Building Communities, Improving Lives

This issue of Colby magazine highlights pillars of excellence that distinguish the College, all achieved with vision, commitment, and steadfast work by many people over many years.

At Colby, our efforts revolve around shaping well-rounded, analytical people who use their liberal arts education to navigate an increasingly complex, complicated, and interconnected world to make it better and more hospitable for those who share it and those who will inherit it.

Case in point is Colby’s commitment to civic engagement. The College has long encouraged students to get involved in the community, and that effort took on greater prominence with the opening of the Bill & Joan Alfond Main Street Commons in downtown Waterville. Students who live there are required to perform community service. Colby also established the O’Hanian-Szostak Fellowship for Civic Leadership to support community needs in Waterville and throughout Maine.

Combined, these two initiatives, in tandem with Colby’s longstanding commitment to the greater Waterville community, mean we’re fully invested in the betterment of this place now and in the future.

“We’re proud of this program, and we’re pleased to see it continue to evolve,” said Anne Szostak ’72, who helped create the O’Hanian-Szostak Fellowship program with her husband, Mike ’72.

We also celebrate the Pulver Science Scholars, a program unique to Colby with a goal of creating what Colby Life Trustee David Pulver ’63 envisioned as a pipeline for the most ambitious and talented students to pursue research at the nation’s top science laboratories. For Pulver and his wife, Carol, watching their vision take shape has been satisfying.

“This is Colby at its best,” he said.

Perhaps no one on campus embodies the spirit of opportunity and exploration more than Provost and Dean of Faculty Margaret McFadden, who is retiring. A beloved leader, McFadden has touched every academic initiative in recent years, and her fingerprints will be on programs to come because of her example and influence.

We turn back the clock for the 50th anniversary of COOT and we look forward to Colby’s newest residential complex.

Finally, we are thrilled to profile Fletcher Schoen ’10, a State Department diplomat, whose story reads like a spy thriller and proves the limitless possibilities of a liberal arts education.

Thanks for reading and your continued support of excellence at Colby.