Stories about "Maine/world"
David Omasombo ’26 & Chiwer Mayen ’26: Standing Tall for Lewiston

Tuesday, June 30, 2026 10:44 am

David Omasombo ’26 and Chiwer Mayen ’26 have shared many basketball courts across their young lifetimes, including historic Alumni Gym, but the first one stands out in their memories for being the worst, in a technical sense. The surface was uneven, the rims inconsistent, and, most of the time, there were no nets.

After decades of partnership, Bates supports new Maine MILL building with naming gift

Thursday, June 18, 2026 1:29 am

In recognition of the two institutions’ decades-long educational partnership, Bates is making a $75,000 gift to the Maine Museum of Innovation, Labor, and Learning’s new building.

On a chilly night in December, students from Associate Professor of Theater Courtney Smith’s Introduction to Digital Media course presented their final project on Lisbon Street, the heart of Lewiston's historic downtown, and the subject of this interdiscliplinary course (cross listed between theater and digital and computational studies). For their work in this community engaged learning experience, they explored resources that included the Muskie Archives on campus and the Androscoggin Historical Society, to create a multimedia portrait of Lisbon Street, dating back to the days of electric trolley cars. In attendance at the big reveal included Professor Emeritus Doug Hodgkin, Lewiston Mayor Carl Sheline, and Darby Ray, who collaborated with Smith. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/Bates College)
National recognition for Bates’ ‘exemplary’ success in community engagement as well as its return on investment for graduates

Friday, January 23, 2026 3:07 pm

Bates has once again been recognized by the American Council on Education and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching for its deep level of commitment to community engagement, an honor the college first achieved in 2008 and again in 2015. Recently Bates was also lauded  by ACE and Carnegie for its success in providing paths for graduates to earn competitive wages.

Radiohead Trending: Bates students jam in Olin with professional tribute band Fitter Happier

Thursday, October 30, 2025 3:56 pm

Her electric violin at the ready on her right shoulder, Mavy Ho-Le ’26 started to slowly tap her foot on the stage at Olin Arts Center. It was Saturday Oct. 25 and the first strains of Radiohead’s 2016 song “Daydreaming,” were beginning to emerge from Fitter Happier, a Radiohead tribute band based in Portland.

Drone photography operated and captured by Theophil Syslo on October 10, 2024. (Theophil Syslo | Bates College)
In the News: Oct. 10, 2025

Friday, October 10, 2025 10:44 am

For Mother Jones, in a Sept. 24 article headlined “How America’s Elite Colleges Breed High-Status Careers—and Misery,” journalist Evan Mandery named Bates as an outlier — for its emphasis on meaning and purpose.

President Garry W. Jenkins wins Maine Black Excellence Compass Career Award

Tuesday, August 5, 2025 4:56 pm

President Garry W. Jenkins has received the 2025 Maine Black Excellence Compass Career Award from The Third Place Maine, a network that connects Maine’s Black professionals, students, and entrepreneurs to opportunities across multiple areas, from social to professional. 

At Bates, a ginkgo seedling carries survival from 1945 Hiroshima to today

Wednesday, June 25, 2025 3:55 pm

The child of a tree that survived the 1945 atomic bombing of Hiroshima, a ginkgo tree seedling growing at Bates brings a message of survival to campus.

Draft for social media post: Social post for Carmona family/to run Thursday Art: combo of Phyllis fresh art from last Thursday and vintage (2018) images of young Jose at the Commencement of his siblings Christopher and Alanis Carmona. Most Thursdays, Jose Carmona ’25 of Chicago walks a few blocks from campus to visit Carmen Thibodeau at her home. They don’t share blood, but she’s been his Lewiston grandmother the whole time he’s been at Bates. “Some of my friends know that she’s not my actual grandma,” Carmona says, but others assume it. “They’ll be like, ‘Oh, you’re going to Granny’s house today?” Even before Jose came to Bates, Carmen Thibodeau — along with her late husband Richard, who died in 2022 — has represented family to three of his siblings before him, Christopher Carmona ’18, Alanis Carmona ’18 and Carolina Carmona ’22. This weekend Thibodeau will be in the audience when Jose walks across the stage in front of Coram Library and officially becomes a graduate of Bates, and she couldn’t be prouder. Since 2014, when Christopher and Alanis arrived on campus as first years, Thibodeau has been guiding this tight knit group of siblings through their Bates experience, serving up lemonade, snacks and good advice. She’s taken them on trips to family favorites like Mac’s Grill in Auburn and the Fryeburg Fair, and other Maine highlights and offered steady, enduring support and love. Look for our full story about how this relationship started, and why it won’t end, in Bates News on Friday.
Four Bates siblings, their ‘Lewiston grandmother,’ and one last Commencement celebration

Friday, May 23, 2025 10:44 am

Since 2014, a succession of four Bates siblings from Chicago have been able to lean on Lewiston neighbor Carmen Thibodeau for rides, rest, and real connection.

1. Yes, that is the course name. It is ECON/DCS 368 2. I'm working with Jacqueline Crucet in the Economic & Community Development Department. The relationship was set up by the Harward Center -- it is our second semester working together. Morgan Kinney introduced us and has been a point person to help this CEL project work two semesters in a row now. 3. The Harward Center is constantly working to set up these relationships. Jacqueline likes to work with students on these opportunities. Last semester she and I collaborated on a hackathon concerning the relationship between streetlights and crime -- I think she wanted to do another semester project after that one. 4. & 5. The data are administrative city records and census data. (Technically the census is a survey, but it is aggregated to the "block" level, which is a Census unit that roughly corresponds to a city block.) The admin data was collected by the city. It is information on each household's participation.
Bates students hack real-world problems, including lead poisoning, to help a downtown Lewiston neighborhood

Thursday, May 8, 2025 4:21 pm

With computers, community, and collaboration, recent Bates hackathons have tackled problems including exposure to lead paint in older Lewiston homes.

A visit to the Looking Ahead Clubhouse in Lewiston by the Gather Hear Tour by pianist Miki Sawada (seen at the piano). Looking Ahead is a program for adults with mental illness based on the Clubhouse Model of Rehabilitation. Jahan Baker-Wainwright ’25 (blue crewneck sweater), a biochemistry major from Cottage Grove, Wis., performed Beethoven’s Pathetique Sonata, op. 13, the third movement, on the piano. Assistant Professor of Music Zen Kuriyama (down coat) sang Franz Schubert’s “Der Doppelgänger” and “An die Musik,” accompanied by Miki Sawada on piano. Marrich Somridhivej ’26 (quilted pullover), a biology major from South Windsor, Conn., performed Amy Beach’s “Summer Dreams,” op. 47, no. 2 and 3, with Miki Sawada on the piano (four hand). Chiharu Naruse (glasses, black coat), Bates piano teacher, collaborative pianist, is seen at the picnic table and as a page-turner when the wind came up.
At a Lewiston clubhouse, a musical performance that’s ‘less about perfection, and more about connecting’

Friday, November 1, 2024 1:24 pm

Two Bates students and a newly appointed professor of music helped to bring the soothing beauty of music, through piano and voice, to an audience at the Looking Ahead Clubhouse, a vocational center in Lewiston for adults living with mental illness.

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