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Internships took Hamilton students all over the globe this summer, from rural Vermont to Delhi, India, where Abhishek Maity '08 (Kolkata, India) spent his summer interning with Research and Information Systems for Developing Countries (RIS), a government policy think tank. Maity also had a Levitt Fellowship for the summer to research optimal foreign reserve holdings – a topic which is closely related to his internship.

Maurice Isserman, the James L. Ferguson Professor of History and co-author of America Divided: The Civil War of the 1960s, was quoted in an Aug. 9 TIME magazine article titled "The Return of SDS to Campus." In another look back at the '60s, Isserman, with co-author Michael Kazin of Georgetown University, penned an opinion piece that appeared in the Sunday, Aug. 12, edition of Newsday titled "Summer of love beats cynicism of today."

Although creative writing types tend to be easily stereotyped, Victoria Schacht '08 (Rome, N.Y.) shows that the creative writer, like the field itself, is more complex than the prevailing image of an author in black with a notebook. The English major has an Emerson grant this summer to work on found literature and build creative writing pieces from old periodicals.

Lauren Tom '10 (Stevensville, Mo.) studied general electrochemistry techniques this summer with Professor of Chemistry Timothy Elgren. Electrochemistry is the study of the relationships between chemical reactions and electrical energy. There are two general types of electrochemical reactions: spontaneous reactions that produce electrical energy and nonspontaneous reactions that consume electrical energy. Both types of reactions always involve a transfer of electrons, and, according to Tom, electrochemistry basically "shows where an electron is added or taken away" during a reaction. Thus, electrochemistry is useful for studying electrically active species and aids in identifying their reduction/oxidation potentials (the tendency of a chemical species to be reduced and gain electrons or to be oxidized and lose electrons). 

Life Trustee Leonard E. Kingsley ’51 died on Saturday, August 11, in San Francisco of prostate cancer. Described by The San Francisco Chronicle as a “businessman and civic leader with a love of the arts and a commitment to social causes,” he served as an  Alumni Trustee from 1983 to 1987 and a Charter Trustee from 1988 to 1994, at which time he was elected a Life Trustee.

The spacious deck of Glen House provided the setting on August 14 as Andrew Jillings, director of outdoor leadership and Adirondack Adventure, took some time to discuss the popular pre-orientation program. 

Assistant Professor of English Katherine Terrell presented a paper at an interdisciplinary conference on "Cultural Histories and Vocabularies of the Fragment in Text and Image" held at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, in June. The paper, titled "Decentering 'gret auctorite': the Chaucerian Aesthetics of the Fragment," discusses the fragmentary nature of much of Chaucer's work, arguing that the fragment, as a powerful metaphor for the dismantling of narrative authority, underlies Chaucer's construction of narrative.

Adirondack Adventure, Hamilton’s eight-day outdoor program for incoming students, has reached a record participation level, with 230 first-year students set to check in for the popular pre-orientation program on August 13. Fifty percent of the class of 2011 has enrolled in 27 different trips, selecting from programs that focus on hiking, canoeing, rock climbing or kayaking at beginning, intermediate or advanced ability levels. All trips are conducted in various locations in the Adirondacks.

Kathryn Plummer '08 is well into her third summer as an intern, and she admits that she likes this one best. Plummer, a government major, has previously worked in a senatorial office, a psychology research lab, a law firm, and a press. This summer she is at Arnold Worldwide's Boston office as a brand promotions intern.

Ethan Woods '09 (Stratford, N.Y.) started out his summer with a research survey into sustainable fuels, but he quickly decided to narrow his topic and focus on biofuels instead. The rising junior has a Levitt Fellowship this summer to combine his interests in environmentalism and economics in research on biofuels as a sustainable alternative to fossil fuels.