News Scholarships at Marlboro, 2009-2010

Each year scholarships funded by generous donors recognize the unique gifts that students bring to the Marlboro College community. The profiles below are followed by a complete list of scholarship recipients for the 2009-10 academic year.

For Katherine Trahan '12, receiving the Windham County Scholarship "felt like Marlboro College was giving me a big hug." While Katherine is using Marlboro's unique academic structure to study a broad range of subjects and enrich her writing, she plans to ultimately focus on writing for the stage and screen. She was introduced to both theater and creative writing at an early age, and has pursued these interests ever since. Katherine's professors have been a steady source of inspiration. "I can count on the professors here for honesty, intelligence and support. Without those qualities I wouldn't know how to turn my dreams into reality," she said. Katherine finds Marlboro to be a challenging environment, but one that is equally rewarding. "Studying and writing at Marlboro takes a lot of dedication and motivation. I'm determined to do both in order to achieve happiness, even if this means pursuing a difficult path."

Receiving the Wolf Kahn Scholarship for talent in the visual arts encouraged head selectperson Ryan Stratton '11 to reflect on his own art more seriously. Ryan's Plan work allows him to combine his passions for literature and photography in order to examine themes such as divinity, objective and subjective truth and circularity. While his literary studies focus on the artistic philosophies and textual styles of James Joyce and Dante, his photography has been "looking at looking." Ryan says, "Experiencing art that requires a heightened demand of the viewer to place the work in a larger context, the art takes on interesting new perspectives and consequences." Inspired by James Joyce, Ryan has incorporating his sense of humor into his art: "Joyce's writing has been called ‘jocoserious,' and I like the implication in that term that humor and seriousness are not necessarily exclusive, and that they, perhaps, can even encourage each other."

"When I tell my family about what I'm learning, I don't think they completely get it," said Mercedes Lake '12, who was also awarded the Windham County Scholarship. "How could American studies and theater equal gender studies? But that's what's so great about Marlboro, because here that makes perfect sense." Marlboro has allowed Mercedes to combine her diverse academic interests and engage with many new and difficult concepts simultaneously. "I've become really interested in gender as a performance, especially social and theatrical constructions of what it is to be a man or woman." Mercedes found academic inspiration in the Performing Normalcy course she took with Brenda Foley this past semester, which explored cultural images of "normal" and their representations in theater and popular entertainment. "This study has led me to challenge my own viewpoints on gender, and realize that people are constantly performing, both on and off stage."

Theater student Heidi Koos '10, editor of The Citizen, was awarded the George I. Alden Trust Scholarship, given annually to an older student who has returned to school after several years. "I crave the instant closeness with a audience because I like it when it happens to me as an audience member," she said. "I love being swept away." Heidi wrote, directed and starred in The Tiger Heart, a play about three presidential speechwriters who have to decide if they are going to believe a mysterious report saying that a new draft for college students is actually part of a larger plan to launch a biological attack. Writing and directing The Tiger Heart allowed Heidi to realize her own potential, as she plans to start a theater one day. "I needed to know if I could do it and be in charge and have it work, because someday soon I might be lucky enough to do it all again," she said.

Scholarship Recipients 2009-10

• George I. Alden Trust Scholarships - Heidi Koos, Devin Willmott
• Robert Sheldon Stainton Scholarship - Sari Brown
• Warren R. Sisson Scholarship - Willson Gaul
• M. Brenn Greene Scholarships - Elizabeth Giles, Antonio Iaccarino, Alisha Langerman, Nicholas Legowski, Annalisa Yoder
• Thomas Thompson Trust Scholarships - Luca Fernandez, Sarah Horowitz
• Christopher Boeth Scholarships - Erik Breeden, Michael Hamby, Emily Kimble, Erin Riordan, Ruth Stark
• Jean Crosby Markham Scholarship - Heather Reed
• Lillian Farber Scholarships - Jonathan Jones, Andre Perez, Amber Shaeffer, Garth Sutherland
• Agnes M. Lyndsay Trust Scholarships - Tobey LaRoche, Jacquelyn Ward
• Wolf Kahn Scholarship - Ryan Stratton
• Windham Community Scholarship - William Finkel, Mercedes Lake, Joshua Stern, Katherine Trahan
• John Kenneth Galbraith Scholarship - Andrew Tanabe