Getting here:

I discovered COA when I was seven years old; my family would come up to Acadia every summer and do Diver Ed’s “dive-in theater” program, which leaves from the COA dock. So back then, COA was the magical place with the touch tank and the dioramas and the whale skull, and it wasn’t until later that I rediscovered it as a college. 

The idea of actually coming to COA felt like a crazy fantasy for a long time, but the more time I spent here, the more I fell in love with this place, its people, and its educational philosophy. I attended the fall fly-in, and even though I didn’t officially make my choice until months later, I really was totally sold from that point forward. Even my guidance counselor heard me talk about COA and said “wow, Molly, you’re really head-over-heels for this place.” 

Classes

FA18: Human Ecology, Political Communication, Poetry as Art and Social Action

WI19: International Wildlife Policy and Protected Areas, the History of Natural History, Advanced Composition

SP19: Environmentality, Conspiracy Theory and Political Discourse, Island Life 

FA19: Transforming Food Systems, Politics of Israel, Constitutional Law 

WI20: Environmental Law and Policy, Ecology, City/Country: Mapping Literary Landscapes 

SP20: Dramatic Writing, Our Public Lands, Independent study on Art in Times of Plague 

FA20: Marine Mammal Biology, Working the Sea, and Fixing Elections: Workshopping Democratic Solutions 

WI21: 19th Century American Women, Politics of the Supreme Court, Physics and Math of Sustainable Energy 

SP21: Musical Improvisation, American Dreaming: Theater and Activism in the US, Equal Rights, Equal Voices: The Rhetoric of Woman Suffrage 

Internship:

I’ve done part time internships in Congressman Seth Moulton’s district office and on Senator Ed Markey’s reelection campaign. This summer I am a research assistant on the NOAA project Old Weather, a citizen science effort gathering climate and weather data from 19th and early 20th century ship log books. 

Activities, traditions, celebrations:

I love my job at the writing center and as a peer mentor with the COA College Opportunity and Access program. I also love open mic nights, contra dances, water polo, orchestra, pick-up hockey games, and Shakespeare club. 

Passions & motivations:

Politics and organizing, law, poetry, Shakespeare, music, national parks, food systems

Adventures yet to come:

I’m going to be journeying out west on the Great West monster course in the fall of 2021! 

I am also hoping to be part of Jodi Baker’s special topics in production class at some point. 

Best meal on campus:

Definitely Mac and cheese. TAB is always packed on Mac and cheese night, and it always seems to be when you most need some comfort food and a chance to just share a meal with friends.

COA might be the right college for you if...

You want your professors to know you as a person, not just a name on a list; you want to ask and be asked tough questions; you want a community where everyone is unique but no one is alone; you aren’t afraid to steer your own ship (both metaphorically and sometimes literally); you want to change the world.

Ephemera:

The way the sun hits Turrets in the morning, homemade TAB granola, the ocean’s changing colors at sunrise and sunset, stargazing, fitting 12 people around an 8-person table in TAB, poetry club at MDI bakery, cozy sing-alongs with friends, late nights in the library during week 10, the smell of lilacs in the last few weeks of spring term 

Which came first, the chicken or the egg?

The egg! The question never specifies what kind of egg, and there were lots of organisms laying eggs before the modern chicken.