Voices from Reed

Sharon Heichman ’13

I’ve finished my thesis, gotten my laurels soaked with champagne and covered in glitter, and danced my heart out. In less than a week, I will be donning a cap and gown and walking across a stage in the middle of Reed’s beautiful campus in order begin an entirely new chapter of my life.

It’s going to be challenging to leave Reed behind. I will miss all of the amazing friends I’ve made here, the professors who taught me so much, and the magic of this campus. However, I am also excited by what’s to come for me.

I will be applying to medical school in June. The application process is a long and arduous one, but I am certainly looking forward to finding out where I will be spending another four years! I decided to take a year off between graduating from Reed and matriculating to med school because applying, studying for and taking the MCAT, and flying out to interview on short notice seemed like too great of a feat while I was thesising. I’m grateful that I’ll have the year off, though, as it will give me time to continue enjoying Portland and take a little breather.

Starting in July, I will be spending a month in Ecuador working with children whose parents work in the street markets. These children generally do not receive a typical or consistent education, so the other volunteers and I will be providing academic enrichment and helping to teach them a bit of English. I will also have the opportunity to travel around the country on the weekends. The biology nerd part of my personality is hoping I’ll make it to the Galapagos Islands!

After the summer, I will be returning to Portland and working part-time. Over my last couple of years, I have been accruing private tutoring clients and so I am planning to continue working as a tutor next year. I have been a tutor at Reed for Chemistry, Biology, and Psychology for the past three years and that experience certainly helped me to build my own private client base. I also taught with the Reed College Science Outreach program over the past four years, which also gave me valuable teaching experience. This program places Reed students of all majors into local elementary school classes to teach a supplementary science curriculum in order to give the younger students college mentors and to get them excited about the sciences.

I wish you all the best, prospective Reedies who are reading this blog! It’s been a joy being an Admission Intern and meeting many of you. I’m going to miss this job almost as much as I know I’ll miss Reed!

Alan Montecill0 ’13

In early June, I will join Yale-NUS College as a Dean’s Fellow. Yale-NUS is a liberal arts college in Singapore, created jointly by Yale and the National University of Singapore. Its inaugural academic year begins this coming fall. This means that its inaugural class of 150 students will have no upperclassmen at their brand-new future alma mater. To that end, the Dean of Students has hired twelve recent graduates – myself being one of them – to help mentor the students in this upcoming academic year.

Aside from the super fancy title, my job will entail three primary responsibilities: first, I’ll live on campus and serve as a member of the residential life staff. Second, I will audit a class of my choosing (I hear their Humanities class will include Herodotus, so I’ll be sure to bring my copy from Hum 110). Third, I will work in one of the offices at the new college. The details of this are still TBD, but it’ll be administrative divisions – Academic Affairs, Admission, Dean of Students, Public Affairs, etc.

What’s great about this job is that it merges all of the things I’ve known and loved during my time at Reed: work experience in higher education (I’ve worked as a House Advisor and as an Admission Intern for two years), familiarity with East Asia (I grew up in Hong Kong and will soon have a degree in Chinese literature), and a deep immersion in the liberal arts (hold on, just ticking this box a million times).

At the same time, I had no idea that this was what I’d be doing, nor did I pursue any of my interests at Reed because I thought they would point in this direction. I majored in Chinese because I found it interesting and challenging. I became a House Advisor because I wanted to help guide younger students. And I became an Admission Intern because I enjoy talking to prospies and shedding light on the college admission process. At no point did I think “I should do A because it will lead to B.” I just kind of went for it, and trusted that things would work out.

This doesn’t mean that I’ve cracked the code on post-college opportunities, but it does speak to two deeply held convictions that I’ve tried to live out during my time at Reed: pursue what you love, and serve your community. Everything else is window dressing.

All of this means that I’ll be in Singapore for the next 1-2 years. After that, I can’t say I know what I’ll be doing, but a career in education certainly looks possible. Leaving Reed and Portland will be tough, but I’m excited to bring a little Pacific Northwest quirkiness to a brand-new educational environment. I’ll have to make sure to rein it in during class and let the freshmen talk, though.

In my bio, I remember writing something along the lines of “Reed has changed me in ways that I don’t think I’ve fully realized.” Something tells me that I’m about to find out.

Elisabeth Thomas ’13

I’ve turned in my thesis, obtained those coveted laurels, conquered my thesis orals, and will be graduating on Monday, May 20. It feels like victory, but I can’t bask in it too long, as the real world – the post-Reed world – awaits.

In all honesty, I am not sure what I am going to do next, but I do have a few concrete priorities for the summer months:

1. Find a job
2. Keep learning
3. Collect water bears (tardigrades)
4. Go birdwatching

I’m hoping to find a job in a laboratory or in the science field. Concurrently, I plan to continue in my studies on my own, as learning is something that I love immensely. I have plans to re-learn all of the Russian grammar and vocabulary that I have forgotten since freshman year (and then some!), as well as learning some chemistry basics, along with more biology. I also want to collect and look at some amazing creatures called tardigrades, or water bears. They can survive extreme conditions and are apparently quite common around the world! However, in order to actually see these tiny creatures, I need a microscope, and since they are quite expensive, I have been looking into building one of my own. So far, my research has shown it should be a crude but feasible process!

I’m excited for the summer, and all the possibilities of the things I can learn and do. Also, I love birdwatching, and summer will be a wonderful time for me to get back into a hobby that I have not been involved in since middle school.

Beyond the summer, I am excited for the future – Reed has nurtured my love for learning and has taught me some valuable skills that are extremely helpful for continuing to learn and research. While I will be learning on my own over the summer, and taking undergraduate chemistry and biology classes over the next few years, I hope eventually to continue my education either in the medical field or in a scientific field. Writing a thesis was so fun the first time – I can’t wait to do it again!

Robert Shyrock ’13

I told everyone I was ready to leave college, but then I went and got myself a job at Reed. I’m going to be working at Conference and Events Planning (CEP) at Reed for the third summer in a row, managing a small group of students, moving linens around, and just generally making life pleasant for those who pay to use Reed’s campus for their events over the summer.

I’m actually really excited about working at CEP over the summer. Sure, this is not the most exciting-sounding job out there, but I’ve always loved it. I love working with people and accomplishing concrete tasks, and CEP is always a lot of fun for that reason.

Also, as somebody who is really interested in journalism, I’m glad that I can support myself while taking a couple months to get started in the freelance world in my free time. Or I can get started on that novel I’ve wanted to write since high school, and that I might actually be capable of writing at this point, thanks to one Peter Rock. Or I can just give my brain a break, take lots of naps, and working on maintaining my garden, and hang out with my dog. All of these sound like pretty appealing options. And I’m looking forward to taking time to rest on my laurels. So to speak.

Sharon Heichman ’13

As sad as I am to be graduating in May, I give Reed so much credit for continuing to support me in my academic endeavors even after that time.

Over the past seven months of my life I have spent much of my free time with a group of rats in a windowless room in the back of the psychology building. This may sound like a horror movie to some of you, but conducting my senior thesis research with resources such as these has been an absolutely amazing experience. I assure you, piles of sleeping baby rats are precious and my rats seemed to have a lot of fun learning to press a lever in order to receive a tasty banana pellet. (No, I never tried one…) Once my rats were consistently pressing the lever, I started to increase the number of times the rat needed to press in order to receive one banana pellet. This allowed me to test how motivated the rats were to obtain food, because once they stopped responding (called the breakpoint), it was clear that the amount of effort required  to obtain the pellet was no longer worth it. I then administered different neurotransmitters that are known to make people and animals hungry and looked at how that affected how many times the rats were willing to press the lever.

For a week in November, instead of being in a windowless lab, I will be in sunny San Diego! This just so happens to be the location of this year’s Society for Neuroscience conference. One of the world’s biggest neuroscience meetings, I am extremely excited to have the opportunity to attend seminars and talks given by some of the preeminent scientists in the field. Also, I will be presenting some of my senior thesis research at the undergraduate portion of the conference. Amazingly, a Reed Opportunity Grant is funding my entire trip! One of the many amazing things about Reed is that there’s plenty of funding floating around for students to get out into the world and do cool stuff, it’s just important to remember to apply for it!

Stephanie Bastek ’13

glamming it up

I’m pleased to announce the 2013 edition of the Reed College Creative Review! Currently being spotted out and about on campus, the Review celebrates the wildly creative side of the student body in all of its (printable) forms. Oil painting, poetry, marker, line drawings, watercolor, short stories, intaglio printmaking, digital and film photography—it’s all there. This year marks my fourth and final year designing the magazine, and my second herding cats managing the magazine as editor-in-chief.  It’s been a long road, but it’s been lovely!

Last year’s magazine won us a slew of awards from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association, including a Gold Medal and a smattering of individual awards for page design, visual art, writing, and photography.

Here’s a sample from my introductory letter to the reader this year:

Letters, characters, forms. We see them everywhere and nowhere: in books, on the street, on our bodies. Most of the time, the elements of typography are invisible to us. Kerning, tracking, leading. Descenders, ascenders, counters, x-height—parts of a letter, like parts of the body, that you’d never think would have a name. The anatomy of type is hidden by a fleshy layer of meaning.

Letters, characters, forms: all of these words can be read in many ways. How you read them is up to you. All I’ve done is lay it out.

My unofficial goal has been to increase the quantity of gold on the cover every year. With 2013, I think I’ve outdone myself—and it’s thanks to the English Department, who with their doubled contribution are single-handedly responsible for the glittery cover. From the bottom of my heart, thank you, thank you, to everyone who contributed to the Review!

Curious about the Honor Principle? Sometimes it even involves chocolate…

Allie Hemmings ’14

I have a long existing fascination with horses. As a child I used to read stories about knights and their faithful steeds, and from that I was inspired to spend hours galloping back and forth on a broomstick, wielding my fearsome vacuum cleaner extension. When I was about eight I had a failed attempt at taking horseback riding, but due to my size and nerves around real horses (not made of household implements), I quit after just a few lessons. I did not reconnect at all to my interest in horses until my junior year here at Reed. All students at Reed are required to take some PE classes as a part of graduation requirements. I had done many classes I had enjoyed (zumba, yoga, self-defense), but I decided that I wanted to do something a little different, I wanted an adventure.

We first arrived to our lesson on a slightly drizzly day at Brawley Farms, a equestrian farm several miles outside of Portland. A zig zag of paddocks connect to barns where blanketed horses poke their heads out of their stalls looking curiously at passerby, hoping for the occasional carrot or apple. My instructor took me into the barn to meet the horse I would be riding, a cute dark horse named Little Rabbit. He is a little smaller and older than the other horses, but absolutely perfect for the beginner rider. Little Rabbit (or Rabs as he is some times called) can have quite a mischievous side: once while I was grooming him I bent over to pick up a brush, and he started to nudge my back with his muzzle, completely startling me.

The first part of the lesson was grooming and saddling. I learn how to use a curry comb, hard brush, soft brush, and hoofpick, all while Little Rabbit patiently waited for me to figure out what I was doing. Next was learning how to tack up a horse. English-style riding requires a fair bit of tack, so I buckled many buckles as I discovered how to put a saddle and a bridle on a  horse. From there, it was to the arena for a lesson. English-style riding is very disciplined and requires a specific posture and movements. After the first lesson, my legs were very sore!

Since the first lesson, my favorite experience during my horseback riding lessons has been my first time correctly trotting on a horse. It was an incredibly powerful feeling to sense the power of a horse moving underneath me and being united with such an incredible animal. I really love horseback riding, and I look forward to riding in our barn-wide competition at the end of this semester. Horseback riding is a new love that I intend to pursue for a long time in my life.

Enrique Montygierd ’14

You wake up to Hyperion’s mad horses bursting through your windows, a morning revelry winter has long stifled.  You stop at the Paradox to get a warm cup of stumptown roast to meet the cool, crisp, morning. The smiles and salutations of friends break the silence of Hebe’s blossoming whispers. You leave early so as to dash off to the library to finish that final bit of reading before class begins. This is a perilous walk, with temptations all around. Emerald fields of dewy grass, swing sets, and rosy canopies of cherry blossoms flank the path to the intricate brick work of the library.

Regal beast and barbarous fool gaze over you as you race with the clock to finish those final pages. With seconds to spare and another cup of coffee you make it to class just before your professor. No one sits down or unpacks their bags, everyone having made the tacit agreement to have class outside. Whether it was her intention all along (she herself never sat down either) or the realization that we had already made up our minds, your professor suggests having class outside. Cradled by the cherry blossoms and with Pan’s revelries festooning the background, class proceeds with the casualness of satyrs. In the tradition of Socrates, your professor undoes what you thought you knew all the while asking you to explain to her what she claims not to understand. You finish class with fluttering thoughts on truth and art, the workings of a future paper. But alas, now you may answer that Dionysian call that you have evaded all day long. Scattered across the front lawn are friends and classmates, blankets and sunglasses, softballs and frisbees. Spring fills your lungs with her flirtations. Walking barefoot over the grass you meet friends and you talk about your day, about work, and about class. You all share your thoughts, libations to the gods of Reed. Before you know it, Hyperion’s weary horses have trotted back across the sky, leaving glowing embers behind.