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“Glorious.” “What an unforgettable weekend.” “An incredible gathering.” In this gallery, photos from the Bicentennial Kickoff Weekend attempt to convey all that words can’t.

Among the Bicentennial Kickoff celebration weekend activities were more than 30 Bicentennial colleges and tours. Besides several dedicated to the life and times of Alexander Hamilton, these lectures and historical tours covered topics ranging from the Archaeology of Hamilton College to Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility.  Student writers attended the Colleges throughout the weekend to provide a glimpse of the range of topics covered.  Following are synopses of a few that took place on Thursday and Friday, Sept. 22 and 23.

WAMC/Northeast Public Radio in Albany featured a reading by Barbara Gold, the Edward North Professor of Classics, on Monday, Sept. 26, as part of the public radio station’s Academic Minute. Gold examined how Christians of the late Roman Empire created the modern concept of what it means to be a martyr. Academic Minute can also be heard on many other public radio stations across the nation and is featured daily on InsideHigherEd. The program airs each weekday at 7:37 a.m. and 3:56 p.m. on 90.3 FM in the Clinton area.

When it comes to hydraulic fracturing, or “hydrofracking,” New York State has taken a “think first, drill later” approach. To engage the Hamilton community in the thinking and learning phase of this process, two panelists explained the basics of hydrofracking in New York at a discussion sponsored by the Levitt Public Affairs Center on Sept. 23.

Encouraging students to live and work with passion has been a theme of the Career Center this year. The five panelists of the Careers in Entrepreneurship event on Thursday, Sept. 22, epitomize careers based on a balance of passion and smart decision-making. These alumni shared their experiences and advice in a panel discussion sponsored by the Career Center.

U.S. Army Col. Maritza Ryan and U.S. Air Force Col. James M. Durant III will be members of a panel discussing “The Evolution of Diversity: Race and Gender in the U.S. Military” on Monday, Sept. 26, at 4 p.m. in the Days-Massolo Center. They will be joined by Maynard-Knox Professor of Government Frank Anechiarico ’71 and Professor of Mathematics Debra Boutin. Sponsored by the Chief Diversity Officer and the Office of the President, the event is free and open to the public.

Visiting Associate Professor of Religious Studies S. Brent Plate was invited to serve as one of four senior editors to Oxford University Press’s reference work, The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Bible and the Arts. Plate’s fellow co-editors come from the United States and Europe.

Throughout the summer the news page has featured stories about students who were awarded funding from Hamilton to pursue their career interests through research projects with faculty or in internships that were offered without outside compensation. Many other students pursued summer research and internships that were unfunded.  Some are highlighted below. We invite other students to contribute their own stories which we will add to this article as we receive and edit them.

Seven Hamilton students—trip leaders Pat Dunn ’12 and Leonard Teng ’12 along with Makenna Perry ’12, Leslie Cohen ’12, Lucas Harris ’12, Marco Scheuer ’13 and Max Lopez ’15—were part of a Hamilton Outing Club (HOC) backpacking trip last weekend that tackled two of the Adirondack High Peaks: Algonquin Peak, the second highest mountain in the state at 5,115 feet, and Iroquois Peak, the eighth highest at 4,843 feet.  

A combination of social oppression, poverty and discrimination has kept Mayan women in Guatemala from raising their voices and using their full potential. Deaf women in particular are stripped of their rights and made to believe that they have no worth. This summer Mariela Meza ’13 interviewed Guatemalan women in the highland community of Nahuala in an effort to prove that they can be valuable contributors to their community. Meza’s work was funded through an Emerson Summer Grant.