor Charles says we know American kids are very resilient,” Diane Sawyer narrated. “It’s possible they’ll teach us about balancing life in the future.”
- Read the Sun Journal report: “Bates education expert talks about ‘screen time’ with Diane Sawyer for TV special,” May 2, 2019
Matt Bazirgan ’00
Triton alum Matt Bazirgan climbing front office ranks with Houston Texans — The Daily News
Mac Cerullo of The Daily News in Newburyport, Mass., profiled Matt Bazirgan ’00, who as director of player personnel for the Houston Texans ran the team’s scouting ahead of the NFL draft.
In the recent draft, Bazirgan looked not only for talent to improve certain aspects of the Texans’ game, but for people who would fit well among the players already on the team.
“I think it’s always a match for your team,” he told Cerullo. “There’s always intriguing guys on the board that you may have been really excited about watching on tape, but it’s like OK, with our current roster if we draft this guy and put a high-end asset for a second- or third-round pick, but it’s a luxury, how are you helping the locker room? How are you helping the current team?”
- Read the story: “Triton alum Matt Bazirgan climbing front office ranks with Houston Texans,” The Daily News, May 8, 2019
Sarah Rothmann ’19
Balancing act: Andover’s Rothmann finds it at Bates — The Eagle Tribune
Sarah Rothmann ’19 of Andover, Mass., was profiled by The Eagle Tribune, which chronicled the athlete, educator, and journalist’s personal and athletic journey through Bates.
Rothmann, a standout high school runner, arrived at Bates shortly after the death of her father, and as a result considered quitting cross country and track. Over the next several years, however, she learned to focus less on times and more on health, teamwork, and relationships.
On the 2018 Great Day to Be a Bobcat broadcast, Sarah Rothmann ’19 talks to Assistant Sports Information Director Aaron Morse about her work on The Bates Student. (Theophil Syslo/Bates College)
“I realized that I had to be more balanced in my life, that there is more to it than running and I had to take advantage of the opportunities I had at Bates,” she told reporter Dave Dyer.
Rothmann majored in English and became sports editor and then editor-in-chief of The Bates Student. Next year, she’s off to the Czech Republic on a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant grant.
- Read the story: “Balancing act: Andover’s Rothmann finds it at Bates,” Andover Townsman, April 29, 2019
Bates rowing
Bates hosts, wins Presidents Cup Regatta — Sun Journal
Photographer Andree Kehn of the Lewiston Sun Journal documented the President’s Cup, an annual Bates-hosted regatta that saw competition from Bowdoin, Colby, and the University of Maine.
Bates won the regatta handily, with the women’s rowing team winning all six of its races and the men winning four.
- Read the story: “Bates hosts, wins Presidents Cup Regatta,” Sun Journal, April 28, 2019
Chomba Kaluba ’11
Experiencing Difference panel comes to SMCC — News Center Maine, WCSH-TV
The local NBC affiliate’s News Center Maine covered Experiencing Difference, a panel and discussion at Southern Maine Community College created by Chomba Kaluba ’11 that encourages people to talk frankly about their differences.
“When people are different, sometimes people have the discomfort, sometimes people have fear — but I look at the positive aspect of that,” Kaluba said. “How can we look at the positives in each one of us? How can we look at the good in each one of us?”
- Read the story: “Experiencing Difference panel comes to SMCC,” News Center Maine, April 5, 2019
Daniel Hoffman ’85
Daniel Hoffman swaps foreign intelligence for elite-level swimming gig — WashingtonExec
Rachel Kirkland of WashingtonExec reported that Daniel Hoffman ’85, who recently retired after 30 years in the intelligence community, is giving back to a mainstay of his college career and life beyond: swimming.
He’s now a senior adviser for the International Swimming League, comprising swim teams from the United States and several European countries. A swimmer at Bates and a coach for many years afterward, he wants to raise the profile of elite swimming between Olympics.
“There is a supply of elite swimmers who frankly aren’t receiving any of the financial compensation that they should be receiving because there aren’t opportunities to continue swimming during those four years (between Olympics) unless you’re in a college program,” he told Kirkland.
- Read the story: “Daniel Hoffman swaps foreign intelligence for elite-level swimming gig,” WashingtonExec, April 15, 2019
Robin Leventhal ’88
In her Walla Walla pottery studio, chef Robin Leventhal connects food and art — Pacific NW Magazine
Providence Cicero of Pacific NW Magazine profiled Robin Leventhal ’88, an artist and chef who rose to the top of Seattle’s restaurant scene before making her way to Walla Walla, Wash.
Leventhal studied art at Bates but developed an interest in cooking. She opened a respected restaurant on Capitol Hill and even competed on Top Chef, but health and other issues forced her to close the restaurant.
Robin Leventhal ’88 combined her talent for food and art by creating ceramic oyster plates. (Courtesy of Robin Leventhal)
Leventhal found a culinary school job — and, she told Cicero, contentment — in Walla Walla. In addition to cooking, she maintains a ceramics studio, creating, among other, things a line of oyster plates.
Both pottery and cooking, Leventhal said, are “craft-driven. It’s mastering a craft, then elevating it.”
- Read the story: “In her Walla Walla pottery studio, chef Robin Leventhal connects food and art,” Pacific NW Magazine, April 30, 2019
Bill Sweat ’79
Oregon’s ‘Pinot in the City’ comes to Boston — Boston Herald
When “Pinot in the City” comes to Boston, the touring display of pinot noir wines from Oregon’s Willamette Valley will include two produced by Bill Sweat ’79 and his wife, Donna Morris.
Sweat told Boston Herald reporter Jim Campanini that he and Morris were working in financial services in Boston when their adventures in the city’s burgeoning restaurant scene inspired them to open a winery in Oregon. The pinot makers travel together to introduce laypeople to Oregon wine.
“The collegiality and collaboration of winery owners is incredible,” Sweat said. “We realize that if a Willamette Valley wine achieves success, we can all benefit from it.”
- Read the story: “Oregon’s ‘Pinot in the City’ comes to Boston,” Boston Herald, April 24, 2019
Kate Allen ’99
In ‘The Line Tender,’ great white sharks make great reading for the younger set — Pioneer Press
Mary Ann Grossman of the Twin Cities Pioneer Press interviewed Kate Allen ’99 about her debut young adult novel, The Line Tender.
Inspired by the sight of a great white shark Allen saw as a teenager, The Line Tender tells the story of a young girl who, in the midst of grief, must become a metaphorical “line tender,” holding the line that guides her loved ones through murky waters.
Allen told Grossman she hopes the book will help young people understand that “difficult things are going to happen in life. Hard, hard times are inevitable.
“The power of the story is that we can adjust, adapt, find a way to move forward.”
- Read the story: “In ‘The Line Tender,’ great white sharks make great reading for the younger set,” Pioneer Press, April 28, 2019
Ru Freeman ’94
As Sri Lanka Goes So Goes the World — Literary Hub
In the wake of the devastating Easter Sunday bombings across Sri Lanka, writer and journalist Ru Freeman ’94 and her daughters, Duranya and Hasadri, wrote about their reactions to the terrorist attacks and their Sri Lankan heritage for Literary Hub.
Ru Freeman argued that the violence was not a local problem, but a global one. The world’s response, she said, must be one of solidarity — using as a model the Sri Lankans of all religions who supported each other after the attacks.
“As we consider these attacks, we must dwell on the potential for darkness among us,” Freeman wrote. “It is not something that can be addressed piecemeal, by governments but collectively, as global citizens.”
- Read the story: “As Sri Lanka goes so goes the world,” Literary Hub, April 28, 2019
Arin Arbus ’99
Arin Arbus makes Broadway debut directing revival of ‘Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune’ — WAMC
Director Arin Arbus ’99 spoke with Sarah LaDuke of Albany, N.Y., public radio station WAMC about the first play she’s directing on Broadway, a revival of Terrence McNally’s Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune.
Arin Arbus ’99 poses in Times Square during a 2010 Bates photo shoot. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/Bates College)
Arbus is a longtime off-Broadway director who has worked on the Campfire Project, which staged a theater production at a refugee camp in Greece.
She is currently a resident artist at the nonprofit company Theater for New Audience, which produces Shakespeare and other classic plays. That’s how she met playwright McNally, who asked her to direct the two-character Frankie and Johnny.
Arbus sees many parallels between Frankie and Johnny and Shakespeare’s characters. “The territory is existential,” she told LaDuke. “There are these two middle-aged, world-weary, isolated souls who, in Frankie’s case, no longer believes that her dreams are possible, that she is [never] going to have a serious relationship with a man, who’s at a loss for what has meaning in her life.”
Read the story: “Arin Arbus makes Broadway debut directing revival of ‘Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune,’” WAMC, May 1, 2019
