Bard and my high school experience are practically mirror opposites. My school in Atlanta was one of the lowest performing in the area, and Bard’s academics are very rigorous. I am so thankful for first-year programs like Language and Thinking (L&T). I had never written an extensive paper before that, and it was a transformative experience. I came to the Learning Commons and spent hours there with tutors. I finished my first 10-page paper in L&T. Looking back now as a senior, I’ve written 30-page papers without too much hassle. That says that I’ve come a long way.

As a Bard TLS scholar, I’m involved in a project in Hudson, New York, called the Building Up Hudson Scholarship Program. Originally, it was an opportunity for students in the city to receive peer-to-peer mentoring and tutoring. When I took over leadership of the program, I set out to develop it to make more of an impact in the Hudson community and here at Bard. I brought on some other Posse members and we now direct the program as a team. We put most of our energy into working with high school seniors in Hudson. In addition to mentoring and tutoring, we take them on field trips to Bard and to museums. Interest increased and people started giving money to the program, so we created a scholarship fund and awarded our first college scholarship last year.

When I came to Bard I realized I had to do a lot of work on myself. I was challenged to step up to the plate and become a better student and a better person. I’ve learned to work with lots of different people from different backgrounds. When I leave Bard, I’ll be in a place I’ve never been before, with people I’ve never met before. Being here has taught me how to go to people and tell them something about myself in exchange for learning something about them, so we can become better people and be able to impact the world in our own different ways.

About a year ago I started doing ethnographic research on minorities in Turkey, specifically the Kurdish population, looking at forced migration and forced resettlement. I’m working with families and youth on intergenerational trauma, to see how displacement 20 years back affects the next generation. I intern for a human rights organization in Istanbul, and I conduct interviews with families around the city and in the southeast, the area from which a lot of them migrated. The research is going really well, though it’s been a difficult climate to work in. Turkey has the highest number of journalists in prison for working on the Kurdish situation right now. There’s a lot of state pressure not to get involved.

Both the Middle Eastern studies and anthropology programs have provided an exceptional support system here. I’ve grown as an anthropologist academically and in terms of the fieldwork. The faculty support has made the research possible; they’ve helped ensure that my practices are ethically sound and taught me how to apply for research grants. I received the Bard Human Rights Project Summer Research Grant and the Center for Civic Engagement Research and Internship Grant, which have been the main funding sources for my work for the past two summers.

Students on campus have been interested and encouraging. I organized a panel this past fall and we had a great discussion on how, as students of anthropology and Middle Eastern studies, we can bridge the gap between the classroom and fieldwork. That’s something exciting about Bard students: just like the professors, they’re a motivating force to continue your work.

I really can’t picture being at another educational institution, with the relationships I’ve formed here with professors, the classes I’ve taken, and all I’ve learned about research and funding. All these things aren’t offered at most undergraduate programs. It’s a place that’s allowed me to hone in on what my interests are. I think that’s one of the reasons why, even after graduation, I’d like to be connected to Bard in one form or another. It’s been a life-changing experience.

I received a four-year Distinguished Scientist Scholarship from Bard, which made me feel from the beginning like the College believed in me and wanted to invest in me. The support went beyond finances. I found the Biology Program faculty and students to be friendly and collaborative, and I connected with them right away. The professors and students share lab space and work together. They emphasize bonding between majors with parties and trips off campus. You get to develop in-depth relationships with people at Bard—both students and professors. I have been blessed here with people who have changed my life for the better.

I got involved in student government during my first year, as a Student Life Committee representative. I wanted to make a difference on campus and get to know everyone. I had to really listen in order to find out what students wanted, and what should be changed. When running for president last year I was challenged to a debate, which was the most intense and difficult thing I’ve ever had to do. I practiced and trained hard, and I did well in the end. It made me realize I could do anything I set my mind to.

I’ve gotten a lot of experience in my field in the last few years. I volunteered for Hospice during my time at Bard, which was a moving and humbling experience. As part of the Bard Summer Research Institute, I spent two summers working at the Columbia School of Physicians and Surgeons with a Bard alumnus. Everyone should have access to opportunities like this, which is why I want to teach in a high-needs school district before I go to medical school. The science achievement gap in low-income areas is huge, and they need well-qualified science teachers. It’s my duty to go, since Bard has given me the skills.

I’m an anthropology-French joint major with a concentration in Africana studies. I didn’t originally plan to have so many areas of study, but Bard has a way of making you do things that you never thought you could do. Last year, I took an art history class as a distribution requirement and I realized that there were all these problems in American museums with how African art is portrayed. I had the anthropological viewpoint on that, but I didn’t know much about the art. I decided that I wanted to go to graduate school for museum studies in African art. I interned this past summer at the High Museum in Atlanta with the African art curator, and I’m going abroad to Senegal next semester. I’m doing a home-stay and taking classes through the University of Dakar, and I really hope to get involved with the city’s arts festival. Especially if I’m going to focus my Senior Project on representation of African art in a Western context, I need to understand how it’s represented in an African context.

I never thought I would end up on the arts side of things. What I’m planning on doing with my life is completely different than anything I would have thought of before Bard. I think the College has really changed my life in that way. It’s also helped me understand how people in academia think and act and work with each other. I’m considering staying in academia to be a professor and do research. That’s something else I would never have seen as an option, but Bard has shown me that these things can be really exciting.

All those jokes about Bard students always talking about Hannah Arendt or Foucault or Derrida are pretty true. The Bard community is very intellectual. Students like to learn and like to be in the classroom and to think for themselves. Socially, Bard is a good place to find really close friends. The students here are very unique in how they approach the world. There’s a certain kind of person that’s drawn to Bard, and that’s someone that’s skeptical about the world and questions the everyday, and yet is very optimistic that we can make a difference to the future.

I was always the kind of person who raised his hand a lot in class. I didn’t apply to huge schools because I like being in a small class and getting to know my teachers. I knew I would get that at Bard. I’m in a research lab now with six other people and that’s such an awesome feeling. You’re held more accountable for your work, and the contact you have with professors in such a small group is invaluable. The faculty wants you to succeed. Bard gives you a lot of resources. I appreciate that and try to take advantage of it as much as possible, be it the spaces for research and study, the library, or all the academic publishing subscriptions we have.

Students at Bard are really enthusiastic about social justice. Hearing about what people around me were doing, I felt like I should get involved. Last summer, I received a Community Action Award to work with kids in New York City to reduce police misconduct. I write and do theater at Bard, too, which came in handy in my field assignments. I wrote presentations and trained high school students in public speaking, teaching them to do outreach with even younger students. I would go into neighborhoods, see a bunch of kids who had been in bad situations with the police, and tell them about their rights and about how to defuse a situation. The students I worked with were super inspiring—their drive to get involved and work for social justice at such a young age was amazing. I told a lot of them to apply to Bard! It was a fun organization to work for. It felt like I was doing something important and meaningful.

Naturally curious people are drawn to Bard. I’ve been exposed to so many things here that I had never thought about before. My roommate’s a film major and he also studies philosophy. He’s introduced me to all these films and new ideas. I meet tons of people here who really know their stuff in their particular field. I hear about it and it’s mind blowing. It’s made me think about new topics. The curiosity rubs off on you.

The faculty is the best thing about Bard. When I was looking at colleges, I knew Bard had this incredible, star-studded faculty with Joan Tower, George Tsontakis, and James Bagwell. They are fantastic teachers and have become formative figures in my life, musically and otherwise. I was looking for a small school where I could have a strong liberal arts education and a strong musical presence and mentorship. I’m happy that I was able to study history, German, logic, and philosophy, as well as music.

Dylan Mattingly ’14 and I founded the ensemble Contemporaneous at Bard in 2010. We wanted to organize concerts and fill a void that we saw at the College for a student-run new music outlet. Every one of us believes there’s no reason that the standard Classical repertoire should get our attention more than brand new pieces. We all love the opportunity to work with living composers and love to play together. The plan in a couple years is for Contemporaneous to transition into a professional ensemble based in New York City. We released an album earlier this year, comprising three pieces written specifically for us by Dylan. We play our “home games” in the chapel, which has been an amazing ground for us to experiment. The audience at Bard is incredibly receptive, enthusiastic, and adventurous. We’re always able to fill the house.

I’ll graduate with my B.A. in May, and then I have one more year in the master’s program. I’ll continue composing, conducting, and very likely teach eventually. In the long run, I know I want to do new music. That’s what I think about every morning when I wake up. Bard has offered me the freedom to find out what it is that I love. Here, I’ve discovered what I want to spend the rest of my life doing. 

The economics classes at Bard have been great. I especially enjoyed the Economics of Developing Countries with Sanjay DeSilva. It involved conducting research projects on a country of our choice. I chose Malaysia and I’ve been studying east Asian development for the past two years because of that class. For my Senior Project I’m doing a study on southeast Asia. I’ve done so much writing and so many research projects at Bard that, by the time I started senior year, it didn’t seem so foreign to me to do Senior Project.

I’m a big fan of the Bard Globalization and International Affairs Program. BGIA helped me find my internship this past spring semester, which was at a macroeconomic research and forecasting firm in New York City. The internship was a really fantastic experience. I was writing and publishing reports for the website. It was exciting for me to be working there, especially during the European debt crisis. Later I was able to extend my internship through the summer because I received a grant from the Center for Civic Engagement. Over the summer, I coauthored a paper about Indonesian policymaking with my supervisor—a first for me. My Senior Project overlaps with the work I did in the internship. I still go down to the city to meet with them and share research.

My parents always told me how easy it was to start something yourself at Bard, and that was ultimately what brought me here. One of my great experiences at the College has been the varsity swim team. I actually started the team with a few other people. We knew we wanted a team, so we just got together and started swimming. The athletics department gave approval and we became a club sport. But after practicing for a year or so we decided it would be really great to have a varsity team here, so we petitioned the athletics department and got a varsity swim team the next fall. And now it’s existed for two years and we’ve been competing. I can’t believe how easy it was to do something like that here.

When I arrived at Bard, the first thing I noticed was the beauty of the campus. This boosts my spirits even in bad weather. As an international student who couldn’t visit colleges ahead of time, I was also pleased with the Reem and Kayden Center, which shows that Bard is dedicated to science, alongside the arts. It has been my dream from childhood to become a scientist.

I was also encouraged by the opportunities to engage in club activities and the Trustee Leader Scholar (TLS) Program. If you have ideas, Bard gives you a place in which to implement them. I’m involved in the Bard Leprosy Relief Project, a TLS effort that increases awareness about the disease and raises funds for an eco-friendly leprosy village in Kathmandu. I’m also a peer counselor, which offers another huge opportunity for personal growth. First-year students really do look up to their peer counselor, and in return I have to develop leadership skills.

What drew me to Bard was that it’s academically rigorous and socially liberal. It’s very gay friendly, very open-minded, which is important to me. It’s unusual to find a campus as tolerant as Bard, but with such high intellectual standards. That’s a good combination.

First-Year Seminar helped me find my academic interest. I had planned to be a literature major, but in First-Year Seminar I noticed I was drawn to readings in the social sciences, and that I was extrapolating sociological themes from the readings.

Since this is a small college, it’s easy to develop leadership skills because it’s not overwhelming to try to initiate something, like a new club. Another advantage of Bard’s size is that you get a lot more one-on-one time with professors. You get the chance to be influenced and guided. That helps you to shine and make your intellectual adventure your own.

All through high school I was involved in the arts, but when I came to Bard I got turned on to math, too. Double majoring in math and theater allows me to delve into both passions without sacrificing anything. As a double major, I’m working on two Senior Projects. My mathematics project is on piecewise polynomial functions or splines—“Frankenstein Functions.” You take different pieces of polynomials, glue them together, and see how smooth you can make the function. This is how Pixar works. When animators are trying to figure out a function to describe the line across someone’s face, they use splines. My Senior Project in theater has two parts: a performance and a written paper. I’ll be performing next semester. In the paper, I analyze a play written in the 1600s in Spain. I am discussing how the play is structured like a fractal, so the theater paper also uses some mathematical concepts.

I’m busy outside of class. As a writing fellow in the Learning Commons, I tutor students on essay writing and revising. I’ve always enjoyed literature and writing. Even though I didn’t choose to be a literature major, this is my branch back to that kind of scholarship. Many of my close friends are writing fellows, because we’ve been working together for years now. I also work at summer theater camps for kids, and I tutor math privately. I tutored college algebra in the Bard Prison Initiative. The students in BPI are just the best. They are so excited and ask the best questions.

The faculty and students here are what set Bard apart from other colleges. Even as a senior I continually meet new, wonderful people. The community makes it possible for me to be honest and sincere about my interests and ideas. I’ve gained so much confidence here. I can be myself. At this point I feel really comfortable going anywhere, trying anything. I’m not afraid of what the future holds.