Outside-the-box Batesies: Meet five DIY students who created their own majors

Stories about "Academic Life"

Outside-the-box Batesies: Meet five DIY students who created their own majors

Thursday, June 26, 2025 11:21 am

Designing new paths through the Bates curriculum, these seniors crafted interdisciplinary majors that speak to their passions and futures.

For four weeks during this year’s Short Term, 31 Bates students — biology, economics, and philosophy majors alike — caught a glimpse of careers in business while taking the Tuck Business Essentials course, offered for the first time this year in collaboration with Dartmouth’s Amos Tuck School of Business Administration. Whatever their prior knowledge of business, the students showed up with critical thinking skills and eagerness to learn in-hand — hallmarks of a Bates education — says Peter Friedman ’92, who earned an MBA from Tuck in 2003 and served as practitioner-in-residence for Tuck Business Essentials. “Students were very engaged and interested in the topic, which was great,” Friedman says. “They were strong and very capable.” In these photographs, students in the Tuck Short Term prepare for and make their final course presentations, first getting ready in the Purposeful Work area of Chase Hall, and then on a Zoom call in Chase Hall Lounge.

Short Term’s crash course in business yielded big profits for Bates students

Thursday, June 26, 2025 10:03 am

This spring, Short Term offered a crash course in business with visiting faculty from Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business.

12 tips to shape your surroundings, and your life, from Bates Commencement speaker Angela Duckworth

Friday, May 30, 2025 3:18 pm

Watch Duckworth's Commencement address and check out these 12 tips for taking control of your phone — and your life.

Picture Story: Baccalaureate 2025, to love is to heal

Friday, May 30, 2025 10:44 am

For the 504 members of the Bates Class of 2025, Baccalaureate on May 24 was a time to show the love.

Eight Bates graduates offered Fulbright Student awards for 2025–26

Friday, May 30, 2025 10:16 am

Seven young Bates College alumni, including five newly minted graduates, have been offered Fulbright Student awards for 2025–26. Bates has been honored as a Fulbright Top Producer 14 straight years.

You can shape your situation before it shapes you, Bates grads told at 159th Commencement

Sunday, May 25, 2025 2:18 pm

Bates Commencement speaker Angela Duckworth, author of "Grit," told the seniors to embrace “situation modification” — change your physical environment, especially your phone's proximity, to protect your focus, relationships, and well-being.

Slideshow: What these Bates seniors will miss — and what they want the Class of ’29 to hear

Friday, May 23, 2025 12:15 pm

Featuring portraits by Phyllis Graber Jensen, these Bates seniors Thirteen seniors share what they’ll miss most and offer advice to the Class of 2029.

Double gold: Two Bates STEM standouts earn prestigious Goldwater Scholarships

Thursday, May 22, 2025 3:07 pm

Bates juniors Aleisha Martinez Sandoval and Mohammed Mohammed, who are both Bates STEM Scholars with a lifelong passion for science, have earned prestigious Goldwater Scholarships.

With 2025 Davis Projects for Peace funding, Axelle Tougouma ’27 aims to support refugees from Burkina Faso

Thursday, May 15, 2025 8:44 am

With her $10,000 grant, Tougouma will pursue a solar-powered irrigation system for Burkinabé women refugees in Ivory Coast, aiming to combat food insecurity and foster economic independence.

Carrie Cushman to join Bates as director of the Bates College Museum of Art

Thursday, May 15, 2025 8:00 am

Cushman comes to Bates from the University of Hartford, where she is the Edith Dale Monson Gallery Director and Curator at the Hartford Art School.