First-generation student mentors help peers navigate academics, social life at Bates

Alexandra DeMarco

Stories by Alexandra DeMarco

First-generation student mentors help peers navigate academics, social life at Bates

Thursday, March 5, 2026 2:29 pm

In the Student Center for Belonging and Community, first-generation Bates students mentor their younger peers, providing guidance on everything from academics to internships to social life.

Over the woodlands brown and bare, over the harvest-fields forsaken, silent, and soft, and slow descends the snow. — Longfellow Back on campus after the February freak storm, Bates feels suspended between motion and stillness; cars crunch in half-melted tracks, boots drip by radiators, flights and plans still catching up somewhere in the clouds. Some of us are here, some are delayed, and the quiet holds space for both. It’s a strange return; rushed arrivals, late-night drives, weather maps open on our phones, yet the air itself feels calm, like the world pressed pause just long enough for us to notice it. The paradox is real; chaos in the forecast, steadiness on the quad. Snow does that. It softens edges, lowers voices, makes even a campus full of movement feel like it’s breathing slowly.

February at Bates

Thursday, March 5, 2026 8:25 am

February on campus saw sports successes, several large snowfalls, and our annual Winter Carnival — a week of events celebrating the joys of the chilly season.

Bates professor, students study ancient climate with Arctic sediment cores

Thursday, February 26, 2026 2:03 pm

Bates students are getting a firsthand look at 7,000 years of ancient climate history with a group of lake sediment cores extracted from northern Greenland.

Bates named a Fulbright Student top producer for 15th straight year

Tuesday, February 3, 2026 8:23 am

For the 15th consecutive year, Bates has been recognized as a Top Producer of Fulbright U.S. Student awards.

On a purposeful path: Meredith Sallee ’07 dives deep into her Bates dance foundation, under the sea

Friday, January 23, 2026 8:28 am

Meredith Sallee ’07 is directing her decades of dance experience toward a new medium of underwater dancing, which combines freediving with dancing.

Martin Luther King Jr. Day 2026 schedule

Friday, December 19, 2025 12:43 pm

View the schedule for this year's observance of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day, centered on Sunday and Monday, Jan. 18–19.

Two first-year seminar classes join together for a dynamic, interdisciplinary final class session During the last week of courses for the fall semester, two instructors, two classes, and one rabbit gathered together for an interdisciplinary, interactive first-year seminar class session. It was easy to tell who was from which course. Students from “Beyond the Rainbow: Exploring the Language (and the Science, Art, and Culture) of Color” had all walked in sporting colorful hats. Joining them in a classroom in Dana Hall were students from “Sex in the Brain: The Neuroscience of Sex, Gender, and Hormones.” While it is typical for students to grow close in these small — 16 students maximum — seminars, this merging of the courses for a class session was a new idea, meant to create new connections between both the subjects and students as the semester came to a close. Lindsey Hamilton ’05, director of the Center for Inclusive Teaching and Learning, and Wells Castonguay, the center’s assistant director, devised the plan. Castonguay was teaching “Beyond the Rainbow” and Hamilton “Sex in the Brain.” Throughout the semester, each professor had heard students’ ongoing curiosity about the other’s course and saw an opportunity for the students to learn from each other.

Two instructors, 30 first-year students, and a bunny walk into a classroom: Interdisciplinary learning abounds

Thursday, December 18, 2025 8:14 am

During the last week of classes for the fall semester, two first-year seminars gathered together for an interactive joint class session.

Scenes around campus at dawn on Nov. 5, 2025. Pettengill Hall

Picture Story: November 2025 at Bates

Thursday, December 11, 2025 3:49 pm

November at Bates saw a field hockey championship, orchestra and dance performances, seminar-style learning, and more.

The Annual Harvest Dinner held in Commons, followed by horse rides around campus, a dessert part and the Annual Trashion Show in the Gray Athletic Building. Where friends, fashion, fun, and sustainability all collide. Welcome to the Bates Trashion Show 2025, held in the Gray Athletic Building on Wednesday, Nov. 19. All participants were winners! Singled out for recognition were, in first place, seniors Annie Robinson and Grace Thomas (the model), who designed the dress together; Professor of French and Francophone studies Kirk Read in second place; and in third place, a team of students in Read’s first-year seminar “Family Stories.”

Sew sustainable: Student, faculty designers stun at annual Trashion Show

Thursday, December 4, 2025 8:44 am

At the 20th annual Trashion Show, students and faculty modeled 16 elaborate runway designs crafted from trash to draw awareness to waste around campus.

Picture Story: October 2025 at Bates

Thursday, November 13, 2025 3:25 pm

With images of Back to Bates, stunning foliage, fall athletics, Halloween, and more, we bring you October 2025 at Bates.