Testimonials

Julia Davis '03

Julia Davis did not come directly to College of the Atlantic from Maranacook High School in Wayne, Maine. First she spent a year at another northeastern private college, one with a very prestigious name. But, she said, "I felt like the education wasn't focused on a further goal and that the people were going to college just to go, because that's what you do after high school. It didn't have greater meaning."

She left that college, took some time off and came to COA because, she said, "One day I had an epiphany that this was where I was meant to go."

Having worked at an outdoor nature center and led student trail volunteers during her year off, she knew that she was interested in pursuing the outdoor world. She spent her time at COA taking biology, natural history, education and ecology classes. But for her senior project she wrote, creating a collection of essays about seeing and understanding the natural world through her own observations. Since graduation, she and her father, Stan Davis, co-authored the book, Schools Where Everyone Belongs: Practical Strategies for Reducing Bullying.

Being an integral part of the small COA community was very important to strengthening her confidence, giving her a feeling of belonging. "It gave me the comfort level to go off on my own to Costa Rica," she says, where she taught English in a village in the mountains of Costa Rica, filling four journals with her reflections of the experience. COA, she adds, also gave her the instincts to plan her English program without supervision or structure.

Back in Maine, now, she is an outdoor guide at a school for troubled teenagers that combines wilderness expeditions with academics and therapy. Her work involves teaching students how to live outdoors, some therapy and a lot of talking.

Looking back, she's not sure what part of her education at COA most prepared her for this work. There were the classes, the location next to Acadia National Park, the friendships, the community, the teachers. "COA professors were always so excited about what they were teaching, about understanding the natural world around me. They helped me to think about things with a broader perspective, helping me to think creatively, not bound by right and wrong. In working with kids, I'm looking at all the different sides of issues, trying to figure out what's going on, not judging, having a broad view." And that, she says, is all about human ecology.