Photo by Tanaha Simon
The pinnacle of Connecticut College’s centennial celebrations took place this weekend, starting with fireworks on Friday night, and ending with the Centennial Gala on Saturday evening. Perhaps the most widely advertised of all of the centennial events was the “100 Years of Great Beginnings” presentation, promoted as “The Big Event” which took place in Palmer Auditorium on Saturday, October 22 at 9:45 a.m. A crowd started gathering outside of Palmer about forty-five minutes before the presentation began and by the time it had begun, the auditorium was completely filled.
The Big Event began with a brief skit depicting the conception and construction of Connecticut College for Women. After that initial performance, the production began to pick up pace and one by one, various speakers took the stage.
College President Leo Higdon addressed the crowd with a brief introduction, acknowledging the unique connections that so many people have with Connecticut College. Before turning the stage over to SGA President Diane Essis ’12, President Higdon stated that “this liberal arts education is the best preparation for life and career” and that the diversity of the speakers was a testament to that. Essis spoke about a recent visit to her grandmother’s village on the Ivory Coast, where the expression “it takes a village to raise a child” resonates in a literal sense. She compared the village’s community, which revolves around collaboration and collective efforts, to the community at Conn.
After Essis had finished, Christina Balkaran ’12 spoke about how Conn helped her find not only her passion for astronomy, but also an internship at the Keck Observatory in Hawaii, an opportunity that, only a few years ago, Balkaran would never have thought possible.
The next speaker was Samual Garner, a graduate from the class of 2007. The Big Event website stated that Garner was to speak “about his experience as a philosophy student and varsity swimmer at Connecticut College and the impact it had on his passion for food ethics.” However, Garner did not at all mention his experience as a varsity swimmer or, for that matter, anything about his experience at Conn. Instead, Garner spoke about the negative effects that the consumption of meat has on our bodies, the environment and the world in general, and he invited the audience to explore the prospect of becoming vegetarian or vegan.
The next alumna to speak was Stefanie Zadravec ’90, an award-winning playwright and mother of two boys, one of whom has a rare lung disease known as NEHI, while the other was recently diagnosed with autism. While attending Connecticut College, Zadravec lost her mother to cancer, an experience that led her to discover that within our own college community, “there is always help and hope available to you if you just learn how to ask for it.” Zadravec ended her speech with the insight that “great beginnings do not have to be perfect beginnings.”
Michael Collier ’76 then read his poem, “Six Reveries on the Occasion of the Connecticut College Centennial,” which addressed almost all aspects of Conn, from students’ relationships with professors to the beauty of the campus. The poem was followed by a short speech via virtual projection by Tim Armstrong ’93, chief executive officer of AOL. Armstrong explained how Conn’s community model inspired him to co-found Patch.com, a “community-specific news and information platform dedicated to providing comprehensive and trusted local coverage for individual towns and communities.”
The next speaker, David Barber ’88, co-owner of Blue Hill Farm and Restaurant, also spoke about how his time and experiences at Conn prepared him for building a sustainable food business. Barber compared a flowchart of the aspects of Conn’s community to his own business model for resilience and sustainability. He described both as examples of strong and self-sufficient systems.
The Big Event came to a close with the singing of Richard Schenk’s “Centennial Song,” accompanied by a small orchestra and student dancers. At the end of the song, the audience flooded out of Palmer to experience Harvestfest, the Gala and all of the other events that this Centennial Weekend had to offer. •
