Lucian Vazquez

Class Year '25

I hail from the Valley of the Sudbury River, or Musketaquid, where through flows a gentle, twisting river, so slow at times the water appears to flow upstream, as it is rippled by the wind, and surrounded by the widest meadows. I love this valley but it has become choked by the outward growth following the second World War of the city of Boston and is now dependent on it for work and becoming thoroughly gentrified. Fertile agricultural land has been developed into unaffordable subdivisions, zoning is ridiculously segregated in terms of income and land usage, all water but the springs on the hills have become more or less eutrophic and polluted, and remain obsoletely dammed at countless spots along the courses of the rivers, hampering the movements of migratory fish. Vernal pools have been drained and filled in, and it is exceedingly unpleasant to travel anywhere by foot or bicycle on account of a transportation infrastructure favoring only cars. Meanwhile, those charged with the protection of the remaining forests and swamps are almost clueless. It is this sort of a place, as well as an inherited idealism that has motivated a sense of urgency toward change in New England and a greater sense of self awareness of what we are and what we are doing.

On another note, I am deeply curious about the world and about people, and I desire strongly to engage others through documentary film, writing, animation and fantasies

Getting here:

The admissions staff of Sterling College, VT recommended it to me. I don’t know why. I valued COA’s stronger film program, which Sterling lacked, its good science teachers, and its location on the coastal plain. Elsewise it was a close call.

Classes

I have taken Primitive Skills for the 21st Century, Human Ecology, and Chemistry and Biology of Food and Drink in my first semester, and in my second I have taken Biology: Cellular Processes of Life, Environmental History, and Animation.

My approach to human ecology:

I wish to understand the history of land and people where I dwell, and the ecology and biology of wild organisms which I love, and thereby come to be of some use to them, while living in a manner that is meaningful to me (through artistic expression and the freedom and capacity to wander, learn, and experiment.)

Life on Mount Desert Island:

On the unburnt side of the island, there are forests veritably clothed in moss, lichen, and liverwort, nourished by the sea fogs. On the burnt side, forest is frequently broken by clearings of exposed bedrock, and one need not go high up the hills until one sees straight on to the sea. Heath plants thrive here.

Activities, traditions, celebrations:

Mycology Club, Crafts in Deering on Friday.

Passions & motivations:

I want my rotten little town to become pleasant and sustainable, so that I can stand to live there and so I and my friends and family can always afford to. This is a significant motivation in my interests.

Adventures yet to come:

I would love to spend far more time in southeastern New England, where vast swamps lie that are dear to me, my mother’s flat, industrially scoured home country of Nordrhein-Westfalen in Germany, and the coastal city of Cardenas in Cuba, where my grandparents once lived. I hope in the coming years to try my hand working as a farmer, conservationist, historian, and filmmaker, among other things.

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

You are scatterbrained, like me.

Ephemera:

In the intervals between the houses, buildings, and landscaped grounds on campus ,there are many thickets full of goldenrods and slivers of woods. Not all of the campus landscape is maintained vigorously. I appreciate this strongly, or else I would feel as if I were living in someone else’s dream.

Students