Yaniv Korman
COA taught me that the most meaningful learning happens through direct engagement with the world.
My first archaeological excavation wasn’t at Pompeii. It was in the Beatrix Farrand Garden, digging holes for roses, where I unearthed a 1920s porcelain doll buried when campus was still summer estates. My senior project required interviewing Ken Riddell, son of the Emery family’s head gardener, and studying Claire Verdier’s 1978 restoration project. Through this work, I discovered that archival documents alone cannot fully animate a place’s past. One must also seek out living voices, the people who carry memory in their bodies and stories. This methodology has shaped every research paper I’ve published in academic journals and newspapers.
COA taught me how to fail, fail, fail again, and eventually succeed. When Barbara Meyers warned that many students had already tried to restore the Sunken Garden, it wasn’t discouragement. It was an invitation to think differently. When my GoFundMe raised only $300 instead of $3,000, when the Historic Preservation Fund rejected us, when a back injury forced me to rely on others, I learned the importance of persistence.
COA also taught me how to become part of a community. When the Sun Shrine faced demolition, I drafted a petition to preserve it. When cruise ships proposed a new pier, I volunteered my newly acquired Photoshop skills to visualize how these titans would dominate the waterfront. I joined Climate to Thrive and committed to swimming Monday and Wednesday mornings with Rev. Rob Benson, Pastor of Bar Harbor Congregational Church. These weren’t resume builders. They were investments in a place and people I’d come to care about. Through these commitments, I felt like I had found home.
The campus is filled with so many beguiling surprises if one just has a little sense of adventure. Seaside Garden walls are loaded with delicious kiwis in late autumn, the monk circle offers a celestial perch right on the ocean, the woods behind Davis Center hide a marvelous fountain head, and frogs across from Peach House sing the most enchanting songs every spring.
Do take advantage of the free shuttle buses and explore the island. There are ample magical hiking trails and swimming holes, glorious orange moons that rise from Sand Beach, orchards buzzing with fireflies at Indian Point during summer dusk, community dinners by the Village Green, and snowy slides down the Bluenose’s slope in winter. Most importantly, take advantage of the opportunity to play, get lost, and fall in love with the island and your classmates. They all have so much to offer, and so do you!