This multimedia presentation features what has become a dynamic tradition at Bates: the annual Mount David Summit, held this year on April 3. An eagerly anticipated presentation of student scholarship, service-learning and creative work, the summit unfurls a panorama of the rich life of the student mind at Bates. Produced by Phyllis Graber Jensen.

C. Challen Willemsen '10 enjoys presenting his research on Maine orchids during the 2009 Mount David Summit, the annual campus-wide celebration of student academic achievement.

When Ken Spalding '73 arrived at Bates in 1969, his dad had a good job in Connecticut as an aerospace engineer. That meant the family could afford Bates' $3,100 comprehensive fee.

Then, midway through Ken's first semester, his dad lost his job. But Ken didn't lose out. "Bates really came through for me," he recalls. "I received grants and loans, and I did campus work. The Bates philosophy was, 'We have you here. We want you to stay here.'"

Images of the 2008 Mount David Society luncheon in the Jarnryd Room of theKen Spalding '73 (left) talks with Andrew Wyman '09 of Sanbornton, N.H., at the Mount David Society Scholarship Luncheon. Photograph by Harvey Bell. new dining Commons on April 3. Speakers were Elaine Tuttle Hansen and Kitty Friedman ‘95 as well as Oscar Cancio ‘08, Nicole Svirsky ‘09, who spoke about their experiences. The event provided stewardship to donors to financial aid.

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A visitor at last year's Mount David Summit studies chemistry research by Madeline Weber '08 and professor Jennifer Koviach.

The eighth annual Mount David Summit, Bates College's annual celebration of student academic achievement, takes place April 3. More than 280 students are participating in this year's summit. In concurrent sessions throughout the afternoon at Pettengill Hall, participants present research posters, short talks, panel discussions, a photography exhibition and film screenings. (more...)

Future pharmacist Ed Scolnik '39 performs chemical mischief during a skit called "A Night of Alchemy." Courtesy of the Muskie Archives and Special Collections Library.

On a given February night in 1939, an entertainment-seeking Lewiston resident could sit at home and listen to Death Valley Days on the radio. Or he could take in a movie, like The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, starring Mickey Rooney and Walter Connolly, at the Empire.

And if their appeal was nil? Well, how about the science show at Bates? (more...)

Dana Oster '09 holds an automatic level while doing research at the Bates-Morse Mountain Conservation Area in fall 2008.

Dana Oster '09 had to think big — Atlantic Ocean big — during her geology research on the ever-shifting sands of Seawall Beach, part of the Bates–Morse Mountain Conservation Area along the Maine coast.

But when it came time to explain her findings at a Maine conference last year, her ideas had to fit on a 3-by-4-foot poster.

"A poster is a bit of an understatement as to how important I believe my research is," says Oster, whose research poster won a $500 first prize during the University of Maine's Climate Change 21 forum. "But it's good for learning how to organize and present your research." (more...)

Ralph Perry ’51 (right) received the 2007 Distinguished Alumni Service Award, named for Helen A. Papaioanou ’49 (left). Perry received the award in Pettengill’s Joan Holmes Perry ’51 Atrium — a space that honors Perry’s late wife — during Homecoming’s Volunteer Recognition Dinner. Perry was saluted for his philanthropy, for his “profound and passionate service to Bates,” and for helping “others understand that Bates is a very special place that needs strong support to preserve its future.”

Perry partnered his extensive philanthropy initially with Joan Perry, who died in 1994, and now with his second wife, Mary Louise Seldenfleur. It was Perry and Seldenfleur, in fact, who proposed using Perry Atrium to showcase high academic achievement, and in 2008 that showcase, the Mount David Summit, celebrates its seventh edition.

Academic sparks really start to fly each spring, with signature events like the Mount David Summit and the Honors Banquet, as well as frequent announcements of postgraduate academic honors. In 2008, Jordan Williams ’08 of Chicago won a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship for a year of travel and research abroad, and Shawna-Kaye Lester ’08 of St. Catherine, Jamaica, earned a graduate-study scholarship from the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation worth up to $50,000 annually for up to six years. Meanwhile, three seniors and one alumna received Fulbright postgraduate research grants, Bates’ highest one-year total ever.

Mount David Summit 2008

The slide show features what has become a dynamic tradition at Bates: the annual Mount David Summit, held this year on March 28. An eagerly anticipated presentation of student scholarship, service-learning and creative work, the summit unfurls a panorama of the rich life of the student mind at Bates. [More...]