Dean de Benedictis is known for pioneering a form of a cappella ambient music that he refers to as Acambient. He is head of the electronic music label Fateless Records. His latest project—to record his music on the summits of the Cascades.
This summer I was part of a group of 13 Whitman students who spent six weeks in China, led by Professor of Anthropology Charles McKhann and Adjunct Instructor of Chinese Wencui Zhao. The main goal of the trip was to give our group the opportunity to study Chinese.
“Since my parents went to college I always assumed . . . that I would get into a college and attend later on," said senior Hayley Mauck, an RA for the Whitman Institute of Scholastic Enrichment (WISE) program.
This summer, four other Whitman students and I took a crash course in international development from a small village of subsistence farmers on the fertile plains of Guatemala's Pacific coast.
The federally condoned violence along the U.S./Mexico border is another chapter in the United States' abuse and exploitation of a refugee population and a disempowered racial group. Those who suffer most have the least resources and political power.
Whitman alumna Jennifer Crow-Yang '97, now regional contact and agreement officer for the United States Agency of National Development, has spent several years working on development projects in Ghana, Africa.
The first time I tried to explain what I study to a new friend in Bolivia, he laughed in my face. “An environmental studies major would die of hunger here," he snorted.
Driving to Hacienda Ilitio is a bit of an adventure. The farm is nestled in the foothills of Mt. Cotopaxi, one of the tallest active volcanoes in the Ecuadorian Andes.
Beaver do not permeate the landscape as they once did; in fact, there are relatively few dams in the fertile river ecosystems. The reason? Initially, fir trapping. At present, cows. Fortunately for the semi-aquatic rodents, Mary O'Brien is fighting to ensure that beaver begin to repopulate streams across Utah to bring back these invaluable qualities to the ecosystem.
Star Trek has always been part of my cultural lexicon. I know I wasn't the only one on the playground in grade school proclaiming, “Resistance is futile!"
