Six art-school stars from around Boston to watch in 2022 \u2014 The Boston Globe<\/em><\/h5>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n\nThe Boston Globe<\/em> featured Katy Rodden Walker \u201907 in its annual spotlight of artists who received master of fine arts degrees from area colleges. <\/p>\n\n\n\nEarly in the pandemic, Rodden Walker had a new baby, a grandmother had died, and she was trying to continue her art. \u201cI was being pulled in a lot of different directions. I wanted a material to express some of those ideas,\u201d she said. One material was gauze.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"Katy](\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2022\/08\/Katy-RoddenWalker-Enmeshed.webp\")
Katy Rodden Walker ’07, inside her installation, “Enmeshed.” (Photo by Charles Mayer Photography)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nRodden Walker\u2019s installation Enmeshed<\/em> \u201creflects her longing for community,\u201d says reporter Cate McQuaid. \u201cMade of gauze, clay slip, and glue, it hangs overhead in a sheltering embrace. It was inspired by the interconnectivity of rhizomes and mycelium.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cWhat would a rhizome feel like at a grand scale?\u201d asked Rodden Walker, who earned her masters degree from the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth. \u201cI wanted to try to put somebody inside of that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- Read the story: \u201cSix art-school stars from around Boston to watch in 2022<\/a>,\u201d The Boston Globe<\/em>, May 11, 2022<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nHer Vang \u201922<\/h3>\n\n\n\nPit stop in Eau Claire: biking from Maine to Minnesota for charity \u2014 WQOW-TV<\/h5>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n\nThree months before Commencement, Her Vang \u201922 hit the road, biking from Bates to St. Paul, Minn., to raise funds for his charity, Givers of Dreams, which aims to increase access to education for children in his home country, Laos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“A lot of things that I’ve learned in life is through the generosity of other people,” Vang told television station WQOW. “So I just wanted to give back.” This isn\u2019t his first biking trip: In 2019, Vang biked a loop through southeast Asia, from Laos, to Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand, ending again in Laos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Vang\u2019s trip ended by raising $10,000, over four times his original goal of $2,500. He flew back to Maine in plenty of time for graduation. He\u2019s now back to Laos continuing his charity work on the ground.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- Read the story: \u201cPit stop in Eau Claire: biking from Maine to Minnesota for charity<\/a>,\u201d WQOQ-TV, May 18, 2022<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nAlisa Amador \u201918<\/h3>\n\n\n\nAnnouncing the winner of the 2022 Tiny Desk Contest \u2014 NPR<\/em><\/h5>\n\n\n\nIn May, Alisa Amador \u201918 and her song \u201cMilonga accidental\u201d won NPR<\/em>\u2019s annual Tiny Desk Contest.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAmador has \u201ca powerful voice whose tender performance commands attention and fosters connection,\u201d said Bob Boilen, host of NPR\u2019s All Songs Considered<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/lite-youtube>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\tAlisa Amador ’18 performs her Tiny Desk concert for NPR Music.<\/figcaption>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\nAmador grew up in New England, Puerto Rico, and Argentina; her parents, Rosi and Brian Amador, play in the Latin-folk band Sol y Canto. She told NPR that the song is “an ode to in-between-ness, to having several identities at once, to feeling split between cultures and languages.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The song, said Boilen, is \u201cso filled with passion. I often fall for a song because of the lyrics, and this is the first Tiny Desk Contest winner whose winning song is in Spanish. Despite the fact that I don’t speak Spanish, I felt the conflict, the yearning and the song’s questioning.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Late in May, Amador performed her Tiny Desk Concert, the first with an audience in over 800 days, \u201cand Alisa’s captivating music surely intensified our spinning emotions,\u201d Boilen said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- Read the story: \u201cAnnouncing the winner of the 2022 Tiny Desk Contest<\/a>,\u201d NPR<\/em>, May 17, 2022<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nLori Banks, biology faculty<\/h3>\n\n\n\n\u2018COVID-19 created the perfect storm\u2019 for superbugs, CDC report says \u2014 Lewiston Sun Journal<\/em><\/h5>\n\n\n\nThe Lewiston Sun Journal<\/em> interviewed Assistant Professor of Biology Lori Banks to help explain a recent U.S. CDC report that the pandemic has \u201cpushed back years of progress\u201d in the fight against so-called superbugs, strains of bacteria and other pathogens that resist treatment. <\/p>\n\n\n\nApproximately 80 percent of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 received antibiotics. While antibiotics do what they\u2019re supposed to do \u2014 kill most bacteria \u2014 they also create a survival-of-the-fittest scenario, where the resistant bacteria, superbugs, end up surviving and can thrive, says Banks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou\u2019re selecting for or enriching the environment to allow for their survival. And so what we see is that in these repeat exposures to antibiotics we\u2019re actually creating the population that\u2019s dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- Read the story: \u201c\u2018COVID-19 created the perfect storm\u2019 for superbugs, CDC report says<\/a>,\u201d Lewiston Sun Journal<\/em>, July 14, 2022<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nJ.J. Cummings \u201989<\/h3>\n\n\n\nHow the U.S. military gave notes on Top Gun: Maverick \u2014 GQ<\/em><\/h5>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n\nGQ<\/em> writer Aaron Hunter interviewed retired Navy Capt. J.J. Cummings \u201989 about the former Naval aviator\u2019s work to help filmmakers of Top Gun: Maverick<\/em> balance realism and drama.<\/p>\n\n\n\nA key adviser to director Joe Kosinski and screenwriter Eric Singer, Cummings most recently served as the commanding officer of the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford, <\/em>and, early in his career, flew the F-14 Tomcat in combat missions. <\/p>\n\n\n\nHis advice touched on what happens during the movie in the air, aboard ship, and on shore. Take the name of the bar, which in the original screenplay was called The Captain\u2019s Mast. \u201cWhich is what the Navy calls its judicial proceedings,” Cummings says. “No one wants to go to Captain\u2019s Mast because that is where you go to get punished.” So it was changed to Hard Deck. “Good call.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2022\/09\/IMG_7596-edited-900x900.webp\")
J.J. Cummings ’89, right, with daughter, Mackenzie, at the premiere of “Top Gun: Maverick” in San Diego. (Photo courtesy of J.J. Cummings)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n\u201cI also asked them not to have romantic relationships between the aviators,\u201d Cumming said. \u201cI requested that and some form of military bearing and keeping standards for Navy regulations for haircuts and uniforms. For the most part, they got it right.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The film\u2019s final mission has echoes of Luke Skywalker\u2019s mission to destroy the Death Star in the first Star Wars<\/em> film. During a visit to the real TOPGUN school in Nevada, Cummings was worried how \u201ca dozen salty F-18 pilots\u201d would react to his idea for the final scene. \u201cThey all loved the idea\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe essential theme of the film rings true, Cummings told a reporter from the Daily Press<\/em> of Norfolk News<\/em>. \u201cIt\u2019s really a film about risk,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s what Naval aviation is all about: what are the risks of this, what are the costs and what do we gain. We\u2019re risk takers, but we\u2019re not gamblers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nAlong the way, some of Cummings\u2019 words and phrases got into the script like when Rooster is dubious about whether an old plane can fly. \u201cWe don’t even know if that bag of ass can fly.\u201d And when Maverick explains why he knows nothing about sailing a boat. \u201cI don\u2019t sail boats. I land on \u2019em.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- Read the story: \u201cHow the U.S. military gave notes on Top Gun: Maverick<\/em><\/a>\u201d \u2014 GQ<\/em>, June 24, 2022<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nSam Francis \u201917<\/h3>\n\n\n\nThis week in Bengals: Two analytics aces, Burrow\u2019s approach, Hendrickson\u2019s value \u2014 The Athletic<\/em><\/h5>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n\nSam Francis \u201917, the football data analyst for the Cincinnati Bengals spoke with The Athletic<\/em> about what helps coaches make split-second play-calling decisions: Having watched hours of game film.<\/p>\n\n\n\nFaced with a decision, all those hours pays off. \u201cWe have talked through situations, watched them together and gone through them so many times it\u2019s really just communicating to him, \u2018Hey, remember this? This situation, this is what we do.\u2019 It ends there,\u201d Francis said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The memorization helps when there isn\u2019t time to chart out a plan, Francis added. \u201cThese decisions need to be communicated and identified in five to 10 seconds, probably less than that. To pull out a chart, reference it, identify this is what we should do and then communicate that. Sometimes there is not time for that. These situations jump up on you and you have to be ready for them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- Read the story: \u201cThis week in Bengals: 2 analytics aces, Burrow\u2019s approach, Hendrickson\u2019s value<\/a>,\u201d The Athletic<\/em>, June 29, 2022<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nBeverly Johnson, earth and climate sciences faculty<\/h3>\n\n\n\nHow carbon sequestration in Maine can help slow climate change \u2014 Maine Public<\/em><\/h5>\n\n\n\nCarbon sequestration, explains Bates faculty member Beverly Johnson, is \u201ctaking a gas that\u2019s in the atmosphere and turning it into a plant, effectively, through photosynthesis.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Johnson, chair and professor of earth and climate sciences, offered the explanation during a Maine Calling<\/em> segment on Maine Public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"Professor](\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2019\/07\/180820_Johnsn_Sprague_Marsh_0613.jpg\")
On the left, Professor of Geology Beverly Johnson uses a sediment elevation table to measure the height of the Sprague River Salt Marsh, part of the Bates\u2013Morse Mountain Conservation Area, in August 2018. At right is Claire Enterline, senior planner of the Maine Coastal Mapping Initiative, Maine Coastal Program. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nThe slow rise of sea levels has been beneficial for carbon sequestration, since oxygen has less access to the sequestered carbon. But one of the big questions, Johnson said, is how fast the levels will rise. \u201cWe’re right at this really important period of time where we run the risk of inundating the marshes with really high and rapid sea level rises and drowning them,\u201d said Johnson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Anyone living along the coast can do their part to help preserve marshes reducing nutrient runoff. \u201cIf you’re living adjacent to a salt marsh, please don’t fertilize your lawns.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- Listen to the story: \u201cHow carbon sequestration in Maine can help slow climate change<\/a>,\u201d Maine Public<\/em>, Aug. 8, 2022<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nJulia McCabe \u201912<\/h3>\n\n\n\nLewiston\u2019s Julie McCabe hustles her way onto LA Maples\u2019 roster \u2014 Lewiston Sun Journal<\/em><\/h5>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n\nIn an article for the Lewiston Sun Journal<\/em>, Julia McCabe \u201912 talked about returning to organized basketball as a member of the LA Maples, a semipro women\u2019s team in Lewiston, 10 years after tearing her ACL in high school, ending her hopes of playing at Bates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cBeing a part of the team camaraderie, even if you don\u2019t get a minute in the game, you can still be the loudest and most engaged person on the bench, so I think that was the draw (of playing for the Maples) to me,\u201d McCabe told the Sun Journal<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAs for being the only Lewiston resident on the roster, \u201cI came here to study at Bates College, and I loved Lewiston, that was a big draw for me,\u201d McCabe said. \u201cI was from Brooklyn before Maryland, and I saw the similarities between the parishes in Lewiston and the parishes that I grew up playing basketball at in Brooklyn.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
- Read the story: \u201cLewiston\u2019s Julie McCabe hustles her way onto LA Maples\u2019 roster<\/a>,\u201d Lewiston Sun Journal<\/em>, June 30, 2022<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nMonica Rodriguez ’12<\/h3>\n\n\n\nMonica Nichole Rodriguez encourages employees to be their authentic selves \u2014 Hispanic Executive<\/em><\/h5>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n\nAs legal affairs manager of labor and employment at United Rentals, Monica Rodriguez \u201912 is at the center of her firm\u2019s diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"Photo](\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2022\/08\/Monica-Rodriguez.webp\")
Monica Rodriguez ’12 says she feels the “weight” of making sure she has a “positive impact” on the inclusivity of the places she finds herself in. (Photo courtesy of Monica Rodriguez)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nShe tells Hispanic Executive <\/em>that a big part of the work involves displaying empathy and allowing employees to be their authentic selves. \u201cAs a manager, if your employees feel comfortable enough to be their authentic selves because empathy is valued, you are going to have a better experience with your direct reports and with the company at large.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n- Read the story: \u201cMonica Nichole Rodriguez Encourages Employees to Be Their Authentic Selves<\/a>,\u201d Hispanic Executive<\/em>, July 25, 2022<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nMaria Bamford \u201992<\/h3>\n\n\n\nThe compassionate, cockeyed comedy of Maria Bamford \u2014 The Boston Globe<\/em><\/h5>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n\nIn a feature for The Boston Globe<\/em>, Maria Bamford \u201992 talks about doing comedy during the pandemic, and weaving irony, grief, and mental health into a comedy act people can relate to and find comfort in. \u201cIt\u2019s something that makes me feel useful,\u201d she said. \u201cI know if I heard someone talking about intrusive thoughts and OCD, I would have felt…like, \u2018Oh my God, I\u2019m not on my own.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nBamford spoke about a caricature she often embodies in her work; her own mother, Marilyn, who died from lung cancer early on in the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cShe was so great about talking about death,\u201d Bamford told the Globe<\/em>, \u201cand I was so super scared at the time. She said, \u2018You\u2019re going to be OK. Here\u2019s a list of women your father should date.\u2019 I don\u2019t believe in God or spiritual presences, but I do believe in the physics of memory. She\u2019s here in my head.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n- Read the story: \u201cThe compassionate, cockeyed comedy of Maria Bamford<\/a>,\u201d The Boston Globe<\/em>, July 19, 2022<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nApril Hill, Larissa Williams, and Paula Schlax, STEM faculty<\/h3>\n\n\n\nThe Excellence Experiment Episode 2: Bates College \u2014 American Association of Colleges and Universities<\/em><\/h5>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n\nA podcast produced by the American Association of Colleges and Universities featured three Bates professors explaining how the college is working to build a more inclusive and equity-focused approach to teaching STEM fields.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At Bates, data has shown that BIPOC and first-generation students were, at high rates, giving up on their hopes to major in STEM fields. \u201cIt was traumatic data to look at,\u201d said April Hill, Wagener Family Professor of Equity and Inclusion in STEM. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThese were talented and brilliant students who had real aspirations for STEM. But we were finding that we were not providing the curriculum or the support that they needed,\u201d said, Stella James Sims Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry Paula Schlax. \u201cWe recognized that we needed to make some pretty significant changes, both as individuals and in our broader curricula.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A \u201cbig transformation\u201d is now underway, says Associate Professor of Biology Larissa Williams, \u201cto reflect inward about what we weren’t doing, and then start pivoting to what we could do. We are lucky that everyone was on board to sort of make those moves together and be vulnerable together and continue to do the hard work together.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- Listen to the podcast: \u201cEpisode 2 – Bates College<\/a>,\u201d American Association of College and Universities<\/em>, Jul. 8, 2022<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nJared Cash \u201904<\/h3>\n\n\n\nCommentary: Need for greater public and private investment in higher education\u2019s hidden costs \u2014 The Portland Press Herald<\/em><\/h5>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n\nIn a commentary for The Portland Press Herald<\/em>, Jared Cash \u201904, explains there\u2019s more to lowering barriers to higher education than generous financial aid packages.<\/p>\n\n\n\nCash is president and CEO of the Mitchell Institute, whose mission is to “support young Mainers as they aspire to, pursue, and achieve a college education.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"Photo](\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2022\/08\/220806_Jared_Cash_Headshot_3D0A1335.webp\")
Jared Cash ’04 has been the president and CEO of the Mitchell Institute since January, 2022. (Photo courtesy of Jared Cash)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nFor example, a barrier faced by some high school students is that they are \u201cimportant caregivers whose presence at home allows parents and guardians to work outside the home,\u201d he says. \u201cIn other words, a generous and thoughtfully prepared financial aid package may not cover students\u2019 true need.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The answer? \u201cWe…must create and sustain, within our communities and at colleges and universities, more funds to help students with supplemental expenses \u2013 things like medical bills, one-time program fees, rent increases, the escalating cost of utilities and professional certification and exam fees.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One way to better support Maine college students in reaching their education goals is through financial help from philanthropic institutions like the Mitchell Institute. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
- Read the story: \u201cCommentary: Need for greater public and private investment in higher education\u2019s hidden costs<\/a>,\u201d The Portland Press Herald<\/em>, July 27, 2022<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nAnna Hogeland ’11<\/h3>\n\n\n\nAsking the hard questions about motherhood \u2014 The New York Times<\/em><\/h5>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n\nThe New York Times<\/em>\u2019 Brenda Shaughnessy reviewed Anna Hogeland \u201911\u2019s debut novel, \u201cThe Long Answer,\u201d and called it a \u201ccrucial\u201d collection of narratives about the \u201ccomplex realities\u201d of reproductive health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"Photo](\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2022\/08\/hogeland-author-photo-original-2.webp\")
In a moment where access to reproductive health is being challenged anew, Anna Hogeland ’11 uses her book to tell stories of women living that reality. (Photo courtesy of Anna Hogeland)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n\u201cThis book addresses all those experiences, truly a breathtaking roundup of the many ways that women carry and lose babies and pregnancies, so many possible and impossible choices to be made, so many capitulations and coercions to be endured,\u201d Shaughnessy wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhether or not this book brings together their voices harmoniously, it does clarify and reiterate that precious little stands between women and reproductive bondage.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Boston Globe<\/em> featured Katy Rodden Walker \u201907 in its annual spotlight of artists who received master of fine arts degrees from area colleges. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Early in the pandemic, Rodden Walker had a new baby, a grandmother had died, and she was trying to continue her art. \u201cI was being pulled in a lot of different directions. I wanted a material to express some of those ideas,\u201d she said. One material was gauze.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rodden Walker\u2019s installation Enmeshed<\/em> \u201creflects her longing for community,\u201d says reporter Cate McQuaid. \u201cMade of gauze, clay slip, and glue, it hangs overhead in a sheltering embrace. It was inspired by the interconnectivity of rhizomes and mycelium.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhat would a rhizome feel like at a grand scale?\u201d asked Rodden Walker, who earned her masters degree from the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth. \u201cI wanted to try to put somebody inside of that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Three months before Commencement, Her Vang \u201922 hit the road, biking from Bates to St. Paul, Minn., to raise funds for his charity, Givers of Dreams, which aims to increase access to education for children in his home country, Laos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “A lot of things that I’ve learned in life is through the generosity of other people,” Vang told television station WQOW. “So I just wanted to give back.” This isn\u2019t his first biking trip: In 2019, Vang biked a loop through southeast Asia, from Laos, to Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand, ending again in Laos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Vang\u2019s trip ended by raising $10,000, over four times his original goal of $2,500. He flew back to Maine in plenty of time for graduation. He\u2019s now back to Laos continuing his charity work on the ground.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In May, Alisa Amador \u201918 and her song \u201cMilonga accidental\u201d won NPR<\/em>\u2019s annual Tiny Desk Contest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Amador has \u201ca powerful voice whose tender performance commands attention and fosters connection,\u201d said Bob Boilen, host of NPR\u2019s All Songs Considered<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n Amador grew up in New England, Puerto Rico, and Argentina; her parents, Rosi and Brian Amador, play in the Latin-folk band Sol y Canto. She told NPR that the song is “an ode to in-between-ness, to having several identities at once, to feeling split between cultures and languages.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The song, said Boilen, is \u201cso filled with passion. I often fall for a song because of the lyrics, and this is the first Tiny Desk Contest winner whose winning song is in Spanish. Despite the fact that I don’t speak Spanish, I felt the conflict, the yearning and the song’s questioning.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Late in May, Amador performed her Tiny Desk Concert, the first with an audience in over 800 days, \u201cand Alisa’s captivating music surely intensified our spinning emotions,\u201d Boilen said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Lewiston Sun Journal<\/em> interviewed Assistant Professor of Biology Lori Banks to help explain a recent U.S. CDC report that the pandemic has \u201cpushed back years of progress\u201d in the fight against so-called superbugs, strains of bacteria and other pathogens that resist treatment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Approximately 80 percent of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 received antibiotics. While antibiotics do what they\u2019re supposed to do \u2014 kill most bacteria \u2014 they also create a survival-of-the-fittest scenario, where the resistant bacteria, superbugs, end up surviving and can thrive, says Banks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou\u2019re selecting for or enriching the environment to allow for their survival. And so what we see is that in these repeat exposures to antibiotics we\u2019re actually creating the population that\u2019s dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n GQ<\/em> writer Aaron Hunter interviewed retired Navy Capt. J.J. Cummings \u201989 about the former Naval aviator\u2019s work to help filmmakers of Top Gun: Maverick<\/em> balance realism and drama.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A key adviser to director Joe Kosinski and screenwriter Eric Singer, Cummings most recently served as the commanding officer of the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford, <\/em>and, early in his career, flew the F-14 Tomcat in combat missions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n His advice touched on what happens during the movie in the air, aboard ship, and on shore. Take the name of the bar, which in the original screenplay was called The Captain\u2019s Mast. \u201cWhich is what the Navy calls its judicial proceedings,” Cummings says. “No one wants to go to Captain\u2019s Mast because that is where you go to get punished.” So it was changed to Hard Deck. “Good call.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI also asked them not to have romantic relationships between the aviators,\u201d Cumming said. \u201cI requested that and some form of military bearing and keeping standards for Navy regulations for haircuts and uniforms. For the most part, they got it right.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The film\u2019s final mission has echoes of Luke Skywalker\u2019s mission to destroy the Death Star in the first Star Wars<\/em> film. During a visit to the real TOPGUN school in Nevada, Cummings was worried how \u201ca dozen salty F-18 pilots\u201d would react to his idea for the final scene. \u201cThey all loved the idea\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The essential theme of the film rings true, Cummings told a reporter from the Daily Press<\/em> of Norfolk News<\/em>. \u201cIt\u2019s really a film about risk,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s what Naval aviation is all about: what are the risks of this, what are the costs and what do we gain. We\u2019re risk takers, but we\u2019re not gamblers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Along the way, some of Cummings\u2019 words and phrases got into the script like when Rooster is dubious about whether an old plane can fly. \u201cWe don’t even know if that bag of ass can fly.\u201d And when Maverick explains why he knows nothing about sailing a boat. \u201cI don\u2019t sail boats. I land on \u2019em.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sam Francis \u201917, the football data analyst for the Cincinnati Bengals spoke with The Athletic<\/em> about what helps coaches make split-second play-calling decisions: Having watched hours of game film.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Faced with a decision, all those hours pays off. \u201cWe have talked through situations, watched them together and gone through them so many times it\u2019s really just communicating to him, \u2018Hey, remember this? This situation, this is what we do.\u2019 It ends there,\u201d Francis said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The memorization helps when there isn\u2019t time to chart out a plan, Francis added. \u201cThese decisions need to be communicated and identified in five to 10 seconds, probably less than that. To pull out a chart, reference it, identify this is what we should do and then communicate that. Sometimes there is not time for that. These situations jump up on you and you have to be ready for them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Carbon sequestration, explains Bates faculty member Beverly Johnson, is \u201ctaking a gas that\u2019s in the atmosphere and turning it into a plant, effectively, through photosynthesis.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Johnson, chair and professor of earth and climate sciences, offered the explanation during a Maine Calling<\/em> segment on Maine Public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The slow rise of sea levels has been beneficial for carbon sequestration, since oxygen has less access to the sequestered carbon. But one of the big questions, Johnson said, is how fast the levels will rise. \u201cWe’re right at this really important period of time where we run the risk of inundating the marshes with really high and rapid sea level rises and drowning them,\u201d said Johnson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Anyone living along the coast can do their part to help preserve marshes reducing nutrient runoff. \u201cIf you’re living adjacent to a salt marsh, please don’t fertilize your lawns.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In an article for the Lewiston Sun Journal<\/em>, Julia McCabe \u201912 talked about returning to organized basketball as a member of the LA Maples, a semipro women\u2019s team in Lewiston, 10 years after tearing her ACL in high school, ending her hopes of playing at Bates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBeing a part of the team camaraderie, even if you don\u2019t get a minute in the game, you can still be the loudest and most engaged person on the bench, so I think that was the draw (of playing for the Maples) to me,\u201d McCabe told the Sun Journal<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As for being the only Lewiston resident on the roster, \u201cI came here to study at Bates College, and I loved Lewiston, that was a big draw for me,\u201d McCabe said. \u201cI was from Brooklyn before Maryland, and I saw the similarities between the parishes in Lewiston and the parishes that I grew up playing basketball at in Brooklyn.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n As legal affairs manager of labor and employment at United Rentals, Monica Rodriguez \u201912 is at the center of her firm\u2019s diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n She tells Hispanic Executive <\/em>that a big part of the work involves displaying empathy and allowing employees to be their authentic selves. \u201cAs a manager, if your employees feel comfortable enough to be their authentic selves because empathy is valued, you are going to have a better experience with your direct reports and with the company at large.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In a feature for The Boston Globe<\/em>, Maria Bamford \u201992 talks about doing comedy during the pandemic, and weaving irony, grief, and mental health into a comedy act people can relate to and find comfort in. \u201cIt\u2019s something that makes me feel useful,\u201d she said. \u201cI know if I heard someone talking about intrusive thoughts and OCD, I would have felt…like, \u2018Oh my God, I\u2019m not on my own.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bamford spoke about a caricature she often embodies in her work; her own mother, Marilyn, who died from lung cancer early on in the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cShe was so great about talking about death,\u201d Bamford told the Globe<\/em>, \u201cand I was so super scared at the time. She said, \u2018You\u2019re going to be OK. Here\u2019s a list of women your father should date.\u2019 I don\u2019t believe in God or spiritual presences, but I do believe in the physics of memory. She\u2019s here in my head.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n A podcast produced by the American Association of Colleges and Universities featured three Bates professors explaining how the college is working to build a more inclusive and equity-focused approach to teaching STEM fields.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At Bates, data has shown that BIPOC and first-generation students were, at high rates, giving up on their hopes to major in STEM fields. \u201cIt was traumatic data to look at,\u201d said April Hill, Wagener Family Professor of Equity and Inclusion in STEM. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThese were talented and brilliant students who had real aspirations for STEM. But we were finding that we were not providing the curriculum or the support that they needed,\u201d said, Stella James Sims Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry Paula Schlax. \u201cWe recognized that we needed to make some pretty significant changes, both as individuals and in our broader curricula.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n A \u201cbig transformation\u201d is now underway, says Associate Professor of Biology Larissa Williams, \u201cto reflect inward about what we weren’t doing, and then start pivoting to what we could do. We are lucky that everyone was on board to sort of make those moves together and be vulnerable together and continue to do the hard work together.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In a commentary for The Portland Press Herald<\/em>, Jared Cash \u201904, explains there\u2019s more to lowering barriers to higher education than generous financial aid packages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cash is president and CEO of the Mitchell Institute, whose mission is to “support young Mainers as they aspire to, pursue, and achieve a college education.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n For example, a barrier faced by some high school students is that they are \u201cimportant caregivers whose presence at home allows parents and guardians to work outside the home,\u201d he says. \u201cIn other words, a generous and thoughtfully prepared financial aid package may not cover students\u2019 true need.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The answer? \u201cWe…must create and sustain, within our communities and at colleges and universities, more funds to help students with supplemental expenses \u2013 things like medical bills, one-time program fees, rent increases, the escalating cost of utilities and professional certification and exam fees.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n One way to better support Maine college students in reaching their education goals is through financial help from philanthropic institutions like the Mitchell Institute. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The New York Times<\/em>\u2019 Brenda Shaughnessy reviewed Anna Hogeland \u201911\u2019s debut novel, \u201cThe Long Answer,\u201d and called it a \u201ccrucial\u201d collection of narratives about the \u201ccomplex realities\u201d of reproductive health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis book addresses all those experiences, truly a breathtaking roundup of the many ways that women carry and lose babies and pregnancies, so many possible and impossible choices to be made, so many capitulations and coercions to be endured,\u201d Shaughnessy wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhether or not this book brings together their voices harmoniously, it does clarify and reiterate that precious little stands between women and reproductive bondage.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nHer Vang \u201922<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Pit stop in Eau Claire: biking from Maine to Minnesota for charity \u2014 WQOW-TV<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nAlisa Amador \u201918<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Announcing the winner of the 2022 Tiny Desk Contest \u2014 NPR<\/em><\/h5>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nLori Banks, biology faculty<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\u2018COVID-19 created the perfect storm\u2019 for superbugs, CDC report says \u2014 Lewiston Sun Journal<\/em><\/h5>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nJ.J. Cummings \u201989<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
How the U.S. military gave notes on Top Gun: Maverick \u2014 GQ<\/em><\/h5>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nSam Francis \u201917<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
This week in Bengals: Two analytics aces, Burrow\u2019s approach, Hendrickson\u2019s value \u2014 The Athletic<\/em><\/h5>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nBeverly Johnson, earth and climate sciences faculty<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
How carbon sequestration in Maine can help slow climate change \u2014 Maine Public<\/em><\/h5>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nJulia McCabe \u201912<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Lewiston\u2019s Julie McCabe hustles her way onto LA Maples\u2019 roster \u2014 Lewiston Sun Journal<\/em><\/h5>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nMonica Rodriguez ’12<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Monica Nichole Rodriguez encourages employees to be their authentic selves \u2014 Hispanic Executive<\/em><\/h5>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nMaria Bamford \u201992<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
The compassionate, cockeyed comedy of Maria Bamford \u2014 The Boston Globe<\/em><\/h5>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nApril Hill, Larissa Williams, and Paula Schlax, STEM faculty<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
The Excellence Experiment Episode 2: Bates College \u2014 American Association of Colleges and Universities<\/em><\/h5>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nJared Cash \u201904<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Commentary: Need for greater public and private investment in higher education\u2019s hidden costs \u2014 The Portland Press Herald<\/em><\/h5>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nAnna Hogeland ’11<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Asking the hard questions about motherhood \u2014 The New York Times<\/em><\/h5>\n\n\n\n
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