Showing 21 - 27 of 27 Items

Date: 2019-11-09

Creator: Sajjad Jaffer

Access: Open access

Sajjad Jaffer ('95) shares remarks on his experience as an international student from Tanzania. He explores his own journey towards finding a sense of belonging in Brunswick, Maine, worlds away from his life in eastern Africa. Jaffer speaks of the vast privilege that Bowdoin offered compared to his life at home, while also commenting on the difficulties of being a Muslim student and minority student on campus at the time. Jaffer shares the way that he continues to support Bowdoin students coming from African countries. “This is dedicated to the first American-born in my family- my daughter, Sophie Malaika Jaffer. Sophie recently started middle school as a 6th grader at Castilleja School in Palo Alto, CA. Castilleja has a tradition of picking a word as a theme for the academic year. For 2019-20, the theme is “Belonging”. Acknowledgments I want to thank J. Taylor Crandall ’76 for sharing 3 valuable lessons over the years: 1. It is the student who makes the school, not just the school that makes the student 2. Where there’s a will, there’s a way 3. Carpe diem – seize the day This reflection was influenced and reinforced by 5 notable Polar Bears: 1. Staci Williams ’90 for being my Bowdoin Big Sister 2. Geoffrey Canada ’74 who changed the world 3. Hari Kondabolu ’04 for challenging Hank Azaria, creator of The Simpsons 4. Kenneth Chenault ’73 who reminded us that business is the last frontier in the civil rights movement 5. Alvin Hall ’74 my Bowdoin Soul Brother About Sajjad graduated from Bowdoin in 1995 with a double major in Computer Science, Government and minor in Economics. Sajjad lives in Silicon Valley and co-founded a technology company that applies data science to private equity investing. The firm was founded on 25 years of research from Wharton where he did his MBA and serves on the board of the Wharton Customer Analytics research center."

Date: 2019-11-10

Creator: Justin Foster

Access: Open access

Justin Foster ('11) speaks of his time at Bowdoin primarily embodied through his experience with acapella. He describes how his passion for music carried him through Bowdoin. and also gave him room to try to bridge gaps and have conversations with students who were different from him. Foster also describes his relationship with AfAm, and outlines his personal choice to maintain deep connections outside of singularly all black spaces on campus. He expresses the conflictions that came from this decision, and the conversations that it then struck up with other students of color. Specifically, Foster describres certain highlights of his time in the Longfellows, including various performances across the country.

Date: 2019-11-09

Creator: Noma Petroff

Access: Open access

Noma Petroff shares her time working at Bowdoin, as secretary of the Senior Center (1975-1979), secretary of Afro-American Studies (1979-1985), secretary Women’s Studies (1990), and academic coordinator of Theater and Dance (1991-2016). She discusses her path to Bowdoin, and specifically her path to working in Russworm, coming from working at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and even leaving Bowdoin for several years to work on a Pennsylvanian farm. She recounts how she tried to serve as an ally to students of color on campus. Petroff describes the dynamic environment of Russworm during the early eighties, including the work she put into starting the center’s library. She shares stories from various work-study students who worked with her, including two students who fell in love after separately working under her. Petroff describes the transformations to the African American Studies department over her many years at the college, including highlights of working under both Randy Stakeman and Lynn Bolles.

Date: 2019-11-09

Creator: George Khaldun

Access: Open access

George Khaldun ’73 came to Bowdoin from New York at the suggestion of a mentor, the director of a library where Kahldun had worked part-time in high school. He shares that he was at first apprehensive of moving to Maine but decided to apply since it would provide a change of pace from the inner city. He discusses his political affiliation as a Black Panther and the comradery he felt in finding others at Bowdoin who shared his revolutionary beliefs. Kahldun found these men in the Afro-American Society, where he could connect with black people from across the country. He says this community helped hone his political beliefs but also adjust to the rigors of Bowdoin academics. Kahldun admits to struggling during his first year, after finding support in the Society, he was able to succeed in school.

Date: 2019-11-09

Creator: Steve London

Access: Open access

Steve London '64 describes his family's long connection to Bowdoin, spanning three generations. He shares his father's experience at the College as a Jewish student in the 1930s who found most allegiance with the several black students on campus at the time. Speaking of his own time as a student, London describes how the civil rights movement greatly influenced his experience as an undergraduate. His time at Bowdoin and engagement with racial activism led him to later work with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference for two years shortly after graduating from Bowdoin. London outlines the ways that activism and understanding the role of identity and inequity were a central part to his time at the College, and his path afterwards.

Date: 2019-11-10

Creator: Mark Richter

Access: Open access

Mark Richter ('14) shares his experience as an Africana Studies student who grew up in Brunswick, Maine. He tells of his path to the Africana Studies department, as largely influenced by his classes with Professor Brian Purnell, including his course on the popular television show, 'The Wire.’ Richter describes how his academic work at Bowdoin provided him with a certain language to explore and discuss topics that he had not had the verbage for before. He recounts certain classes in the department which allowed for conversations surrounding race and identity that may not have happened normally on campus. Finally, Richter offers insight into how his major at Bowdoin has prepared him for work at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and given him tools as a white male to understand privilege and inequity.

Date: 2019-11-09

Creator: Daniel Lind

Access: Open access

Daniel Lind ('91) describes his path to Bowdoin from New York City. Lind recounts his adjustment to academics during his first years at the College, and how help from his dean gave him the confidence as a scholar to navigate coursework and his sense of place in the classroom. Speaking directly to his time at Bowdoin, Lind emphasizes the importance of having the African American Studies department so linked with the African-American Society, and how this bridging between academics and communal life was crucial for developing a sense of place on campus. Lind expresses concern about what he sees as the current divide between black student life and the Africana Studies department. Finally, he describes his own path to academia, and how his current position as professor of Ethnic Studies at Cypress College is still influenced by his experience at Bowdoin, particularly his admiration for professors like Dan Levine.