{"id":169231,"date":"2025-05-19T15:27:01","date_gmt":"2025-05-19T19:27:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/?p=169231"},"modified":"2025-05-23T16:36:30","modified_gmt":"2025-05-23T20:36:30","slug":"a-connection-to-place-2025-ivy-stone-highlights-student-relationship-to-bates-city-of-lewiston","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/2025\/05\/19\/a-connection-to-place-2025-ivy-stone-highlights-student-relationship-to-bates-city-of-lewiston\/","title":{"rendered":"The Class of 2025 Bates ivy stone shows love for Lewiston"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Seeking to honor both Bates and the community that has been the Class of 2025’s home for four years, E.J. Holm \u201925 of Hamilton, N.Y., found inspiration for this year\u2019s ivy stone design in the grid of city streets surrounding campus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Departing from the traditional campus motifs of past ivy stones, Holm\u2019s design for the Class of 2025 features a stylized line map of downtown Lewiston\u2013Auburn marked with a heart \u2014 denoting Bates\u2019 location in the city and the city\u2019s place in the hearts of the graduating class.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"student
E.J. Holm \u201925 of Hamilton, N.Y., arrives by bicycle to help Ron Tardif, a Bates Facility Services mason, install the 2025 stone on the southeast side of Pettengill Hall on May 13, 2025. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe stone represents the connection to place that I found in my time at Bates \u2014 the connection to campus and Lewiston as a whole,\u201d Holm says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though Holm didn\u2019t originally intend for the heart to have a double meaning, they soon realized its twofold symbolism: a recognition of Bates as the Class of 2025’s home for the past four years, and a remembrance of the strength and resilience of the Lewiston community in the wake of the October 2023 shootings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

How to Watch Commencement <\/strong>
Livestreamed on the Bates website<\/a> and the Bates Facebook page<\/a>, the Bates Commencement ceremony begins at 10 a.m. on Sunday, May 25, with live coverage beginning at approximately 9:30 a.m.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI didn’t realize that that was part of what I was expressing,\u201d Holm says. \u201cNow that feels like a natural part of the design, to express that kind of love for the community.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On May 14, Holm\u2019s design joined the ranks of more than 130 other ivy stones<\/a> that dot buildings around campus, reflecting a Bates graduation tradition that dates to 1878. The new stone is along the southeast side of Pettengill Hall, at the bottom of a sloping green lawn. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"student
E.J. Holm, tries their hand at masonry for the first time, as campus mason Ron Tardif looks on. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Holm, who enjoys making charcoal drawings, created this year\u2019s design by layering images from Google Maps over one another in the digital art program Krita, then tracing the streets and coloring in the Androscoggin River that bisects, and connects, Lewiston and Auburn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An environmental studies major with a minor in mathematics, Holm learned that their ivy stone design had been selected while finishing their senior thesis, which models algal growth in freshwater lake ecosystems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"E.J.
E.J. Holm admires the Class of 2025 ivy stone following its installation on May 13, 2025. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was feeling really, really stressed, and it was such a weird feeling of the external stress versus the internal joy, and being so excited that the stone was going to be real versus the disbelief,\u201d Holm says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Helping to make the experience even more real was the chance to assist Ron Tardif, a Facility Services mason who installs the ivy stone each May, with this year\u2019s installation. As Holm feathered mortar in place, Tardif looked on approvingly. \u201cYou’ve never done this before. You’ve seen it for 30 seconds, and you’re an old hand at it!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Throughout their time at Bates, Holm has made Maine their home both by volunteering in the Lewiston community and exploring Maine\u2019s outdoor offerings, with visits to sites like Acadia National Park and Mount Katahdin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"ivy
Ron Tardif smooths the mortar surrounding the Class of 2025 ivy stone during its installation on Pettengill Hall on May 13, 2025. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI’ve really enjoyed not only getting to experience Lewiston in my time at Bates, but also getting to experience Maine as a whole,\u201d Holm says. \u201cI really treasure that connection to being in a place for four years and what that means.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On campus, Holm played violin in the Bates College Orchestra for four years and is currently the president of the Bates Discordians, a community-oriented gaming and gathering club. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat I’ve learned is to really cherish the relationships that you build with people around you,” Holm says. \u201cYou won’t always be able to see those people every day.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Student
E.J. Holm poses with the Class of 2025 ivy stone. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Designed by senior E.J. Holm, this year’s ivy stone marks Bates’ place in Lewiston \u2014 and Lewiston\u2019s place in the hearts of the Class of 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1827,"featured_media":169250,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_hide_ai_chatbot":false,"_ai_chatbot_style":"","associated_faculty":[],"_Page_Specific_Css":"","_bates_restrict_mod":false,"_table_of_contents_display":false,"_table_of_contents_location":"","_table_of_contents_disableSticky":false,"_is_featured":false,"footnotes":"","_bates_seo_meta_description":"","_bates_seo_block_robots":false,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_id":0,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_twitter_id":0,"_bates_seo_share_title":"","_bates_seo_canonical_overwrite":"","_bates_seo_twitter_template":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-169231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-batesnews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1827"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169231"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169231\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":169442,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169231\/revisions\/169442"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/169250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}